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Home » Recipes » Soups

Vegetable Dumpling Soup

Published: Nov 30, 2022 · Modified: Nov 30, 2022 by Lexi

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Our vegetarian take on a comforting and nostalgic soup. This Vegetable Dumpling Soup is packed with nutritious vegetables, fresh herbs, and doughy homemade dumplings that couldn't be easier to make.

Finished vegetable dumpling soup in a bowl.
This is the ultimate cozy winter soup recipe!
Jump to:
  • Why We Love This Recipe
  • Ingredients
  • Ingredient Notes
  • Instructions
  • Tips and FAQs
  • More Soup Recipes to Enjoy
  • 📖 Recipe
  • 💬 Reviews

Why We Love This Recipe

  • Easy enough for a weeknight meal: This vegetable dumpling soup takes about an hour to make, but it's mostly hands off. It's packed with nutritious ingredients you most likely already have in your kitchen. Doesn't get much easier for a healthy, hearty dinner!
  • Packed with vegetables: Celery, carrot, onion, spinach, and peas come together to make this vegetable dumpling soup.
  • Warm and comforting: This soup is absolutely perfect for a winter weeknight dinner. It's warm, cozy, and oh so delicious.
  • Nostalgic: Dumpling soup was one of my grandma's favorite recipes to make. For us, this recipe is packed with nostalgia, which makes it extra delicious.

Ingredients

Here's what you'll need to make this vegetable dumpling soup:

Vegetable dumpling soup ingredients including spinach and carrots.
We use frozen peas so we can make this soup easily year round.

Ingredient Notes

  • Vegetable broth: Use a low sodium vegetable broth so that you can better control the salt content in the soup. If you'd like, you can also try this recipe to make homemade vegetable broth from leftover veggie scraps! If you're not vegan/vegetarian, feel free to sub with chicken broth.
  • Spinach: feel free to sub with another leafy green like kale or swiss chard.
  • Italian seasoning blends typically contain oregano, thyme, basil, rosemary and sage. If you don't have a blend, simply add a mix of these dried herbs to the soup.
  • Lemon juice: Freshly squeezed, always. All good soups need a hint of acidity to balance out all of the flavors.
  • Peas: Feel free to use fresh or frozen. Fresh can be difficult to find, so we almost always use frozen.

Instructions

(1) Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Once melted, add the onion, celery, carrots, salt, Italian seasoning and pepper. Stir well and sauté for 6-7 minutes, until the vegetables start to soften.

(2) Add in vegetable broth and lemon juice. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes. 

Left: veggies in the soup pot. Right: adding the broth in.
Carrot, celery and onion make for the perfect flavorful base for this soup.

(3) While the soup is simmering, make the dumplings. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Add the butter to the flour mixture, using your hands to cut the butter into the flour until no big lumps remain. (Don't overwork the dough – the butter doesn't have to be completely incorporated.)

Left: mixing dry dumpling ingredients together. Right: adding butter cubes in.
It's easiest to use your hands for the dumpling mixture, but you can also use a pastry cutter.

Add in the warm water and continue mixing the dumpling mixture by hand until it comes together. 

Left: kneading the dumpling dough. Right: finished dough.
Slowly work in the warm water until the dough comes together in a ball.

(4) Stir the spinach, peas and parsley into the soup.

(5) Form dumplings into small rounds (about 2 teaspoon of dough per dumpling), then drop into the soup. Bring soup to a boil again, then reduce to medium low and cover. 

Cook the dumplings for 18-20 minutes until they are still soft on the outside and chewy on the inside. Stir the soup every 5 minutes or so while the dumplings are cooking to make sure they cook evenly. Serve hot. 

Left: adding the greens into the soup. Right: adding the dumplings in.
We wait to add the spinach and peas so they don't overcook.

Tips and FAQs

  • Hands on: It's much easier to use your hands to make the dough for the dumplings. This makes it much easier to break up any big pieces of butter and create a smooth dough. It's also best to use your hands for adding the dumplings to the soup. The dough is pretty sticky, so it will stick to any utensils.
  • Serving suggestions: We recommend serving this hearty vegetable dumpling soup with warm bread (try our homemade cornbread or garlic bread!) and a light side salad (like our Italian chopped salad or our Apple Pecan Salad).
  • Add a protein: If you're vegan, try adding in the poultry-seasoned tofu from this recipe. If you're not vegan, this would work well with leftover shredded rotisserie chicken or Italian sausage.
  • Add more vegetables: Feel free to add in other vegetables of choice, like green beans, broccoli, corn, cauliflower, etc.
  • Storage: Let soup cool to room temperature, then transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate for 5 days. Reheat in a small saucepan over medium heat.
  • Freezer storage: Let the soup cool completely, then transfer to a freezer safe container and freeze for up to 6 months. To reheat, let the soup thaw in the refrigerator overnight before gently reheating on the stove. We don't suggest microwaving/trying to cook the soup straight from the freezer, as the heat will cause the dumplings to disintegrate.
How can you thicken vegetable dumpling soup?

The starch from the dumplings will somewhat help thicken the soup. However, if you would prefer a thicker, more stew-like soup, whisk together 2-4 tablespoon flour with water until it forms a paste. Add to the soup just before adding the dumplings (stirring well). The soup will thicken as the dumplings cook.

