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Home » Recipes » Side Dishes

Vegan Bread Dumplings

Published: Dec 3, 2019 · Modified: Jun 13, 2021 by Bianca · This post may contain affiliate links · 11 Comments

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Vegan Bread Dumplings

Bread Dumplings are traditional Austrian dumplings made with dried bread cubes. Traditionally, old, stale bread was used. These dumplings are often served with goulash or other creamy stews or sauces.

Vegan Bread Dumplings

Bread Dumplings, in german Semmelknödel, are a typically Austrian/Bavarian food. They are often used as a side dish with stews, goulash or eaten with other kinds of saucy dishes.

I love to make them especially for festive events like Thanksgiving or Christmas. They are also a very suitable side dish for seitan roasts!

Traditionally, they were made out of old, stale white bread, but nowadays store-bought dried bread cubes are usually used for these dumplings. Bread Dumplings are such a comfort dish. I know, they are not the prettiest, but they are damn tasty! 

How to make Bread Dumplings

The ingredients

You will need:

  • dried bread cubes (or stale white bread, cubed)
  • unsweetened plant-based milk
  • oil
  • onion
  • garlic
  • caraway seeds seeds
  • parsley
  • salt

The basic steps

onions in pan

Step 1: Cook onion and garlic until soft. Add the whole caraway seeds.

bread cubes, onions, and parsley for bread dumplings

Step 2: Pour the plant-based milk over the bread cubes. Let them soak. Then add the onion-garlic-mixture, parsley, and salt.

forming bread dumplings

Step 3: Use your beautiful hands to form the dumplings. Try not to press too much, but enough so that they stay in their shape. I've got 8 dumplings.

steaming bread dumplings

Step 4: Place the dumplings into a steamer or steaming basket (whatever you have). Let them steam for about 15-20 minutes. If you've made larger dumplings, give them more time in the steamer.

Tip: I've had the best results with steaming the bread dumplings. Many people boil them, but steaming is really the easiest method because you can't really overcook them and they're not that soggy afterward.

steaming bread dumplings

Step 5: This is what it looks like when the dumplings are done. They are soft to the touch. The parsley lost its color.

Vegan Bread Dumplings

Usually, I make these bread dumplings as a side dish for goulash, but this time I've made a simple lentil stew. (After learning about the health benefits of lentils, I'm trying to incorporate them more often into my diet. Hahaha! But more about that in future blog posts!)

Vegan Bread Dumplings

Serve these bread dumplings with...

  • Vegan Goulash with Homemade Sausages
  • Pumpkin Goulash with Bread Dumplings
  • Vegan Goulash with Smoked Tofu and Potatoes

Love it? Rate it!

I hope you’ll enjoy these dumplings as much as I do! Let me know if you give this recipe a try! I’d love to hear how it turns out for you.

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Cheers, Bianca

Vegan Bread Dumplings

Vegan Bread Dumplings

Elephantastic Vegan
Bread Dumplings are traditional Austrian dumplings made with dried bread cubes. Traditionally, old, stale bread was used. These dumplings are often served with goulash or other creamy stews or sauces.
5 from 3 votes
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 30 minutes mins
Cook Time 20 minutes mins
Total Time 50 minutes mins
Course Main Course, Side Dish
Cuisine Austrian, Vegan
Servings 8 dumplings
Calories 140 kcal

Ingredients
 
 

  • 6 cups dried bread cubes or stale white bread (cubed)
  • 1 ¼ cups rice milk unsweetened
  • 1 teaspoon canola oil
  • 1 large yellow onion diced
  • 3 garlic cloves minced
  • 2 teaspoons caraway seeds
  • 2 tablespoons parsley chopped
  • ½ teaspoon salt

Instructions
 

  • Prepare your steamer. I heated a big pot of water with a steamer on top.
  • In a large mixing bowl, add the dried bread cubes / cubed white bread and pour over the plant-based milk. Mix. Let it sit for about 5-10 minutes. The bread cubes should get softer.
  • Meanwhile, heat the canola oil in a pan and add the chopped onion, garlic, and caraway seeds. Cook until the onions are soft.
  • Then transfer the onion-garlic-mixture to the bread cubes, add the salt, chopped parsley, and mix well. Let it cool off for a couple of minutes until cold enough to handle.
  • Form bread dumplings with your hands. (Add more rice milk or if it doesn't stick together.)
  • Place the dumplings into the steamer and let them steam for about 15-20 minutes. They will take longer if you're making larger dumplings.
  • Take them out and enjoy them for example with Homemade Pumpkin Goulash!

