Vegan Potato Dumplings with Mushroom Ragout and Red Cabbage
Apparentlydon’tre are people out there who don’t like potatoes – well, let’s not start a discussion now. But even these (crazy) people love this potato dish: potato dumplings. And please don’t destroy my world and tell me it would be different. I mean, what’s there not to love about potato dumplings? They are like fluffy potato cushions that look like a comfy starchy bed.
In Germany, these beloved dumplings are not cooked every day but enjoyed on special occasions. In my family, we’ve been eating potato dumplings on Christmas since forever. And since I’m vegan, my Christmas dinner consists of potato dumplings, vegan goulash, and red cabbage. Regarding the goulash, I welcome change from year to year and love seitan goulash, soy goulash, or (as cooked today) mushroom goulash. As you spend quite some time in the kitchen to prepare homemade potato dumplings and vegan goulash, we took a short cut for the red cabbage. If you want to go all the way, you could also prepare the cabbage yourself – here’s our recipe for it.
My family has this old family recipe for potato dumplings, in which everyone has a specific task. After a year-long training from my grandmother during my childhood, I am busy at the end of the dumpling production and in charge of filling and rolling them. Yes, it sounds a bit silly and not too important first, but if you’d know how my grandma can roll perfectly round dumplings, you’d be amazed. And that is exactly my goal! Although we’ll not publish our family recipe today, it’s still based on it as we fill the potato dumplings with some crispy diced bread.
Vegan Potato Dumplings with Mushroom Ragout and Red Cabbage
Ingredients
For the goulash:
- 50 g (1.75 oz) dried porcini mushrooms
- 700 ml (3 cups) hot water
- 4 carrots
- 250 g (8.75 oz) fresh button mushrooms
- 2 onions
- 2 garlic cloves
- 10 g (0.33 oz) fresh thyme
- 6 tbsp (3.25 oz) tomato paste
- 3 tbsp (1.5 oz) mustard
- 2 tbsp (1 oz) soy sauce
- 250 ml (1 cup) vegan red wine
- 300 ml (1.25 cups) vegetable stock
- neutral vegetable oil for frying
- salt
- pepper
For the dumplings:
- 800 g (1.75 lb) waxy potatoes
- 2 slices white bread
- 100 g (0.75 cup) potato starch
- 50 g (0.33 cup) wheat flour (type 405)
- 50 g (3.5 tbsp) soft vegan butter
- vegan butter or neutral vegetable oil for frying
- salt
- pepper
- nutmeg
For the red cabbage:
- 1 onion
- 1 apple
- 650 g (23 oz) red cabbage from a jar
- neutral vegetable oil for frying
- salt
- pepper
Instructions
For the goulash, soak the dried porcini mushrooms in hot water for at least 30 minutes in advance and set aside. In the meantime, clean and chop the carrots and fresh mushrooms into small pieces. Peel and finely dice the onions and garlic cloves. Strip the thyme leaves from the stems and chop them finely. Once the dried porcini mushrooms are soft, remove them from the broth and also chop them into small pieces. But definitely keep the porcini broth and don't pour it away.
For the dumplings, place the potatoes with their skins in a pot, cover with cold water, and salt generously. Bring the water to a boil and cook the potatoes over medium heat for approx. 20 minutes until done. Then drain and let them steam off a bit.
In the meantime, cut the white bread slices into small cubes. Heat vegan butter or vegetable oil in a pan and fry the bread cubes until crispy. If you want to save time at this point: Pop the bread slices in the toaster, toast them golden brown, and only then cut them into cubes.
Continue with the goulash. Heat vegetable oil in a deep pan or pot and sauté the onions over low heat until translucent. Add the carrots, fresh and dried mushrooms, as well as garlic and chopped thyme, and fry everything together for approx. 10 minutes.
Add tomato paste, mustard, and soy sauce to the vegetables and fry for approx. 3 minutes. Deglaze everything with vegan red wine and let the wine reduce over medium heat for approx. 5 minutes. Now add the mushroom broth from the dried mushrooms and the vegetable stock, and season everything generously with salt and pepper. Bring everything to a boil, then simmer over medium heat until the dumplings are ready. Season to taste again before serving.
The potatoes should be cooked and steamed off by now. Peel the potatoes and press them through a potato ricer until the mashed potatoes no longer contain any large chunks. Add potato starch, flour, and soft vegan butter, and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Knead everything into a dough.
Divide the dough into eight equal portions. Place one dough portion on your hand, put a few crispy bread cubes in the middle, and now roll the dough around the bread cubes into a round dumpling.
Put plenty of water in a large pot, salt it, and let it simmer – it shouldn't really boil, but should always be just about to. Let the potato dumplings simmer in the simmering water for approx. 20 minutes. They'll float on the surface. To test whether they're really done, you can take one dumpling out of the water and try a small piece.
While the dumplings are cooking, prepare the red cabbage. For this recipe, we're using red cabbage from a jar to keep the cooking manageable. Finely dice the onion and also cut the apple into small cubes. Heat vegetable oil in a pot and sauté the onion and apple cubes over medium heat for approx. 3 minutes until the onion is translucent. Add the red cabbage and season with salt and pepper (also a bay leaf and cloves if desired). Add a bit of water to the pot and let the red cabbage simmer with the lid on until the dumplings are ready.
Remove the dumplings from the water, drain them well, and serve with mushroom goulash and red cabbage.
