Recipe of the Week: Bean dumplings in a Veggie Broth

This is a good one as the temperatures drop: when it gets really cold, I reckon there's nothing better than a hot, aromatic noodle soup to warm things up.  Best of all, you probably have most of these ingredients lurking in your pantry cupboard already - and it's probably the easiest thing you can make.

Here's the printable version if you're heading to the grocery store.

INGREDIENTS
DUMPLINGS:
Cooking Spray
Yellow onion, chopped
2 cans white beans like broad or cannellini
1 C breadcrumbs (I do wholewheat)
1 Tb minced garlic
1/4 C flour
2 Tb olive oil
2 Tb soy sauce
2 tsp all-purpose seasoning
1 tsp each of oregano, thyme, basil

SOUP:
1 tsp olive oil
2 chopped carrots
1 Tb minced garlic
1 C pasta, broken up
9 C veggie broth
4 C chopped greens like silverbeet, kale, bok choi
Pinch of salt and pepper
1/4 C parsley or basil to top

HOW TO:
Get your oven up to 200deg celsius, prepare a baking tray with baking paper

1 - To make the dumplings, mash up the beans in a bowl until they make a smooth paste.  Add to this the rest of the bean dumpling ingredients, but at this point use only 1/4 of the chopped onion.  You'll use the other 3/4 a bit later.  Spoon out about a heaped tablespoon of bean mixture into little mounds on the baking paper and throw it in the oven.  Set the timer to 30 min and let them get to it.

2 - While the dumplings are cooking, get the broth on: in a soup pot, heat up the oil, throw in the rest of the onion and work it around until it gets a nice golden brown colour.  Now add the carrots, pasta, garlic and saute it for about 30seconds.  Slowly (and I mean slowly...) add the broth, and let it simmer for about 10 minutes.  Now add the green veggies, salt / pepper and parsley.  Take it off the heat.

That's pretty much all there is to this recipe!  To serve, simply put a couple of dumplings at the bottom of the bowl and top with your broth.  If you're refrigerating the left overs, keep the dumplings in a separate container to the broth, otherwise they'll go soggy - no one likes soggy dumplings.