How can you tell when dumplings are done?

The dumplings will appear puffy on the exterior, and they should be dry on the interior. It's hard to tell when they are ready, so the best way to check is by removing a dumpling and cutting it in half to tell if the center is dry.

Can you make this gluten free?

We have not tried this recipe with gluten free flour, and we're not sure it would work well. However, if you do try, be sure to use a 1:1 gluten free flour substitute.

Finished soup with a spoon in it.
Those dumplings are just perfect! Doughy, fluffy, delicious.

More Soup Recipes to Enjoy

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Tried this recipe? Please leave a star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating below and/or a review in the comments section further down the page. You can also stay in touch with us through social media by following us on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook or by subscribing to our newsletter.

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Close up of the finished vegetable dumpling soup in a bowl.

Vegetable Dumpling Soup


5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

5 from 3 reviews

  • Author: Lexi
  • Total Time: 1 hour
  • Yield: 4-6 servings 1x
  • Diet: Vegan
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Description

Our vegetarian take on a comforting and nostalgic soup. This Vegetable Dumpling Soup is packed with nutritious vegetables, fresh herbs, and doughy homemade dumplings that couldn't be easier to make.   


Ingredients

Units Scale

Soup:

  • ¼ cup butter (regular or vegan)
  • 1 yellow onion, diced (~1 ½ cups)
  • 1 ¼ cups sliced celery
  • 1 ¼ cups sliced carrots
  • 1 ½ teaspoons Italian seasoning blend
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • ½ teaspoons ground black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 6 cups vegetable broth
  • 3 cups chopped spinach
  • ¾ cup frozen or fresh peas
  • 2 tablespoons chopped parsley

 Dumplings:

  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • ½ tablespoon baking powder
  • ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 2 tablespoons butter, cut into ½" pieces (regular or vegan)
  • ⅓ cup warm water (~100˚ F)

Instructions

  1. Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Once melted, add the onion, celery, carrots, salt, Italian seasoning and pepper. Stir well and sauté for 6-7 minutes, until the vegetables start to soften.
  2. Add in vegetable broth and lemon juice. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes. 
  3. While the soup is simmering, make the dumplings. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Add the butter to the flour mixture, using your hands to cut the butter into the flour until no big lumps remain. (Don't overwork the dough – the butter doesn't have to be completely incorporated.)
  4. Add in the warm water and continue mixing the dumpling mixture by hand until it comes together. 
  5. Stir the spinach, peas and parsley into the soup.
  6. Form dumplings into small rounds (about 2 teaspoon of dough per dumpling), then drop into the soup. Bring soup to a boil again, then reduce to medium low and cover. 
  7. Cook the dumplings for 18-20 minutes until they are still soft on the outside and chewy on the inside. Stir the soup every 5 minutes or so while the dumplings are cooking to make sure they cook evenly. Serve hot. 

Notes

Spinach: feel free to sub with another leafy green like kale or swiss chard.

Italian seasoning blends typically contain oregano, thyme, basil, rosemary and sage. If you don't have a blend, simply add a mix of these dried herbs to the soup.

Add a protein: If you're vegan, try adding in the poultry-seasoned tofu from this recipe. If you're not vegan, this would work well with leftover shredded rotisserie chicken or Italian sausage.

Storage: Let soup cool to room temperature, then transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate for 5 days. Reheat in a small saucepan over medium heat.

Freezer storage: Let the soup cool completely, then transfer to a freezer safe container and freeze for up to 6 months. To reheat, let the soup thaw in the refrigerator overnight before gently reheating on the stove. We don't suggest microwaving/trying to cook the soup straight from the freezer, as the heat will cause the dumplings to disintegrate. 

  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 50 minutes
  • Category: Soups
  • Method: Stovetop
  • Cuisine: American

Nutrition

  • Serving Size:
  • Calories: 360
  • Sugar: 9.4 g
  • Sodium: 1474.3 mg
  • Fat: 18.1 g
  • Carbohydrates: 44.8 g
  • Fiber: 5.6 g
  • Protein: 6.8 g

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @crowded_kitchen on Instagram and hashtag it #crowdedkitchen

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Comments

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    Recipe rating 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

  1. Mo Marks says

    October 06, 2023 at 1:16 pm

    By far the best vegetarian soup I’ve made. It was super easy and came together in no time at all. Loved it!

    Reply
    • Lexi says

      October 27, 2023 at 11:32 am

      Thank you so much, I'm so glad to hear that!

      Reply
      • Ricky lane says

        January 06, 2024 at 3:28 pm

        I recently became vegetarian and I made this and it was so good. For my protein I used great Northern beans.

      • Lexi says

        January 08, 2024 at 11:18 am

        Really glad you enjoyed!

  2. Bryce says

    December 04, 2022 at 1:40 pm

    5 stars for sure. Can’t wait to make this again.

    Reply
  3. Janet says

    December 04, 2022 at 1:25 pm

    Made this for dinner last night. The dumplings were perfect. Thank you!

    Reply
Lexi and Beth toasting with wine.

Hi, we're Lexi and Beth, a mother-daughter team from Michigan. The recipes you'll find here are a reflection of how we bring our family together around the dinner table despite various dietary differences.

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