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.
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
Step 1: Cook onion and garlic until soft. Add the whole caraway seeds.
Step 2: Pour the plant-based milk over the bread cubes. Let them soak. Then add the onion-garlic-mixture, parsley, and salt.
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.
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.
Step 5: This is what it looks like when the dumplings are done. They are soft to the touch. The parsley lost its color.
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!)
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
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!
Eva says
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!
Bianca says
Great to hear that! I hope you'll like them and let me know how they work out for you :)
CZ says
Do you have a recipe for that mushroom cream sauce? The combination of the two is striking!
Bianca says
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 :)
CZ says
Thank you!! I'll look for Alpro or something similar to what you described. Appreciate the quick response :)
Ally says
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.
Catherine says
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!
Bianca says
Sounds absolutely delicious, Catherine! I'm so glad you liked them! Thank you for the wonderful review!
Nuno Dias says
"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!"
Nuno Dias says
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.
Bianca says
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.