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    Home » Vegan Recipes » Vegan Side Dishes » Vegan Dumplings

    Vegan Dumplings

    Published: Apr 1, 2021 by Kate Ford · This post may contain affiliate links.

    Vegan Dumplings
    JUMP TO RECIPE JUMP TO VIDEO
    #Vegan #TheVegSpace

    Deliciously fluffy vegan dumplings to cook with your favourite stew or casserole. Quick and easy to make, they steam-cook in the pot. No comfort-food stew is complete without them!

    🍴Why you will love this recipe

    Steamed dumplings are the ultimate British comfort food. Is there anything more unashamedly doughy and deliciously stodgy than these fluffy little balls, steam-cooked in a hearty vegan stew?

    These are so incredibly easy to make. I've included step-by-step photos below for those who are less confident in the kitchen, but they are pretty much foolproof, so do give them a go.

    The plump vegan dumplings steam-cook in your stew or casserole, either on the hob (covered with a lid) or in the oven. I then like to pop them under the grill to slightly brown and crisp the top, but I know many purists would turn their nose up at that and like them steamed-only, so it is entirely your call.

    Once you're a confident dumpling-maker, I've included lots of ideas for variations to match your dumpling flavours to whatever stew or casserole you have on the go.

    Jump to:
    • 🍴Why you will love this recipe
    • 📝 What you need
    • 👩🏽‍🍳 How to make your Vegan Dumplings
    • 🔪 Dumpling Variations
    • 🍽 Top Tips & FAQs
    • 🍽 If you liked that...
    • 📖 Recipe
    • 💬 Comments and Reviews
    Vegan Suet Dumplings steamed over a stew

    📝 What you need

    Ingredients

    Plain flour - the storecupboard staple. If you don't have plain to hand, you can use self-raising instead and just leave out the baking powder in the recipe. Or how about trying half-and-half wholemeal and white plain flours?

    Vegetable suet is fairly easy to find in supermarkets - the most common brand, Atora, is vegan (at time of writing), but if you use any other brand do check the ingredients.

    If you don't have suet handy or don't want to buy some just for these dumplings, a good alternative is to use a vegan 'butter' (block margarine) instead. Something like Flora Plant Butter or Naturli block would be ideal. (Don't use a tub of spread, its water content is far too high and these won't turn out nearly as well). Just cube or grate the 'butter' into the flour then rub in with your fingertips, as if you were making pastry. Then continue from step 3 of the recipe onwards.

    Dried thyme This is completely optional but adds another herby note to the dumplings. You can also use fresh thyme leaves picked from their stalks if you prefer.

    👩🏽‍🍳 How to make your Vegan Dumplings

    For a full, printable recipe with ingredients and detailed instructions, scroll to the bottom of this page 👇🏼.

    Weigh flour and vegetable suet

    Weigh the flour and add the vegetable suet.

    Add herbs and form a dough

    Season well and add fresh herbs. Add water a little at a time to bring it together into a smooth dough.

    Roll into balls and steam in your stew

    Roll the dough out into individual balls. Press dumplings into your stew, cover with a lid and cook for 25-30 minutes.

    🔪 Dumpling Variations

    You can add all sorts of flavourings to this basic dumpling recipe to match it to your casserole or stew. How about:

    • Make them cheesy with some grated vegan cheddar mixed through the flour before bringing the dough together. Some chives snipped through the dough are particularly good with this variation, or my special favourite - chopped jalapeños from a jar.... yum!
    • Make them wholemeal by using wholemeal or spelt flour in the recipe.
    • Make them pesto by kneading some vegan pesto through the dough (I like the Sacla vegan pesto, or make your own with my recipe here)
    • Make them curried by stirring 1 teaspoon mild curry powder through the flour before bringing the dough together, then steam-cook in a curried casserole or stew.
    Vegan Stew with dumplings in a casserole dish with lid

    🍽 Top Tips & FAQs

    Add the water to the dough little by little, until there is just enough to bring the dough together - a sticky dough is hard to shape and makes heavy dumplings.

    The dumplings suck up quite a bit of moisture from your stew as they cook, so check the consistency of the stew occasionally to make sure it isn't drying out.

    For a nice crispy golden finish to your dumplings you can pop them under a hot grill for just a minute.

    Can I prepare the dumplings ahead of time?

    Yes - if you make the balls of dough then cover them or keep in an airtight container they will be fine for up to 2 days in the fridge.

    Can I freeze my dumplings?

