Delicious dumplings

Winter Warmer. Vegetable Stew with Dumplings. Source: SimoneySunday

Tonight I decided to use up all the vegetables that we had leftover in the fridge, ahead of our monthly food shop. I also had to use up some vegetable suet that was leftover from Christmas. So what better on the coldest night so far in 2016 than to make a delicious stew with herby dumplings?

I had planned for this of course, and had already soaked 1 cup each of lentils, barley, chickpeas, green beans and butter beans on the stove overnight and boiled them up for half an hour before getting down to the stewy business.

I chopped up an onion, and the rest of my broccoli and carrots, added some sweetcorn and a tin of chopped tomatoes, some herbs and seasoning, together with some vegetable stock, and put into the oven with the remaining pulses for nearly 2 hours.

Approximately 30 minutes before serving, I made some dumplings with 60oz vegetable suet, 1 cup of plain flour, 1 tsp of baking soda, 1 tsp of paprika, 1/2 tsp of dried rosemary and some salt and pepper, together with enough water to make a thick dough. Rolling the dough into floury balls - with floury hands - I layered these on top of the stew and put back into the oven for 20 minutes.

Verdict from my meat-eating husband was 'delicious'. And now the fridge is empty, waiting for some more fresh vegetables to be delivered tomorrow night!

As my mother used to say, waste not, want not. Had I thrown out those two sorry-looking carrots or the broccoli, I would not have had such a flavoursome dish. Best of all? It serves four - so more for hubby and myself another time!