Harissa Vegetable Stew with Cheddar Dumplings

So, another new year is upon us. Instead of reflecting on how fast time has gone, how little we managed to get done last year (or is that just me?) or how much we over-indulged over the festive period, let’s instead look forward to the new year with a fresh outlook and tighter pants.

Having been away for a lot of the last month, due to Thanksgiving celebrations, enjoying Christmas markets in Germany and then being back in the UK for Christmas, I haven’t been doing much cooking. Eating, however, has been an entirely different story. But as women can’t survive on cheese and crackers alone (although you’d think I could, given how much of both I inhaled in December), once I got back in my Amsterdam kitchen, I was revved up to get cooking some healthy and hearty delights.

But I wasn’t the only one looking a little worse for wear post-Christmas. We returned back home to find that our Christmas tree had died (cue sad music). It was our first Christmas tree together and the first real tree I’ve had for years, but neither of us really knew how much to water it. And given that we were away for a full week after we bought it, I’m guessing we gave it a little *too* much to drink. RIP tree, you were so pretty once.

Fear not, though, I drowned (maybe not a good pun to use in this situation) my sorrows by shoveling as much of this vegetable stew in my mouth as I could, pants be damned. I don’t regret a thing, people. I don’t regret a thing.

Harissa Vegetable Stew with Cheddar Dumplings

Recipe by Julia

Servings

4

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

45

minutes

Ingredients

• For the stew

• 1 onion, chopped

• 4 celery sticks, thickly sliced

• 400g/14oz can peeled/plum tomatoes

• 1 tbsp harissa paste

• 2 courgettes (zucchini), halved lengthways and thickly sliced

• 400g/14oz can chickpeas, drained

• 1 vegetable stock/buillon cube

• For the dumplings

• 25g/1oz butter, diced

• 200g/8oz self raising flour

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 75g/2.5oz cheddar cheese, grated

• 100ml/3.5floz milk

Directions

• Heat a little oil in a large casserole pan with a lid, then add the onion and celery and fry for 5 minutes until softened. Tip in the tomatoes and then re-fill the empty can with water and add that to the pan also. Stir in the harissa paste, courgettes and chickpeas and crumble in the stock cube. Put the lid on the pan and simmer for 18-20 minutes, until the vegetables are tender.
• Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F.
• Mix the flour and baking powder with a good pinch of salt and then rub in the diced butter with your fingers until fine crumbs have formed. Add the cheese and mix together with a knife.
• A couple of minutes before the stew is ready, pour the milk into the dumpling mixture and combine again with the knife to form a dough. Divide the dough into around 8 equal pieces and roll into balls.
• Arrange the dumplings on top of the stew, only submerging about half of the dumpling in the liquid and then bake the stew and dumplings, uncovered, in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the dumplings are golden and cooked through.

Notes

• Adapted from Good Food