Winter Vegetable Stew and Dumplings

The VSTs had guests last night, a fairly rare occurrence! Veggie stew and dumplings was on the agenda anyway, having bought one of my super winter stew packs (3 onions, 6 carrots, a parsnip, a swede for £1.50) so I just suped it up with a couple of sweet potatoes and an additional couple of parsnips so that it would feed four and then two for lunch tomorrow which it did! I made one and a half times the dumplings too, I didn't think that any more would have room to grow in the pan and as you can see they were quite successful. Lovely evening.

Veggie stew and dumplings

A lovely Sunday night supper using all the veg in the fridge. Quick, easy and tasty too with plenty left over for lunch.

Root vegetable stew and dumplings

Bought another bargain stew bag yesterday and made us a root vegetable stew which has carrots, swede and parsnip in it. On the calorie counting front this came out at less than 100calories a portion for the stew and the dumplings are 85 each so a very filling, tasty and low calorie meal.

Winter vegetable stew and awesome dumplings - left overs

Six inches of snow was all it took for justice to grind to a rolling halt today! Court didn't get started until about 10.30-11am and they sat through lunch which meant that I did too. I had taken some left over winter veggie stew for lunch but didn't get a chance to get back to the office to eat it so lunch consisted of biscuits and chocolate coins from the weekend.

When I got home Mr VST and I went snowboarding for an hour which was great! I discovered that clearing snow and snowboarding are the way to burn calories in this weather.

As I didn't get the chance to eat my stew for lunch I had it for dinner instead.

Mr VST really fancied some pesto and so he made some with the basil that was growing like crazy on our windowsill. He used this recipe and I had a bite and it was GOOD. I'll be having some for lunch tomorrow. 

Winter vegetable stew and awesome dumplings

When I went to the veggie stall today they didn't have any courgettes or aubergines to go with the peppers and mushrooms that I usually put in my stew but they did have a winter veg pack with 6 carrots, a swede, two onions, and two parsnips (all for £1.50!), so I decided to experiment and go with the flow!

I remember these vegetables being quite bitter when I was younger and I have avoided them on the whole since then. I was very surprised at how delicious my stew was. I also added a bit of mature cheddar to my dumpling mix. They fluffed up like crazy and made delicious light, fluffy dumplings.

Veggie stew and dumplings

I've finally managed to get my dumpling making right. It was completely accidental of course. When I made this last time I put it in the oven to keep warm while we went for a walk and when I came back there were light fluffy dumplings in the pan not the usual stodgy ones I manage to create. I did the same thing this time, letting the dumplings cook on the hob for about ten minutes and then another 15 in the oven and heavenly dumplings were created. They were even better this time as the suet was not out of date!

Veggie casserole and dumplings

Now this really is a winter favourite but despite the month the weather continues to be very mild. It still made a good meal though. This version had onion, celery, sweet potato, parsnip, carrot, peppers, broccoli, courgette and mushrooms in.

I normally struggle to make my dumplings light and fluffy but miraculously they were this time!