Soups
Vegetable Dumpling Soup
Prep
20 minutes
Cook
40 minutes
Yield
5
🥟 Transform simple ingredients into the ultimate comfort food with this vegetable dumpling soup! Fluffy, homemade dumplings cook right in this delicious veggie soup.
Nothing says comfort food more than a big bowl of vegetable dumpling soup. It’s healthy, it’s warming, it’s easy (yes, dumplings can be easy), and it’ll become one of your winter go-to recipes.
Dumplings are a broad classification for a cute bundle of joy made with pieces of dough wrapped around a filling. Fillings are typically meat, fish, or cheese, but can also be fruits or sweets. Dumplings can be made in a variety of ways, such as baking, boiling, or steaming. For this recipe, we’re going to make not only vegan dumplings but also dumplings that can be easily added to your vegetable soup. They’re delicious!
❤️ Why You’ll Love This Vegetable Dumpling Soup
- Quick: This recipe has a prep time of only 20 minutes.
- Comforting: If you’re looking for the ultimate comfort food… this is it!
- Nutrient-Dense: Full of veggies and healthy goodness that will keep your body in tip-top shape.
- Versatile: Use the veggies you have available on hand or need to use up in your fridge.
🍲 Ingredients
Dumplings – These fluffy pillows of goodness are the star of this vegetable dumpling soup. Made with simple pantry staples like flour and baking powder, they cook right in the broth, absorbing all the delicious flavors while creating a satisfying texture contrast to the vegetables. They’re surprisingly easy to make and transform a simple vegetable soup into a complete, hearty meal.
Vegetables – The foundation of any good vegetable dumpling soup starts with aromatic vegetables like celery, carrots, and onions. These classic soup ingredients create a flavorful base, but the beauty of this recipe is its flexibility. You can use whatever vegetables you have on hand, making this soup perfect for using up your produce and minimizing food waste.
👩🍳 How to Make Vegetable Dumpling Soup
🪄 Tips and Tricks
- Simmering: Let the vegetable soup base simmer for a long time to develop the flavor; don’t rush this step.
- Quality Herbs: Use fresh, high-quality herbs in your dumplings for the best flavor.
- Sweat It Out: By sweating your veggies on a lower heat instead of blasting them on high, you’ll really bring out their flavor in your soup.
🗒 Substitutions
- Vegetables: Use whatever veggies you have in the fridge – broccoli, squash, kale, mushrooms all work beautifully.
- Herbs: No fresh herbs? Use dried (about 1/3 the amount) in a pinch.
- Flour: For gluten-free dumplings, try a 1:1 gluten-free flour blend with a bit of xanthan gum.
- Vegan Butter: Coconut oil or olive oil can be used as a substitute if needed.
🗒 Best served with
- Warming Caesar Salad (with a twist)
- Roasted Beet Salad and Feta with Pistachios
- Quick and Easy Focaccia Bread
- Apple Caprese Sandwich
👝 How to Store Leftovers
Leftovers can be stored in the fridge for up to two days. When you’re ready to eat, gently warm it on the stove until it’s warm. The dumplings may break down a bit and change in consistency, but they’ll generally still be delicious and stay intact.
🤔 Common Questions
It may sound complicated, and generally when you hear the word “dumpling,” you think of rolling out a complex dough, adding fillings, and shaping them into these beautiful crimped balls or pockets. However, soup dumplings are different and so easy, less messy, and delicious in their own way.
No, properly cooked dumplings should be light, fluffy, and fully cooked in the center – like a soft bread. If they’re doughy, they likely need more cooking time.
This can happen if the soup is boiling too vigorously. Keep it at a gentle simmer when adding the dumplings, and avoid stirring too much while they cook.
There are so many variations of dumplings that are made differently, crimped differently, etc., so yes, dumplings can be different than soup dumplings. It depends on the culture, and so much more.
Not all dumplings are vegan, and different cultures prepare them differently. However, it is very easy to make soup dumplings vegan with a few simple ingredients, such as flour, baking powder, seasoning, and olive oil.
Absolutely! White beans, chickpeas, or even crumbled tofu would make excellent protein additions that keep the soup vegan.
Vegetable Dumpling Soup
Ingredients
For the dumplings:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp fresh thyme
- 1/4 tsp cracked pepper
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 cup warm water
For the soup:
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 medium-sized white onion finely chopped
- 2 celery stalks finely chopped
- 2 medium-sized carrots finely chopped
- 5 stems of green onion finely chopped
- 1 tbsp. vegan butter
- 1 tbsp all-purpose flour heaped
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp fresh cracked pepper
- 1 tsp fresh thyme
- 1 tbsp. vegetable stock paste mixed with 1 1/2 cups boiling water
- 7 cups boiling water
Instructions
- Start by making the dough. Combine your flour, baking powder, sea salt and herbs. Create a well in the center of your flour mixture and pour oil and warm water into the middle. Using a spatula fold together until sticky and well combined. It will be wet and sticky but this is what you’re looking for. Form into a ball and place a tea towel on top and let it rest while you make your soup.
