It has been a few months since I posted recipes. I have been busy writing my PhD exams and I have neglected the blog and even cooking. Life often interferes with our ability to do some of the everyday things like cooking. When we are overwhelmed by life’s demands, we still need to eat and it is best when we eat healthy because healthy eating eases us through the tumultuous times. While I was working on my exams I leaned on the slow cooker to make sure we continued to eat healthy. My family gave me a great vegan slow cooker cookbook for Christmas and I used several recipes from that. One of the issues I found was that many of the recipes used meat substitutes and we are not fond of those. Here is a recipe I modified heavily and it has become one of our favorites.
Ingredients for the Soup:
2 cans Chickpeas
1 ½ cups Baby Carrots – sliced
2 stalks Celery – chopped
4 cups Vegetable broth
1 Bay leaf
3 sprigs fresh Thyme (my kids call these sticks in the soup)
1 spring fresh Rosemary
Salt and Pepper to taste
Ingredients for the Dumplings:
2 cups Bisquick baking mix
2/3 cup Milk
2 teaspoons dried Thyme
Method:
Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Slice the carrots and chop the celery. Combine all the ingredients for the soup in the slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Start it in the morning and it is ready by dinner time with no effort all day long for you.
About 20 minutes before you want to eat, make the dumplings. Combine the Bisquick, milk and thyme to make a soft dough. Drop the dough into the boiling soup in spoonfuls (you will have about 10-12 spoonfuls). You may need to turn the heat to high on the slow cooker for this. Cook uncovered for 10 minutes then cover and cook another 10 minutes.
Serve by spooning the dumplings into bowls and then ladle the soup over the top of the dumplings.
Serve with a hearty bread and salad.