Easy Soup Recipe: Suet Dumplings Soup

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PHOTO: FOTOLIA/WHITE78
Suet soup is great to make on a cold winter day. And it is cheap too! Some supermarket meat departments will give suet to you free.

It’s true: There’s nothing like hot, homemade soup on a chilly winter day. And here’s a recipe for one soup — containing suet and lots of vegetables — that I especially enjoy:

First, cut a half cup to a full cup of suet (most supermarket meat departments will give it to you free!) into very small pieces and place the bits of fat in the bottom of a large (at least 6 quarts) pot or kettle. Simmer over low heat until the suet begins to liquefy and turn clear.

Next, add about 2 quarts of tomatoes to the pot, along with an equal amount of water (and/or leftover vegetable juices). Cut or slice one large onion, two stalks of celery, one or two carrots, two big potatoes, and a half pound of string beans into small chunks and add them to the kettle … then stir in a cup of peas and a quarter pound or so of barley, plus any other ingredients you think the soup should have. Salt and pepper to taste.

Simmer the vegetable-containing broth for a couple of hours, or a couple of days … whichever. Then, just before you’re ready to serve it up, make some old-fashioned dumplings:

In a clean bowl — one that has a flat bottom, so you can work — break an egg, beat it, and slowly stir into the bowl a dry mixture consisting of half a cup of flour, one teaspoon of baking powder, and a pinch of salt. Continue to beat with a fork until — when all the flour has been added (and, possibly, a little bit extra) — you have a bowl full of dry, lumpy “dumplings”. Add these to your soup and simmer another 15 minutes … then serve!

  • Published on Jan 1, 1977
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