- To a large pot add your olive oil and heat on medium heat for 1 minute before adding onions. Cook the onions for 7-8 minutes or until translucent. To the pot add your carrots, celery and green onion. Cook them for 7-8 minutes while stirring often to avoid burning. Scrape any brown bits that develop at the base of the pot with a wooden spoon.
- To the pot, add your vegan butter and let it melt. Add your flour and stir till everything is coated. Now season with salt and pepper and add your fresh thyme. Give everything one more stir to ensure everything is well coated with flour. Increase heat to high and add 1 tbsp of vegetable stock paste + 1 1/2 cups of boiling water to the pot. Stir and scrape any loose bits from the bottom of the pan. Once your water has almost reduced and the rest of the water and bring soup to a boil. Cook till the vegetables are tender.
- Grab your dough mixture and using a tbsp. begin scooping little balls and dropping them into the soup. It’s not an overly fancy or particular process, just make sure you’re using a tbsp. Cook for around 5 minutes before removing from heat.
- Serve with fresh dill and your favourite vegan sour cream!
Video
I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of flavour in this soup. I did add additional vegetable paste to the soup and I sauteed garlic with the vegetables. I used gluten free flour and the dumplings were a bit gummy but they were still delicious. The sour cream was a perfect finish to the soup.
Yes, I am so glad you loved this as much as we do!
This is one of my fav new soups! I added cashew cream and fresh dill – the dumplings make it so much more filling than typically veggie soups – AMAZE!
I am so excited for you! I just loved this recipe and I am so glad you liked it too!
Hello!
I’m wondering if I could omit the oil/butter?
You could try! I didn’t use it without oil or butter but it honestly should be ok. Maybe just use water 🙂
This is my new fav comfort food! Such an easy recipe to make – my husband and I both LOVED it! Absolutely looove the dumplings and we added some peas too. I’ll be making this all Winter long 🙂
thank you so much for the love, jess! I just love this recipe so much too!
This was so delicious! My husband and son really loved it. Nice and hearty and oh, so flavorful. I changed up the veggies as you suggested and used potatoe, turnip, rutabaga, cabbage and celery. I omitted the flour and instead pureed a few cups of the veggies and broth and added it back into the pot. Fantastic recipe. Thank you!
Love it!! Thanks so much, Joan!!! So glad you loved this recipe as much as we do!
Everything about this recipe is AMAZING. I’ve recently stumbled upon Maria’s, IG while looking for vegan recipes… I’ve made this soup twice in a week-it’s THAT good. Made g.free dumplings and dough stays together, a plus. My two 1/2 yr old loves the soup and devours the dumplings:) Second time around I made gnocchi sized and it makes a perfect spoonful bite. His dad isn’t a soup fan but loves this one WOOT!. I have some heath issues and this has been a God-send to eat, a plus for good-nutrition, healthy and the perfect comfort food. Really inspiring to try other tasty recipes. Thank you Maria!
You are such an angel, thank you so much for the love, Kristen!
maybe it’s my bad english but I don’t understand what’s the filling of the dumplings ??
But looks delicious 🙂
Hello! It says it right in the ingredients/recipe box. For the dumplings: then the list of ingredients.
Jill, this type of dumpling doesn’t have a filling. Just a delicious blob of dumpling!!
Love love love this simple and delicious soup! My 2 year old and husband loved it even more. Thank you so much for sharing. I did read through comments before making this myself. I used minced garlic in the soup and a touch of garlic powder in the dumplings. Also, used a bit more thyme in both soup and dumplings. Oatly cream fraiche worked great for vegan sour cream. Looking forward to making again!
Thank you so much for the love, Chrissy!!!!!
So yummy! I just wasn’t sure if my dumplings were cooked the whole way. I used bobs red mill gluten free 1 to 1 baking flour so is that why???
Thank you so much for the love hun!
Of course! But how do I know if my dumplings are cooked enough? They came out sort of gummy
Hey Nicole, in the instructions it says 5 minutes or so. They will firm up and float to the top while fluffing up as well. I hope that helps. It they was doughy you may have added a bit to much moisture to the batter. And to follow up with your second response, please give me more than 20 minute to reply to your comments. I am a team of 1 managing this account and we have different tasks that happen everyday. I appreciate your support so much and hope this helps!
I just found this recipe and would like to try it. Can the soup be kept in the fridge for a couple of days or will the dumplings go all mushy? Especially with soups I just love to make a bigger batch and eat it for a few days.