Worlds Best Chicken Soup

I went to a vegetarian friend's house for dinner a couple of weeks back. They made 'chicken' and dumplings & even though it was vegetarian, it tasted like the best pot pie filling ever. Make it like the recipe calls for or heavily modify it like I do.

Here goes:

?Chicken’ and Dumplings
For the Dumplings:
2 cups flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 stick (4 Tbsp.) margarine
3/4 cup soy milk

For the Soup:
1/2 stick (4 Tbsp.) margarine
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp. celery salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
8 cups vegetable broth
2 medium carrots, diced
1 lb. faux chicken, torn into small pieces (try Worthington brand Chickette or Morningstar Farms Meal Starters Chick'n Strips)
1 bay leaf
• Combine the dry ingredients for the dumplings in a bowl.
• Mix the margarine with the dry mixture until crumbly. Add the soy milk, stirring until moistened. Add more soy milk, as needed, if the mixture is too dry.
• Knead the dough for 30 seconds on a well-floured surface, then roll to 1/8-inch thickness and cut into 1/2-inch squares.
• Place the margarine, onion, and celery for the soup in a large saucepan and sauté until the vegetables are soft.
• Add the flour, salt, and pepper to make a thick paste. Slowly mix in the broth and bring to a boil.
• Add the carrots, faux chicken, and bay leaf.
• Add the dumpling squares one at a time, stirring gently. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring often. Serve hot.

I use EVOO whenever butter or other types of oil are called for, I used 100% whole wheat flour. The first time I made this I added canned green beans & corn, screwed up the dumplings so I decided that next time I made it I'd skip the dumplings & use noodles.

So I made it again tonight. ~10 carrots, ~8 stalks of celery, a lot more celery salt than it called for, ~6 chicken breasts, a ton of fresh garlic, 5 bay leaves, 3 onions, and ~6 servings of corkscrew noodles. I made just under 8 quarts of this & ate four bowls. It's freaking fantastic. Next time I'm going to put in a small fryer chicken instead of boneless/skinless breasts.

This soup sounds great.

I think you're on the right track with using the fryer instead of the BSB's. A lot of the goodness/flavor in a traditional C&D comes from the fat rendered out from the boiling chicken being absorbed by the dumplings. Also, that way you can just boil the chicken and use that liquid, instead of getting 8 cups of V broth.

Mmm... now I think I need to make this.