veggies and dumplings over garlic potato/cauliflower mash

total comfort food.....

garlic potato cauliflower mash ingredients:

a head of cauliflower 

any combination of potatoes (roughly equal to the amount of cauliflower)

(you can see in the photo below that i used a handful of white potatoes and i got a little bag of tiny multi colored potatoes that i just threw in whole)  i left the skin on all of them. 

2-4 cloves of garlic

vegetable broth

how to:

boil vegetables in broth until tender.  drain off most of the liquid, reserving some for mashing.  mash by hand or briefly with an electric  hand mixer. add salt and pepper to taste.  add more of the reserved liquid or a little unsweetened almond milk if you need more liquid during mashing. 

dumpling ingredients:

1/4 cup oil (i used olive and grapeseed)

1 cup unsweetened almond milk

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

how to:

combine all to form a dough. set aside for use in vegetables below.  

vegetables in savory broth ingredients:

 12-16 cups of vegetable broth 

(i used a combination of Better Than Bullion mushroom base and no chicken base....4-5 tablespoons to 12 cups of water)

vegetables of choice

carrots, celery, broccoli, peas, corn, green beans, lima beans, okra, squash, greens...frozen, canned, fresh.  as always, whatever appeals to you or what you have handy....as much as you like, just make sure you have enough broth to accommodate the dumplings)

a couple of dried bay leaves and black pepper to taste

how to:

bring broth to a boil in a large pot.  add vegetables, making sure to give the ones that require longer cooking time a head start. add bay leaves and pepper. once vegetables are nearly cooked and broth is rapidly boiling, begin dropping dumpling dough into pot by small spoonfuls.  place lid on and reduce heat slightly, maintaining a soft boil.  leave lid on and allow steam to do its magic on the dumpling for about 15-20 minute.  it's important to make sure you have plenty of liquid in your pot for this.  if you need to add more, do it before you start putting the dumplings in and make sure it is back up to a rolling boil.

ladle this yummy goodness over a bowl of the cauliflower mash . 

a couple of notes:

i doubled the dumpling recipe for my family of 6 and used most of the dough.  the amount of vegetable broth listed was enough to accomodate that amount of dumplings and still leave plenty of sauce.