Recipes
Moroccan Tomato Soup with Herbed Potato Dumplings
This recipe was brought to you by Mandy Van Zanen.
Mandy has always been a foodie but has never considered herself to be any kind of cook until she got roped into all this by me! You’ll see that she’s pretty awesome in the kitchen, but her true creative talent lies in music – she has a music degree in classical singing from the Melbourne Conservatorium, and not only does she sing all sorts of pop music, she also plays the drums, orchestral percussion, and the clarinet as well!
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable stock powder
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 carrot, chopped
- 1 celery stalk, chopped
- 1 x 400 g (14 oz) tin chickpeas, drained
- 2 x 400 g (14 oz) tins crushed tomatoes
- 1–3 teaspoons lemon zest (depending on how much you like lemon)
- 2 teaspoons tahini, to serve (optional)
- 1–3 teaspoons fresh chopped herbs, to garnish
- lemon wedges, to serve
Dumplings
- 2 medium baked potatoes, cooled (see Note)
- 75 g (23/4 oz/½ cup) wholemeal self-raising flour
- 1 teaspoon each of chopped coriander (cilantro), chives and flat-leaf (Italian) parsley
Instructions
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Step 1
To make the soup, combine the vegetable stock powder with 250 ml (81/2 fl oz/1 cup) water in a saucepan. Add all the remaining ingredients, except the crushed tomatoes and lemon zest, and bring to the boil over a high heat. Cook until the vegetables have softened.
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Step 2
Add the lemon zest and continue cooking for another 30 seconds, then add the tomatoes and mix well. Bring back to the boil, then turn off the heat and cover with a lid. Set aside.
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Step 3
For the dumplings, mash the spuds in a mixing bowl. (They need to be well mashed but not totally smooth.)
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Step 4
Sift in the flour, bit by bit, then knead the mixture with your hands to form a dough. Make sure that the flour is mixed in, but don’t overmix. Add more flour if the dough is sticky, and more water – a splash at a time – if it’s too dry. Add the fresh herbs and mix again briefly to combine.
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Step 5
Bring another saucepan of water to the boil.
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Step 6
Break off small pieces of the dough and roll into balls (see Note).
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Step 7
Carefully drop the dumplings into the boiling water. Once they rise to the top, cook for 1–2 minutes, then remove them to a plate using a slotted spoon. Continue until all the dough has been used.
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Step 8
Reheat the soup, then divide the soup and dumplings evenly between two bowls. Stir in 1 teaspoon tahini, if using. Garnish with fresh herbs and serve with a lemon wedge on the side.
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Step 9
Note Baked, cooled potatoes are by far the best option for this recipe. You can cook them however you like, but steamed or boiled potatoes will have a higher water content and will require much more flour when it comes to mixing the dough. It doesn’t taste as good and requires more cooking, so I usually bake mine. Small is better with these wholemeal dumplings; you can make bigger ones and cook them for longer if you like, but they get bumped in the water and tend to break apart. If you can’t find ras-al-hanout, use ½ teaspoon each of paprika, cumin, ginger and coriander instead (all ground).
