Chunky Chickpea & Herb Dumpling Soup

In our family we have 5 birthdays in the month of February to celebrate. It can become a bit stressful to remember who's birthday's when so we've developed "Soup Sunday" as a way of bringing the whole fan damily together to celebrate all five birthdays on the same day. Every family brings a crockpot with a large quantity of soup, chowder, stew or chili to share. It's alot of fun to taste test each soup! Somehow we always have bread or rolls and of course one homemade birthday cake with all five names in icing on top.This year I wanted to try a new soup. Actually our 11 year old chose this recipe out of The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook that I had checked out of the library. Looks can be deceiving with this recipe. It looks plain or bland but with cumin, coriander & chili pepper the broth is scrumptious. My family all had seconds!

Chunky Chickpea And Herb Dumpling Soup

1 Tablespoon oil ( I used olive)
1 onion chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed (I used minced from a jar)
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
2 15 oz. cans chickpeas
2 15 oz. cans chopped tomatoes
3 1/2 cups vegetable stock ( I used 2 Knorr vegetable boullion cubes & 4 cups water)
Heat the oil in a large saucepan and cook the onion over medium heat for 2 - 3 minutes or until soft. Add the garlic, cumin, ground coriander and chili and cook for 1 minute or until fragrant. Add the chickpeas, stock and tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes.

Dumplings

1 cup flour
2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tablespoons mixed chopped fresh herbs ( I used chives and parsley I had on my windowsill)
3 Tablespoons milk

To make the dumplings, sift the flour into a bowl and add the chopped butter. Rub together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the cheese and herbs. Make a well in the center , add the milk and mix with a flat bladed knife until just combined. Bring together into a rough ball, dived into eight portions and roll into small balls. Add the dumplings to the soup cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
After I took the above picture we sprinkled Sargento Bistro Italian Pasta Cheese on top. Wow! This was good. I doubled this recipe for "Soup Sunday" because we had 16 people together and I wanted enough for everyone to try.

We gave it a unanimous 4 spoon rating!

Happy Birthday Seth, Uncle Phil, Dad, Chelbie & Aunt Lynn!

Blessings,

Teresa

What's on your Table

We want to welcome all of our new & old follower's...thanks so much for all the comment love and encouragement!!

We will be featuring a recipe each Sunday from one of you along with a MckLinky.

If you have been thinking of trying some new recipe's or if you have some that are tried and true -- come along and join in the fun!!

Want your recipe to be featured? Make sure to link up below! We would love to see what your cooking up!



This weeks featured blogger is One Day, One Dollar at a time...
She linked up last Sunday with this recipe and I think it sounds scrumptious!!! Thanks Steph for linking up and sharing this yummy recipe with us!



To-Die-For Crock Pot Roast

1 beef roast

1 envelope Hidden Valley ranch dressing mix

1 envelope brown gravy mix

1 envelope Italian dressing mix

Warm water, enough to almost cover roast

Place roast in crock pot. Mix all 3 envelopes and sprinkle on top of roast. Pour water in the bottom of the crock pot. Cover and cook on low 10-12 hours.

*This makes an awesome gravy, so I always serve it with mashed potatoes. So easy and so yummy!



HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!

Hawaiian Chicken

This is one of my "Go-To" Dishes (when I'm not ordering take out instead!) and takes no time at all to throw it together. This is easy to adapt for larger groups and has become a staple of mine for family parties. I also love to make this for the Sunshine Group that I belong to in which we deliver meals to new mom's from our Mom's Group.
Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts (or as many as you need to feed your family)
1 bottle of Honey Barbeque Suace
1 can of pineapple chunks in their own juice

Directions:
Cut up the chicken into bite sized pieces and put into baking dish
Cover chicken with BBQ sauce
Add pineapple chunks and just a little bit of the pineapple juice
Mix it all up
Pop in the oven at 350 for approx 1 hour or until cooked through

I like to serve this with white rice and a salad for a balanced, delicious meal!

Hubby and I rate it 5 spoons, the Middle Child rates it 4 spoons, the Big One rates it 3 spoons and Baby Girl well, you will begin to see a trend that I can't get her to eat much of anything we cook unless it is plain chicken, hotdogs, pancakes, covered in ketchup....you get the idea

My Favorite Stir Fry

This sauce recipe was originally intended for a grilled skewers dish, but we discovered that it also makes a delicious stir fry.  And for those of you who are venison fans, this is a fantastic way to prepare it.  Otherwise, you can use beef.  For either meat, cut very thin slices across the grain.  Tip:  It's easiest to cut thinner slices when the meat is partially frozen.

I rate this recipe 5 Spoons, because well....it's one of my favorites :)

Enjoy!

Stir Fry

3 Tbsp. hoisin sauce                             

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 Tbsp. sherry or beer                           

1 Tbsp. minced ginger (or 1/2 Tbsp. crystallized ginger)

1/4 c. low-sodium soy sauce                

1 tsp. bbq sauce                                    

1 tsp. red chili garlic sauce (optional)

1 1/2 lbs. flank steak, or other medium-tender cut

1 Tbsp. corn starch, dissolved in 1/4 c. cold water

rice noodles, cooked according to package directions

assorted chopped veggies

In a medium bowl, mix together hoisin, sherry, soy sauce, bbq sauce, garlic, ginger, and optional (but highly recommended!) chili sauce.  Cut steak across the grain into thin slices.  Add meat to the bowl and stir to coat.  Allow meat to marinade, stirring occasionally, for at least an hour.  (Refrigerate meat if marinating longer than an hour.) 

Heat a small amount of vegetable or sesame oil to a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat.  Dump the meat and sauce in the pan and cook until done.  Remove the meat to a separate bowl, leaving sauce in pan.  Add vegetables and saute until tender-crisp.  Return meat to the pan and stir to combine with the vegetables.  Bring sauce to a boil and add cornstarch solution.  Return to a boil and stir occasionally, until sauce is thickened.  Stir in rice noodles and serve.

The sauce ingredient lineup:

Hoisin has a jelly-like texture, and it tastes smokey like bbq sauce.

Because I rarely cook with ginger, I keep the crystallized version on hand.

Optional, but goooood.  Do it.

Add the meat to the sauce and stir to coat.

Allow to marinade for at least an hour.

I've used both kinds of rice noodles - the kind with only English on the package and the kind with other languages too.

Both are yummy.

Add the cornstarch and water mixture and boil for a minute, or until thickened.

We seriously devour this everytime I make it!