    If you've made too many dumplings, or want to batch-cook some stew and dumplings, good news.... these dumplings are fine to freeze. I tend to freeze one in an individual portion of stew, then once defrosted, reheat the stew and pop the dumpling in the oven for 5 minutes or so.
    A quick blast in the microwave until piping hot throughout is a very easy way of defrosting it, but separate the dumpling from the stew and microwave them individually as they will need quite different defrosting times.
    You can also freeze the balls of dumpling dough before cooking, then just defrost and cook as many as you need.

    What else can I make with vegetable suet?

    You will usually find suet in the baking area of the supermarket, or near the flour. I usually buy it at Christmas, and use it for making:
    Homemade Vegan Mincemeat with brandy and hazelnuts, for delicious mince pies, and
    The Ultimate Vegan Christmas Pudding
    You can also use it to make a very soft-textured pastry (there's a good step-by-step recipe from Delia here - just swap vegetable suet for beef suet), which you can make either savoury or sweet as a delicious topping for pies.

    🍽 If you liked that...

    .... you might also enjoy these vegan recipes from The Veg Space:

    • Vegan Stew
      Vegan Stew with ale & pearl barley
    • Chestnut Mushroom Bourguignon
      Chestnut Mushroom Bourguignon
    • Vegan Roast Potatoes
      Vegan Roast Potatoes with garlic & rosemary
    • Vegan Puff Pastry Pie
      Vegan Puff Pastry Pie with Tenderstem and creamy lentils

    Loved this recipe? ⭐️ Leave a star rating below! 📸 Snap a photo of your finished dish and share it with me on Instagram, tagging me @thevegspace or #thevegspace 📩 And get all my latest recipes in a weekly e-mail by subscribing to my newsletter.

    📖 Recipe

    Easy Vegan Dumplings

    Vegan Dumplings

    Kate Ford | The Veg Space
    Deliciously fluffy vegan dumplings to cook with your favourite stew or casserole. Quick and easy to make, they steam-cook in the pot. No comfort-food stew is complete without them!
    5 from 16 votes
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    Prep Time 10 minutes mins
    Cook Time 25 minutes mins
    Total Time 35 minutes mins
    Course Side
    Cuisine British
    Servings 6 dumplings
    Calories 133 kcal

    Ingredients
     
     

    • 100 g plain flour
    • 1 teaspoon baking powder
    • 50 g vegetable suet (check it is vegan)
    • salt and black pepper
    • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
    • ½ teaspoon dried thyme (optional)

    Instructions
     

    • Weigh the flour and baking powder into a bowl.
    • Stir through the suet.
    • Season well with salt and pepper, then add the parsley and thyme (if using).
    • Add water a little at a time - just enough to bring it together into a dough.
    • Divide the dough into 6 sections and roll each into a round ball.
    • Place the dumplings in your stew or casserole, and press down until half-submerged in the liquid. Cover with a lid and cook on the hob or oven for 25-30 minutes until well risen and fluffy.
    • If you want to brown your dumplings a little on top, you can put the casserole dish under a hot grill for a minute or two. Serve immediately.

    ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION

    Video

    Notes

    Add the water little by little, until there is just enough to bring the dough together.
    The dumplings suck up quite a bit of moisture from your stew as they cook, so check the consistency of the stew occasionally to make sure it isn't drying out.
    For a nice crispy golden finish to your dumplings you can pop them under a hot grill for just a minute.

    Nutrition

    Serving: 1dumplingCalories: 133kcalCarbohydrates: 13gProtein: 2gFat: 8gSaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 6mgSodium: 73mgPotassium: 24mgFiber: 1gSugar: 1gVitamin A: 60IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 45mgIron: 1mg
    Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was! Mention @thevegspace or #thevegspace
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    Vegan in 15 by Kate Ford

    For more quick and easy vegan recipes take a look at my latest book Vegan in 15.

    "Brilliant! Chock full of easy recipes and great tips and advice"  Hello! Magazine

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    About Kate Ford

    Hi! I'm Kate, vegan home cook and blogger behind The Veg Space and author of Vegan in 15. I'm passionate about creating easy vegan recipes that even a first-time cook can follow.

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Dawn says

      April 30, 2023 at 3:45 am

      These look amazing. I have a vegan stew recipe but it's for a pressure cooker for 15 minutes. Any idea how these might go in a pressure cooker?

