Veggie Soup with Stuffing Dumplings

We were already super weird this year and spent Thanksgiving in Sweden instead of staying stateside. For our make-up meal with family, I'm staying weird and serving up stuffing as part of a soup instead of as the typical side.

The original recipe is much heartier than the one I made today, but this soup is part of a larger meal that is already potato heavy. Seriously. Too many potatoes. This recipe below is an attempt at BALANCE. Unfortunately, the dumplings came apart during the simmer. The good news: it was still super tasty. I'm gonna work on improvements in 2022.

Inspiration: Tesco | Serves: 4 | Time: 1 hr

Changes: dropped potatoes and parsnips and increased amounts of lighter veggies; replaced tomato puree with tomato paste; used fresh "roasting" herb blend of rosemary, parsley, and thyme instead of just rosemary.

Ingredients

1½ tbsp olive oil, plus extra for greasing

3 large #carrots, sliced

4 #celery sticks, sliced

2 large #leeks, sliced

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 package of fresh roasting herbs destemmed and chopped

4 1/4 cups veggie broth (or more if you want to use it to make the stuffing)

1 box Kraft Stovetop stuffing with savory herbs

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425F.

Heat the oil in a large, lidded saucepan over a low heat. Add the carrots, celery, leeks and garlic. Cook, covered, for 15 mins, stirring occasionally, until very soft. Stir in the tomato paste; cook for 1 min. Add the roasting herbs and stock, bring to the boil, then simmer, covered, for 20 mins.

Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, bring 1 1/2 cups water (or broth, I had LOTS of broth) and 1/4 cup vegan butter to boil. Stir in contents of stuffing mix pouch; cover. Remove from heat and let stand 5 minutes. Shape into 12 equal balls, transfer to a greased baking tray and bake for 20 mins until golden.

Uncover the soup, add the stuffing balls and simmer for 10 mins. Divide between warmed bowls to serve. Enjoy!