So, I know it’s Thanksgiving week and if you are hosting your mind is totally focused on all the holiday food you have to make. If you aren’t hosting, then you are probably traveling, in which case you are busy preparing your family to get on the road.
Either way, you aren’t thinking about dinner next week. But here I am, posting a non-Thanksgiving recipe that would be a perfect, cozy, not-too-difficult, post-Thanksgiving weeknight dinner. Even if you aren’t thinking about it too much now, I think you should tuck this one away for later.
When the cold weather hits, I crave comfort food, and this is definitely comfort food. Healthy comfort food. It does exist. So go ahead and make your Thanksgiving plans, but have this little recipe in the back of your mind for when the turkey (or Tofurky) and stuffing are gone and you are back in your making-regular-dinners-for-your-family mode.
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Vegetable and tempeh stew with herb dumplings
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 6 - 8 servings 1x
Description
This hearty and filling one-dish meal is perfect for chilly evenings. Use whatever vegetables you have on hand. Can be easily made vegan by using vegetable stock and a butter alternative.
Ingredients
for the stew
- 3 1/2 tablespoons butter, divided
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 carrots, sliced
- 1 parsnip, cut into small chunks
- 1 large potato, cut into small chunks
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon marjoram
- 8 cups chicken or vegetable stock/broth
- 1/2 cup frozen peas
- 1 (8 ounce) package tempeh, cut into bite-sized peices
- 1/4 cup flour
for the dumplings
- 1 cup flour (I used white whole wheat)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons dried rosemary
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 1/2 tablespoons butter, softened
- 1/2 cup milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)
Instructions
- In a large dutch oven or stock pot, melt 1 1/2 tablespoons of the butter. Add your onion and cook over medium heat until soft, about 3-5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another 30 seconds. Add the carrot, parsnip, potato, thyme, and marjoram and allow to cook another 3 minutes.
- Add the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the vegetables are just tender, about 20 minutes.
- Stir in the tempeh and frozen peas.
- In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup flour with 2 tablespoons butter and combine them with your fingers until you have a paste. Stir this into the stew and allow to simmer a few more minutes while it thickens a bit.
- Meanwhile (you can do this while the vegetables are simmering), prepare your dumplings. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking powder, rosemary, and thyme. Add the softened butter and work it into the flour with your fingers. Gradually add the milk and stir to combine. Roll pieces of the dough into golf ball-sized balls and flatten slightly. Or, you can just plop them into the stew by the tablespoon and call it “rustic” That works, too. You should get 8 dumplings in all. Feel free to double the dumpling portion of the recipe if you want a piece of dumpling in every bite. I know some people are like that.
- After you have added the tempeh, peas, and flour/butter to your stew, you are ready to cook the dumplings. Drop the dumplings into the stew and use a ladle to drench them with the stew liquid. With the lid on your pot, allow to cook for 10-15 minutes. Serve immediately.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Category: Soup
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 of 8 servings
- Calories: 226
- Sugar: 3.25g
- Sodium: 245.5mg
- Fat: 11.1g
- Carbohydrates: 25.7g
- Protein: 8.3g
Essentially, this dish is chicken and dumplings without the chicken. Although I’m pretty sure traditional chicken and dumplings would use celery instead of parnsip, but I went with what I had on hand. (And I promise you it wasn’t daikon radish this time. Umm, no I haven’t updated that post yet. I have a baby to get ready for, you know!)
Using tempeh instead of chicken means it is ready much faster than traditional chicken and dumplings because tempeh doesn’t take forever to cook. Plus, tempeh is cheaper. Win. Oh, yeah, and it’s a comfort food recipe without icky condensed soup. Another win.
So even though I didn’t post a Thanksgiving recipe this week, and won’t be posting any (cookies tomorrow!), I hope this recipe will help make your week after Thanksgiving a little better.
I’m making this for dinner tonight 🙂 can’t get tempeh around here unfortunatel, but veg stew and (most importantly!) dumplings – can’t wait! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
You’re welcome! Enjoy!
This recipe looks SO comforting!! I’ve never made stew before, but now I’ll have to try it sometime during this winter.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving to you, too, Lisa!
Stew today and cookies tomorrow! ….Aren’t you doing enough baking right now (baby bean? 🙂 ) You can do it all!
I’ve got to do something to satisfy my sweet tooth! 🙂
Mmmmm you had me at herb dumplings!
Yum 😀 This is comfort food right here. I make a veggie stew with similar dumplings, but I still haven’t found tempeh 🙁 So sad, I really want to try it! I love that you used marjoram in your stew, I love the flavor of it, but only really have one recipe that I use it in. Must try it in my stew next time 🙂
I just love dumplings. They make any food a little better. 🙂
This sounds great! We love tempeh. Can’t wait to give it a try. I am hosting Thanksgiving and I am running around like crazy today trying to finish everything because today is the kid’s last day of school this week. But, it’s all good because I always look forward to cooking for my family and having the kids home from school and enjoying some good, quality time together.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Lisa!
this looks so wholesome and filling! I am lucky to have a source of local non-gmo soy and black bean tempeh, and I am always looking for new things to do with it. This could definitely make it’s way to my thanksgiving table on thursday — i have a rotating list of what I want to serve and need to settle on something!
Happy Thanksgiving!