How to Cook Cabbage Soup with Buckwheat Dumplings

Serves: 6

Preparation time: 15 mins

Cooking time: 1 ½ hours

Ingredients needed to make Cabbage Soup with Buckwheat Dumplings:

For the soup:

• 1 medium savoy cabbage, wilted and damaged leaves peeled off, cored and shredded
• 1 yellow onion, peeled and finely diced
• 1 medium Granny Smith apple
• 4 bacon slices, diced
• 3 cups water
• 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 ½ tsp whole coriander seeds
• 2 tsp whole caraway seeds
• 4 tsp ground mustard
• ¾ tsp kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

For the dumplings:

• ¾ cup buckwheat flour
• 1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 tsp kosher salt

Cooking instructions for Cabbage Soup with Buckwheat Dumplings:

• To make the soup, toss the whole spices into a small frying pan and stir fry over moderate heat for about 4 minutes until they turn fragrant.
• Set aside for a couple of minutes to cool the mixture down.
• Tip it into a mortar and bash them with a pestle into small bits; set aside.
• Toss the bacon pieces into a large Dutch oven and stir fry over moderate heat for 10 minutes, stirring periodically, until they turn crispy golden brown.
• Drain them out into a plate lined with kitchen paper to soak away any excess oil and set aside.
• Grate the apples into a medium bowl, without peeling off its skin, and set aside.
• Toss it into the pan with the rendered bacon fat, along with its juices, crushed spices and onions.
• Sprinkle a dash each of seasonings and sauté for about 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions soften.
• Sprinkle the ground mustard into it, stir to incorporate and scatter the shredded cabbage over them.
• Stir them all together, along with the measured salt plus ground black pepper and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring from time to time, until the cabbage appears limp slightly.
• Pour in the water, followed immediately by the chicken broth and bring the soup to a simmer over high heat.
• Meanwhile, to make the dumplings, place both kinds of flours in a large bowl and stir in the baking powder as well as measured seasonings until well combined.
• Whisk in the melted butter plus milk until they are fully incorporated into the mixture to form a soft dough.
• Lower the heat of the simmering soup to moderately low and adjust the seasonings if necessary.
• Drop a tbsp worth of dough ball into the soup around its edges and continue to do so until all of the dough is used up.
• Cover and simmer the soup for 10 minutes or until the dumplings puffs up and are cooked through along with the cabbage itself.
• Ladle the soup into serving bowls, while dividing the dumplings equally among them and sprinkle small amount of fried bacon chunks on top of each serving.
• Serve hot.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons