Category Archives: Noodles and Dumplings

There’s something about noodles and dumplings… swimming in sauces and gravies… that is irresistible.

Desserts and Sweets, Noodles and Dumplings

Plum Dumplings

Ovocné Knedlíky

  • 1-1/4 T butter
  • 4 oz. cottage cheese
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1-3/4 cups flour
  • 12 fresh plums, halved and pitted
  • Boiling salted water
  • 3 T melted butter
  • 6 T sugar

Cream butter, cottage cheese, egg yolk and salt; add milk. Stir in flour. Stir until dough leaves side of bowl and is not sticky. Cover and set aside for 30 minutes. Roll dough on floured board into a rectangle about 9 x 12″ and 1/4″ thick. Place a plum half in center and wrap dough around it into a round ball. Drop into boiling salted water. Cover and cook for 8 mins.; remove and drain. Sprinkle with melted butter and sugar.

Plum dumplings
A cat by Kati, satisfied, perhaps, at having just eaten a plum dumpling.
Meatless Main Dishes, Noodles and Dumplings, Vegetables and Salads

Baked Noodles and Eggplant

A layered eggplant and noodle casserole one-dish meal.  Make it vegan with a couple of simple tweaks.

Eggplants

  • 3 large eggplants, sliced
  • Salt and black pepper
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • Oil and butter
  • 1 14-oz. can tomatoes
  • 1-1/2 lb. spaghetti noodles
  • 1 tsp. dried oregano
  • 4 hard cooked eggs, sliced thinly
  • 2 oz. grated Parmesan

Sprinkle eggplants with salt and let sit in colander for 30 minutes. Drain and dry to remove bitter juices before using in the recipe below.

Fry onion in 2 T oil until soft. Add tomatoes, oregano, salt and pepper. Add a little water, if necessary, and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.

Fry the drained and dried eggplant slices in a little oil until very tender, turning once. Drain on paper towels.

Cook the pasta until just tender. Drain and mix with tomato sauce and 1 T butter.

Butter a large oven dish. Spread a layer of pasta and sauce over the bottom; cover with a layer of eggplant and one of sliced eggs, and sprinkle with 1/4 of the Parmesan cheese. Repeat all layers twice more. Cover with a thick layer of pasta and sprinkle with remaining cheese.

Bake at 375º F for about 30 minutes or till golden.

Vegan Baked Noodles and Eggplant

To convert this into a vegan dish, use oil instead of butter to grease your oven dish. Slice 1-4″ thick rounds of baby zucchini and steam or sauté them in oil for a couple of minutes to soften, then use those rounds to replace the sliced egg in each layer. Replace the Parmesan cheese in the recipe with a faux-Parmesan blend made of coarsely ground raw cashews mixed with a little sea salt and nutritional yeast.


Meat and Poultry, Noodles and Dumplings

Chicken Spaghetti

This is Loretta’s Chicken Spaghetti recipe. I’d neither heard of nor eaten Chicken Spaghetti before knowing Loretta.  She brought it into the family and it stayed. Chicken Spaghetti also brought Velveeta processed cheese into focus, as it seems Chicken Spaghetti is nigh on impossible to make without it.

I no longer eat chicken or cheese or any dairy products, much less “processed cheese.” By extension, Chicken Spaghetti no longer forms part of my diet. However, the recipe does remain!

Chicken Spaghetti Ingredients

  • 1 4-lb. chicken
  • 2 boxes spaghetti
  • 1 can chicken broth plus water
  • 1/2 lb. butter
  • 1 chopped green pepper
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • Salt, pepper, paprika,
  • Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 chopped onion
  • 1 large can tomatoes
  • 1 can mushroom soup
  • 6 sliced pitted black olives
  • 1 lb. process cheese
  • 1/4 cup split almonds
  • 3 T Parmesan cheese
  • 1/4 cup chicken broth

Cook chicken. Skim fat, bone and chop the meat. Cook spaghetti in broth with extra water. Set aside. Saute green pepper, garlic, salt, pepper, paprika and onion in butter. Add to spaghetti. Add tomatoes, mushroom soup and Worcestershire. Add chicken and simmer for a few minutes.

Remove from fire and chill overnight. Place in a baking dish, layered with process cheese and olives. Top with almonds and Parmesan. Pour on extra broth and bake until hot and crusty on top

Noodles and Dumplings

Nookedly

Drop noodles

  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup water
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder

Mix all ingredients. Cut into boiling water or broth with a knife and cook until they rise to the surface. Servings: 4

Noodles and Dumplings

Potato Dumplings

Potato Dumplings are easy to make, and they can be plopped into clear soups or served smothered in savory gravies and sauces.

Dumplings in general are pieces of dough, usually small and variously shaped, sometimes filled with sweet or savory fillings, that are boiled, simmered, steamed, or fried. Dumplings are traditional in cuisines all over the world, but our family’s dumplings tend toward the heavier Eastern European styles.

  • 4 cups cold mashed potatoes
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 egg, slightly beaten

Mix ingredients together.

Form into a roll and cut into 2″ lengths. Form each piece into a ball. Drop into rapidly boiling water or broth and cook for 15 minutes.

Dumplings

Noodles and Dumplings

Houskove knedliky

Bread dumplings

  • 10 slices of white bread without crusts
  • 5 T butter
  • 4 T minced onion
  • 3/4 cup flour
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup crisp bacon, crumbled
  • 3 tbsp minced parsley
  • Salt & pepper
  • 1/8 t nutmeg

Cube bread. Brown in 4 tbsp butter. Put into a bowl. Saute onions in 1 tbsp butter. Place in bowl and add flour, bacon, parsley, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Moisten with milk. Knead to form a soft dough. Fold in cubed bread. Shape dough into 6-7″ long x 2″ wide rolls. In a 9″ pan, simmer enough salted water to cover rolls. Place rolls in water. Cover and simmer 25 mins. Turn rolls once. Drain on paper towels and slice 3/4″ thick with a string.

Eggs and Cheese, Noodles and Dumplings

Dumplings filled with cottage cheese

Bryndzove pirohy

  • 1-1/4 lb boiled potatoes
  • 1/2 lb flour
  • 1 egg
  • bacon
  • salt
  • sour cream for serving

Filling:

  • 1/2 lb cottage cheese
  • 2/3 cup grated boiled potatoes
  • chopped dill
  • 1 egg
  • salt

Pirohy: Peel the boiled potatoes, grate them and add flour, egg and salt. Make a dough, and roll it out into a thin round shape on a baking-board. Carve out the circles with form or with water glass, put on it cottage cheese filling, fold the dough over, press margins well, and boil in salted bubbling hot water. When they emerge on the surface, boil a little more and take out. Spread with fried bacon and serve with sour cream or yoghurt.

Filling: Mix cottage cheese with boiled, cooled and grated potatoes, add cut dill, egg, and a bit of sour cream. Mix well. The mixture must be quite thick.

Noodles and Dumplings

Marrow Dumplings

Velós Gombóc (Hungarian)

Recipe from Az Ìnyesmester Szakácskônyve (The Expert’s Cookbook)

  • 2 T warm bone marrow
  • 2-3 eggs
  • 1 bread roll
  • Flour and salt

Mix marrow with eggs. Add to cubed bread roll (no crust). Add a little flour and salt. Make into small dumplings and boil 8 to 10 minutes in water or broth.

Meatless Main Dishes, Noodles and Dumplings

Pesto Tortellini with Chard

Lighten up your pesto tortellini by combining it with a bed of lightly steamed Swiss chard.

  • 1 cup fresh basil leaves
  • 1/4 cup parsley
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 T toasted pine nuts
  • 2 large cloves garlic
  • Salt to taste
  • 1 T Parmesan cheese
  • 1 package fresh tortellini
  • 1 bunch Swiss chard
  • Parmesan cheese

Blend together basil, parsley, oil, 2 T Pine nuts, garlic and 1 T Parmesan to make the pesto sauce.

Chop chard slightly and steam till tender. Drain.

Cook tortellini in hot water until al dente and toss with pesto sauce.

Spread chard on plates, mound the pesto-dressed tortellini on top and sprinkle with the remaining pine nuts.

Serve with extra Parmesan on the side.

Tortellini