      Reply
      • Kate Ford says

        May 01, 2023 at 3:13 pm

        Hi Dawn, I've never tried these in a pressure cooker so really not sure how they would turn out. They certainly wouldn't take 15 minutes in a pressure cooker, and I know opening it in the middle of cooking isn't possible, so not sure what else to suggest, sorry. I have a vegan stew recipe on the blog which these work well with, you can find it via the search bar in the side bar or on the homepage. Thanks, Kate x

        Reply
    2. Philippa says

      April 09, 2023 at 1:04 pm

      We added these dumplings to the chestnut bourguignon recipe and it worked a treat.

      Reply
      • Kate Ford says

        April 10, 2023 at 7:14 am

        Oh bet that was a lovely combination, yum!

        Reply
    3. Chloe says

      December 31, 2022 at 9:37 am

      Great suggestions with helpful tips but couldn't find the alternative butter option weight requirement

      Reply
      • Kate Ford says

        January 01, 2023 at 2:43 pm

        Hi Chloe, just the same weight of vegan butter as you would have used suet will work fine. Kate

        Reply
    4. Dannii says

      October 30, 2021 at 3:03 pm

      You can't beat dumplings for comfort food and these vegan ones look delicious.

      Reply
    5. Biana says

      October 30, 2021 at 2:54 pm

      These dumplings look amazing! What a great fall recipe.

      Reply
    6. Elizabeth says

      October 30, 2021 at 1:38 pm

      These look like the PERFECT dumplings! It's so easy to replace regular suet with vegetable suet too, for vegetarian dinner guests. Thanks for the awesome recipe!

      Reply
    7. Claudia Lamascolo says

      October 30, 2021 at 10:42 am

      These were delicious so light and fluffy I will only make these from now on!

      Reply
    8. ELIZABETH says

      October 24, 2021 at 12:34 pm

      most supermarkets sell vegetable suet, I use it to make a clootie dumpling.....as my daughter is vegan...I'll definitely be trying these, my mum always put dumplings in her stew...

      Reply
      • Kate Ford says

        October 24, 2021 at 1:33 pm

        Yes I've found it in most supermarkets> I've heard of clootie dumplings, sounds delicious! X

        Reply
    9. Rebecca Smith says

      April 05, 2021 at 12:25 pm

      Those dumplings look so lovely and fluffy, I make my own suet as it has to be gluten free so will defo be giving this recipe a go.

      Reply
      • Kate Ford says

        April 06, 2021 at 5:42 pm

        Oh wow, that's great that you make your own gluten-free suet. Perfect!

        Reply
    10. Choclette says

      April 05, 2021 at 11:34 am

      Oh my, I absolutely adore dumplings. They're the main reason I like stew so much. I'm not too keen on the ingredients in vegetable suet, but I make an exception for dumplings as it works so well.

      Reply
      • Kate Ford says

        April 06, 2021 at 5:41 pm

        Yes same here Chocolette - dumplings Christmas Pudding and mincemeat are my only suet exceptions in the year!

        Reply
    11. Chloe Edges says

      April 04, 2021 at 11:17 pm

      I think dumplings are sexy. Just saying.

      Reply
      • Kate Ford says

        April 06, 2021 at 5:40 pm

        🤣 I'm glad to hear it Chloe.

        Reply
    12. Rosemary says

      April 02, 2021 at 3:16 am

      Vegetable suet...that's new to me and definitively intriguing. I haven't had dumplings in a while. I often think of Asian food, when I think of dumplings. I love your simple, step by step recipe and I look forward to trying them at home.

      Reply
    13. Dionne says

      April 01, 2021 at 6:14 pm

      I haven't made a dumpling recipe in such a long time - this will be a great recipe to make over the weekend!

      Reply
    14. Julia says

      April 01, 2021 at 5:53 pm

      Now i need to find suet somewhere, but the idea of vegan dumplings is just too delicious, will be making these soon!

      Reply
      • Kate Ford says

        April 01, 2021 at 6:04 pm

        Oh I hope you can find some, well worth it! X

        Reply
    15. Michelle says

      April 01, 2021 at 5:49 pm

      Never heard of vegetable suet before, so that's good to know there's something out there in the market! These dumplings look fantastic!

      Reply
      • Kate Ford says

        April 01, 2021 at 6:04 pm

        It is so good, worth looking out for.

        Reply
    16. Deanne says

      April 01, 2021 at 5:03 pm

      Dumplings are the ULTIMATE comfort food! I can't wait to add these to my next batch of stew.

      Reply
      • Kate Ford says

        April 01, 2021 at 6:05 pm

        Aren't they just?!

        Reply

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