Nutrition

Calories: 140kcalCarbohydrates: 25gProtein: 5gFat: 2gSaturated Fat: 1gSodium: 525mgPotassium: 95mgFiber: 2gSugar: 4gVitamin A: 91IUVitamin C: 2mgCalcium: 70mgIron: 2mg
Tried this recipe?Mention @elephantasticvegan or tag #elephantasticvegan!
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Comments

    5 from 3 votes (2 ratings without comment)

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  1. Eva says

    October 08, 2015 at 4:28 pm

    I will definitely be making this next week. I grew up with Hungarian food, so I'm excited to show my mom that I can still make similar things with a vegan touch!

    Reply
    • Bianca says

      October 08, 2015 at 5:28 pm

      Great to hear that! I hope you'll like them and let me know how they work out for you :)

      Reply
  2. CZ says

    February 05, 2016 at 3:00 am

    Do you have a recipe for that mushroom cream sauce? The combination of the two is striking!

    Reply
    • Bianca says

      February 06, 2016 at 4:25 pm

      It's really easy if you have access to Alpro Cuisine (which is an unsweetened soy cream used for cooking). I simply pan-fry the mushroom slices (you'll only need a drop of oil in a non-stick pan) until they've lost most of their water, then reduce the heat and add the soy cream (unsweetened). Give it a mix, add parsley and salt to taste and heat until warm and until sauce gets a bit thicker. That's all :)

      Reply
      • CZ says

        February 06, 2016 at 4:35 pm

        Thank you!! I'll look for Alpro or something similar to what you described. Appreciate the quick response :)

        Reply
  3. Ally says

    November 22, 2016 at 1:43 am

    I learned to make German bread dumpling from my mom who learned how to make them from her German neighbors. I just break up bread and allow it time to dry out. I pour some milk butter in a pan and when it
    starts to boil pour it over the bread and put a dish towel over the bowl of bread for twenty minutes or so.
    They add an egg per loaf of bread and mix with hands. Then put butter on your hands and put flour on the bread and knead. Keep adding butter to your hands if needed as well as more flour if needed. When it starts to stick together
    Make hard balls. You can make them a day ahead, but refrigerate or freeze for later cooked or uncooked. Boil for 20 minutes. Eat. Our family loves them. I had some at a german place in Vegas and they tasted like ours. Great with a beef roast, pork roast, or turkey or pork chops. Love it with turkey or beef gravy. I make 4 per person in our family. Even my adopted grandchildren ask for them.

    Reply
  4. Catherine says

    December 08, 2017 at 2:58 pm

    I made these last night. I used wholemeal bread as it was all I had, and coriander leaf instead of parsley, While they were steaming I made a quick tomato, red onion and mushroom sauce (1 red onion, a can of chopped tomatoes and about 300g of sliced mushrooms, plus 1 sliced red chilli) and they turned out really well. I'll definitely be making these again!

    Reply
    • Bianca says

      December 09, 2017 at 5:03 pm

      Sounds absolutely delicious, Catherine! I'm so glad you liked them! Thank you for the wonderful review!

      Reply
  5. Nuno Dias says

    March 17, 2019 at 7:16 am

    "250 g dried bread cubes or old white bread cubed"

    Do you think whole grain rye crispbread would work? Can't turn it into cubes, but I can break it into small pieces.

    "1 teaspoon cumin"

    Cumin isn't mentioned in the instructions. Should cumin seeds or ground cumin be used?

    Also, you should fix this:

    "Take them out and enjoy them for example with a Homemade Pumpkin Goulash!"

    Reply
    • Nuno Dias says

      March 17, 2019 at 7:22 am

      Oh, about the...

      "Also, you should fix this:

      “Take them out and enjoy them for example with a Homemade Pumpkin Goulash!”"

      Well, turns out it comes out properly in the comment section, but check the instructions and you'll see that the code is visible there.

      Reply
      • Bianca says

        March 25, 2019 at 8:53 am

        Thank you so much, Nuno!
        I don't think crispbread would work, because it doesn't allow the moisture to soak in and when it does, it will turn to mush. At least this is my guess. I haven't tried them with crispbread yet.

        Reply

Welcome!

I’m Bianca. On my blog, you’ll find easy & delicious vegan recipes. I create 'meaty', 'fishy', and 'cheesy' recipes because I like to blow minds.

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