A creamy comforting turkey stew loaded with veggies and fluffy pillow-like Hungarian soup dumplings. Perfect for turkey leftovers!
So you have some leftover turkey you say? You can't face another turkey sandwich you say? Well… you've come to the right place, my friend.
May I introduce you to my new favorite holiday tradition; creamy herby turkey stew with dumplings.
I am fairly certain you will adore this new tradition and perhaps even adopt it in your own household. Save some turkey (not a hard challenge in my family considering my mom bought a 22 lb. turkey for 6 people!), grab your favorite big soup pot, and let's get cooking!
INGREDIENTS NEEDED TO MAKE THIS RECIPE
- Veggies – carrot, celery, onion, mushrooms
- Turkey – chicken will also work
- Stock – bone broth, chicken stock, or if you have turkey stock from your bird even better!
- Sour Cream – I'm Hungarian, using sour cream as a soup thickener is in my DNA
- Flour, Eggs, Milk – For the soup dumplings
- Fresh Herbs – thyme and rosemary
TOOLS YOU WILL USE
- Cutting Board
- Knife
- Soup Pot
HOW TO MAKE HUNGARIAN SOUP DUMPLINGS
Let me start by saying this is a family recipe and my mom isn't a fan of my sharing family recipes on here. When I called mom for the ratio I casually mentioned swapping out the white flour for something else and the regular milk for oat milk and she said, “Oh god Abra! If you are going to ruin the recipe then don't even bother.” 😉
Being this is the inaugural official family recipe on the blog I decided to go with the original white flour and milk recipe, with the addition of fresh herbs (which were approved).
I do have plans to play with this recipe and see how it works with alternative ingredients for my readers who are dairy/gluten-free, but for today you are getting the original authentic recipe.
Let's go.
- Start by creating the dough. Whisk together 4 eggs, 1 cup milk. Add 3 cups flour, salt, and baking powder. Stir together with a wooden spoon. It will be very thick and sticky. Stir in fresh thyme.
- Set a large pot of salted water to boil. NOTE: you can either boil the dumplings directly in the soup or boil separately in water. Instructions to boil in water are here, instructions to boil inside the soup are found below in the recipe card.
- Dip two teaspoons in oil (I used avocado oil), and spoon out a small amount of dough – using the two spoons to form a ball (about 1/2 the size of a golf ball), drop the ball of dough into the boiling water.
- Allow dumplings to boil, once they rise to the top allow to boil for 3-5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and place on a plate.
- Taste the dumplings, if they are not yet done in the middle add them back to the pot. Depending on how big you make your dumplings will alter the cooking time.
- NOTE: Ideally the dumplings should not be as large as they are in the below photo. The dumplings expand to about 4x size.
TURKEY DUMPLING STEW RECIPE TIPS
- This is essentially a “leftovers” soup, so use the veggies you have around. We always have leftover veggies from the holidays, carrots, celery, mushrooms – so that is what I used here. You can add bell peppers, fennel, or anything else that sounds good to you!
- Saute the veggies with fresh herbs to eek out all the herby flavor you can right from the beginning.
- Thicken the stew with sour cream (the Hungarian way) – In a small bowl whisk sour cream with flour, add a spoonful of hot broth from the soup and pour the slurry into the soup cooking for several minutes.
STORING AND REHEATING
- Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator for 4-5 days.
- Reheat in a large pot on the stovetop.
DIETARY MODIFICATIONS FOR THIS RECIPE
I have not tested any variations for this recipe. If you do leave a comment below and let me know how it went!
I can’t wait for you to try this Creamy Turkey Dumpling Stew! When you make it, snap a photo and tag me on Instagram @abrapappa or use the hashtag #abraskitchen so I can feature your photo!
If you’ve tried this recipe, don’t forget to rate and leave a comment below. I love to hear from people who’ve made my recipes!
Turkey Dumpling Stew
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 2 large carrots, chopped
- 8 ounces cremini mushrooms, quartered (1 package, about 2 cups quartered)
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 2 sprigs chopped fresh thyme
- 6 cups organic chicken stock or turkey stock or bone broth
- 3 cups cooked shredded turkey
- 3/4 cup sour cream
- 2 tbsp flour
Hungarian Soup Dumplings
- 1.5 cups flour
- 3 large eggs
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
Instructions
- In a large soup pot over medium-high heat melt butter, add onion, celery, carrot and fresh herbs to pot and cook for 5 minutes until veggies begin to soften. Add a pinch of salt, stir well.
- Add mushrooms to pot and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes.
- Add stock and turkey, stir well. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer.
- Meanwhile: make the soup dumplings. In a small bowl whisk together eggs and milk, in a larger bowl whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder. Add eggs/milk to flour mixture and stir well with a wooden spoon, add fresh thyme and stir. Mixutre will be quite thick and sticky.Increase temperature of soup and bring to a boil. Dip two teaspoons into oil and form a small (1/2 the size of a golfball) ball of dough, drop directly into the soup. Repeat with the remaining dough. The dumplings are done when they have floated to the top and cooked for 3-5 minutes.
- Ladle 1 cup of liquid from the soup into a large bowl, add sour cream and 3 tbsp flour, whisk until creamy and no lumps remain. Pour contents into soup pot and stir well to incorporate. Cook for an additional 3-5 minutes to help the soup thicken.
- Taste to adjust seasoning (add additional salt and pepper if needed).
Notes
Nutrition
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