Strolling through the frozen section of Sainsbury’s one day I noticed these dumplings made with vegetarian suet, and really got far more excited than I needed to.
But it is rare to find anything made with vegetarian suet, so this revelation prompted the recipe below. I’d never cooked a casserole before and reworked this a couple of times. Now it’s just about perfect for low-maintenance comfort food on a chilly autumn night.
YOU WILL NEED
A casserole dish or other ceramic oven proof-dish with lid
A wok or large frying pan
INGREDIENTS
1 medium-sized onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 carrots
5 or 6 new potatoes
3 sticks of celery
1 packet of Quorn Swedish-Style Balls (defrosted if bought frozen)
4 frozen dumplings (from the Aunt Bessie range)
1 vegetable stock cube
2 teaspoons of cornflour
1 bay leaf
DO IT
1) Pre-heat the oven to 190 deg C or equivalent.
2) Thoroughly wash the potatoes, cut each in half and put to one side
3) Wash and roughly chop the celery and carrots (top and tail these)
4) Chop the onion into chunks and fry with the garlic in a little vegetable or olive oil until transparent
5) Turn up the heat and add the celery, carrots and potatoes.
6) Add the bay leaf, turn down the heat and stir-fry for about 10 minutes.
7) Transfer the contents of the pan to the casserole dish and add the meatballs
8) Make up some stock using the stock cube and the cornflour. Mix it together with boiling water and pour over the meatballs and veg.
9) Put on the lid and place the dish in the oven for 40 minutes.
10) Add the frozen dumplings and bake for a further 40 minutes.
11) Remove (carefully!) from oven and serve with bread.
Serves two.
