No Chicken and Dumplings

I watched the flu sweep through the office over the past few weeks and would cringe while I sat in meetings with coworkers who were coughing, sneezing, and sniffling. I managed to dodge the main wave. Those of you with children know that once they go to preschool or daycare, there seems to be several months of the child contracting and passing along cold after cold. Owen has started going to preschool and brought home a humdinger of a cold that got him the nickname "Typhoid Pookie." My grandmother, mom, brothers, and now husband have all contracted "Pookieitis." Now I have been getting the sniffles and have been making huge pots of soups. My favorite growing up was Chicken and Dumplings. I wasn't huge on the chicken, but I LOVED the dumplings. I decided to make it vegan and gluten free.

No Chicken Soup
2 large sprigs of fresh Rosemary
3 clippings of fresh Oregano
3 fresh Bay Leaves
1/2 cup rough chopped Parsley
1 tsp Salt
Pepper to taste
1/2 head Garlic
1 large Onion
6 stalks Celery
4 Carrots
3 quarts - 1 gallon Water
3-4 Tb Olive Oil
10 small Crimini or Button Mushrooms, quartered

Dumplings
1/4 cup Tapioca Flour
1/2 cup Brown Rice Flour
1/2 cup Teff Flour
pinch Salt
1/2 tsp dry Sage
3 TB Palm Oil
around 1/2-3/4 cup water

Cut the vegetables into one inch chunks. Mince the garlic and add all of the ingredients except the mushrooms into a large soup pan. Turn the heat up to a high medium, simmer for 20 minutes and bring to a boil. Put the flours, salt, and sage for the dumpling ingredients into a mixing bowl and combine. Use a fork to press the palm oil into the other ingredients until combined. Add the water until the dough combines well but is still easily handled. Form dumplings about half the size of a golf ball. Once the soup is in a rolling boil, add the dumplings one at a time, spaced apart from each other so they do not stick. Once the dumplings have been added, add the mushrooms. The dumplings will float to the surface once they are done - after about 20 minutes in the soup. Pick out the rosemary twigs, oregano, and bay leaves while serving.