Things To Do With Vegetables When You're...

... fed up with turkey and pork and all things meat at Christmas.

Welcome to the December edition of Things To Do With Vegetables When You’re…, my monthly celebration of vegetables and fruits and all good plant-y things in the form of a recipe I’ve cooked for my family recently.

This series, like most of my food writing, is normally a paid subscriber benefit. But since it is “that time of year” this one is free for you all.

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Wil

PS

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Herby bean stew with a very special smoked cheese dumpling

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If you cut me, I bleed bad food.

What pours out is bland and boring and bare, beige to anyone who only has eyes for the multicolour of the world’s favourite cuisines.

I am, you see, a child of two countries that might just lay claim to the world’s least appreciated foods: England and Finland.

It was former French president Chirac who, in reference to the British, said:

“You can’t trust people who cook as badly as that. After Finland, it’s the country with the worst food.”

I have dedicated much of my life to cooking these past 10 years. And before that my working life involved travel to exciting places where I always made a point of eating the local food. I will never forget the moqueca in Rio. Nasi goreng in Kuala Lumpur. Fish curry in Galle.

And yet, god how I love Finnish and English food. And the idea that the food of one place is “better” or more worthy of recognition than that of another place, strikes me as a very backward way of looking at things.

(By the way, as a big fan of perspectives that challenge popular/simplistic narratives, I really enjoyed this article reflecting on the news of Italian cuisine being added to UNESCO’s Intangible Heritage list.)

This week with my vegetable series, I’m trying to do justice to the so-called bland, beige and bare northern European food that I love so much.

It relies on delicate fresh herbs often found in Finnish food like chives and dill to flavour a light but warming stew of white beans. And to give this dish a bit of body and smack-you-round-the-face savouriness in place of meat, I’m adding what I think is one of British food’s standout joys: suet dumplings, which, keeping vegetarian, we’ll make with butter instead of visceral kidney fat. As a little savoury surprise, each dumpling has a heart of smoked cheese to give it a really satisfying savoury boost.

Originally I came up with this recipe for a student in one of my bespoke cooking classes. That made use of a whole roast chicken in place of the dumplings. But, just as you won’t be reaching for the hot sauce here, you won’t be lamenting the lack of meat for a second, I promise.

Also, this is so easy to make, even with the dumplings!

Herby Bean Stew with Smoked Cheese British Dumpling

For the bean and vegetable stew (serves 6)

2 x 400g cans/boxes of cooked white beans (cannelliini or haricot beans are great)
2 shallots or small white onions
2 fennel bulbs or a few stalks of celery (both are great, I can’t decide which I prefer)
350ml vegetable stock
1 lemon
Small bag of baby spinach (60g will do)
Chives
Dill
A 40g chunk of parmesan to grate (look for a vegetarian “hard Italian cheese” alternative to make this properly vegetarian)
Butter and oil

For the dumplings

100g flour
100g butter (fridge cold)
100g fresh white breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
50g smoked cheese cut into 6 chunks (doesn’t need to be atomically even, of course)
1 egg
2 tbsp milk

The recipe

Heat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Put a pot (for which you have a lid) on the hob and heat the oil and butter. Fry the shallots and fennel (or celery) gently until starting to turn translucent. Once that is done, about ten minutes or so, add the beans, stock and about a tablespoon of lemon juice to the pot and bring to a gentle simmer. Adding the lemon juice at this stage is important as cooking the beans in a slightly acidic broth helps keep their shape and stops them from disintegrating away. Once it’s simmering, put it into the oven (lid on) to bake for 30 minutes.

Now it’s time to make your dumplings.

Grate your cold butter using a box grater (the large grain side). Try and do this quickly and efficiently, once grated the butter softens fast. Then get it back in the fridge. Blend your flour, baking powder, fresh breadcrumbs and salt. Then work the cold grated butter into the flour so it is very well combined. It doesn’t need to be an even breadcrumb consistency as though you were making pastry, but you don’t want huge chunks of grated butter visible. I just break them up with my fingertips if I find some lumps. Whisk your eggs and milk together then work this into your dry ingredients to form a soft dough.

Form the dough into 6 balls. To get the cheese inside, flatten each ball in your hand and press a chunk of the cheese into the middle. Then work the dough back around the cheese so it’s fully encased. Then work the dough back into a smooth ball once again.

Once the beans have been baking for 30 minutes, take them from the oven, remove the lid, and add a few fine gratings of lemon zest, the grated parmesan and half of the chives and dill. Add the spinach, stir, and let it all wilt in the heat. Then add the dumplings, evenly spaced in your pot. Put it back in the oven (lid off this time) for the dumplings to cook for about 10-15 minutes until they have doubled in size.

Finish by sprinkling over the rest of the herbs and maybe with a drizzle of nice olive oil.

This is a lovely lunch by itself but, for something a bit grander, I really enjoy it with some roasted vegetables, like honey-glazed carrots and parsnips, and a salad.

As we say in Finland: “hyvää ruokahalua!”

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A meaty version of this recipe was originally designed specifically for one of my cooking class students. If you’d like to join me for a fun and practical class as well, then I’d love to hear from you (it would also make for an awesome and very unique Christmas present if you’re still looking for any).

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