Dumplings

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This one’s for Dano.  Dano, you still out there low-carbing?  You always wanted a noodle or dumpling dough.  Well here ya go!  Only took me 4 years to come up with this for you!

When you can’t have flour, it’s hard to make dumplings.  I’ve been working hard for 4 years now using almond flour, coconut flour, you name it.  Low-carb dumplings are no easy feat.  I wanted them to have a similar taste and similar mouth feel as the dumplings I made before I was low-carbing.  All attempts thus far have been mediocre, at best.  Somewhere on the net a year or so ago, not sure where really, I wrote down someone’s simple dumpling recipe made with glucomannan powder.  Not being familiar with this product at all then, I bought some and began to experiment.  Its gel-like and fibrous qualities lend themselves to gravy/sauce thickening and making puddings.  I’ve even found a tad of this stuff enhances low-carb cake, cookie and bread recipes.  I’d love to give credit to my inspiration on this recipe, but I must admit on this particular occasion (which is rare for me), I did apparently fail to write down the name of the person who’s ingenious idea this was.

If you’re not familiar with glucomannan powder, it comes from the Konjac tuber, and is used to make shirataki noodles seen in Asian menus.   It can be used as a binding agent in some recipes.  It is virtually a zero carb food, in that the fiber content is so high, it totally negates the carbs it contains.  Fiber carbs are indigestible.   Glucomannan adds the elasticity stick-together quality needed for dumplings and noodles.  So I’ve really been experimenting a great deal with it over this past year.  Now that I’m more comfortable using this tricky ingredient, I decided I’d finally try the dumpling recipe I jotted down so long ago.  The inspirational recipe had no leavening and I found them way too dense on my first batch.  So I added some baking powder and VOILA, a fairly light dumpling that felt and tasted like my dumplings of old.  This will now be my go-to low-carb dumpling recipe.  As you can see in the pic above, they held together nicely during simmering (unlike most of my previous almond flour/coconut flour dumpling attempts that disintegrated in the broth), and the gluc powder still gave off enough thickening from the surfaces of them to slightly thicken the chicken broth!  NICE!

These were the best low-carb chicken and dumplings I’ve had in nearly 4 years!  My husband gave these dumplings two thumbs up today, and he’s pretty picky about my low-carb creations.  The low calorie/carb count for these is simply amazing, as well!  Guilt free dumplings at last!!  YAAAAAAY!

The recipe posted elsewhere on my site for chicken and dumplings is good, don’t get me wrong.  But you have to bake the rolls separately in advance of making the chicken and dumplings for that recipe.   With this dumpling recipe, I can stir the ingredients together when my broth is ready, in about 1-2 minutes, and the dumplings are simmering immediately!  Much easier!  And you regular readers know I’m really in to EASY, FAST cooking.

These would also be good (made much smaller) for vegetable soups and I plan to try my hand at gnocchi with this dough as well.  One might be able to make with this dough a VERY large German-style dumpling to have with Wiener Schnitzel, but I would have NO idea how long that would take to get done simmering in the broth.  Should I ever try the mega-dumpling, I’ll post my results here.  These are not suitable until the grains rung of the Atkins OWL ladder due to the oat fiber.

Some who have made my recipe are rolling the dough out between sheets of plastic wrap and cutting into wide Italian-style dumplings with success, and lasagna-style noodles, too.  I’ve seen the photos of these talented cooks’ results (I haven’t tried rolling the dough out myself yet) and they look VERY  impressive made that way.  So I’ll be trying that method soon, I think.

INGREDIENTS:

3/4 tsp. baking powder

1½ T. glucomannan powder (Konjac powder, available on-line)

1½ T. oat fiber (NOT oat flour or oat bran, which are much higher in carbs)

1/8 tsp. salt

¼ c. +2 T. water

1 extra large or jumbo egg, beaten

OPTIONAL:  If you prefer a firmer dumpling, either reduce the baking powder to 1/2 tsp or add 1/2 tsp. coconut flour to the dry ingredients.  I cooked one batch using coconut flour and it did have this effect.  But I prefer softer dumplings so I make mine as written above.

VARIATION:  Add 1-2 T. finely chopped parsley

DIRECTIONS:   Beat the egg in a small bowl with a fork.  Add the water and beat until well blended.  On a paper plate or in another bowl, mix the dry ingredients well.  Slowly sprinkle the dry ingredients into the wet, stirring with a fork.  Switching to a rubber spatula, fold the mixture over and over itself until the glucomannan has thickened the mixture into a smooth batter and eventually a thick, dryer dough.  Using a teaspoon, dip 3/4″-1″ dollops of the dough into your palm and roll them into a ball.  It has been my experience since making my first batch of these, that if you just drop them directly into the broth from the spoon without rolling, they tend to fall apart in the broth during cooking.

Drop the rolled balls gently into your boiling soup/chicken stock and cover.  Reduce heat to medium.  This is IMPORTANT, as you only want a medium simmer on your broth.  If they get “beat up” too much with hard boiling stock, they will break apart on you.  From the time you cover the pot, set timer for exactly 10 minutes (less if you chose to make very small dumplings).  I like to remove chicken, meat or large chunks of vegetables to a platter while the dumplings are cooking to prevent overcooking and to allow ample room for the dumplings to rise and swell up. DO NOT LIFT THE LID or disturb the pot during this 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes, lift the lid and VOILA!!  They’re done!  You may have to thicken the stock further depending on your personal preference.  I usually do a bit and usually do so with xanthan gum dusted lightly over the stock, stirred until thick.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 12 medium-large 1¼” dumplings (after cooking), each contains:

7.17 calories

.49 g  fat

1.38 g  carbs, 1.29 g  fiber, .1 g  NET CARBS

.61 g  protein

55 mg sodium

6.5 mg potassium

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