Garbanzo Bean Dumpling Soup!

My Mom has been watching a lot of t.v. lately since she can't leave the house much. One plus side of that is that I get all the good highlights from daytime t.v., if there are any! She has been watching a show called The Chew lately. Several weeks ago they made a veggie dumpling soup that sounded great and I finally got around to making it. Here it is with my changes:




For the Dumplings:
1-1/2 cup All-purpose Flour
1/2 cup Yellow Cornmeal
1 tablespoon Baking Powder (heaping)
1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
1-1/2 cup Half-and-Half
some fresh chives
Sift together all of the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add half-and-half, stirring gently to combine. Set Aside.

For the Broth:
2 Quart Better than Bullion Vegetable Broth (I definitely added more water than this though I can't say how much)
some dried thyme
a dash of paprika
2 garlic gloves
1 Bay Leaf
1/2 cup white wine
2 tablespoon Olive Oil
1 Yellow Onion finely chopped
2 Carrots finely chopped
1 15 oz. can Chickpeas drained and rinse, I used more than this because I had a large can
Heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat and sauté carrot, onion, garlic with dried thyme. Sauté ingredients until softened and golden brown. Deglaze the bottom of the pan with the wine, then add the chickpeas and bay leaf. Stir together, and then begin to add the broth. Once fully added, season with salt and pepper to taste, I thought it was great with a lot of pepper.

Use a teaspoon to roughly scoop out dough, Drop teaspoons of dumpling dough into the simmering pot. Add more chives. Cover pot halfway and continue to simmer for 30 minutes. Check seasoning and add salt if needed.
Makes 2-4 servings.


Now, I do have a few things to say about this soup:
First-the dumpling recipe made WAY too many dumplings! I mean, our soup was overflowing with them and we still had more dough leftover. I would say cut that part in half or just double the soup recipe.
Second-be careful about the size of the dumpling dough when you drop them in. The recipe said to drop them by the tablespoon but I thought they were way too big and didn't really cook all the way through. That is why I suggested using a teaspoon in the recipe.
Third-I HIGHLY suggest making this soup the day before. I wasn't overly impressed with it the night that i made it. The next day however, it was amazing! It tasted like a totally different soup. I think the dumplings really soaked up all of the broth. Give it time!

I might try making it with more corn meal, or even garbanzo bean flour, the next time. I like dumplings but there is something a little weird about that gluey consistency that they usually have. These were definitely better but I think more corn meal would help.

Sorry for the crappy photos!

Make this, before winter is gone!