Tomato Dumpling Soup -- 40 minutes -- Serves 3

Last night I came home sick from a training that I have been working for four months on having St. ECWIW's (Episcopal Church Where I Work) host. I felt tired, yucky, and hungry. I remembered that we had some pureed tomatoes in the cupboard, and suddenly had a craving for something I've never even heard of before - Tomato Dumpling Soup.

I scanned a couple of cookbooks and found that there is a traditional Italian recipe for Tomato Bread Soup that is simple, but calls for blending the soup when it is finished cooking. While this didn't appeal to me, it at least gave me validation that bread in Tomato Soup would work. Other recipes gave the familiar Tomato Cream soup that I grew up with (a la Campbell's), but also weren't what I was looking for.

As usual, I decided to make up my own recipe in the end.

I also thought about using biscuit dough for a quick resource for the dumplings, so I Googled "Biscuit Dough Dumplings" and found that MANY folks have discovered this to be a great dumpling dough. Of course the suggestion of using canned biscuit dough from the supermarket was out, but I did have some Pamela's GF Pancake and Baking mix in the cupboard (basically a GF version of Bisquick - but WAY healthier, gluten free, and considerably tastier), so having been validated in my search, I looked up the Pamela's recipe for biscuits, and dove in (I was sick, so I didn't make the dough from scratch - but having tried them this way, I may take this shortcut again even when I'm well!).

This post is mostly about the soup itself, but I will add one note about dumpling prep before I get to the soup -- Since biscuits aren't supposed to sit before baking, I cut in the butter and then refrigerated, only adding the Almond Milk just before dropping them into the soup. (I will include the link to Pamela's Biscuits below, or you can use your own favorite recipe).

This makes a hearty, spicy, thick, and delicious soup - we will definitely be having this again! (Fuego and I devoured this in one sitting, but one batch of soup and 9 dumplings would have easily provided enough for three or even four smaller bowls).

25 oz. Tomato Puree (fresh or canned)

1/2 C Red Wine (I used Pinot Noir, but Zinfandel would also work)

2T Balsamic Vinegar

2T Butter

2T Olive Oil

1t Minced Garlic

1T Onion Powder

1/8 t White Pepper

1t Salt

1/4 t Cayenne Pepper

1 t Basil

1/2-3/4 C Almond Milk

Combine (in order listed) all ingredients in a 3 quart pot over medium heat. Reduce heat and simmer once soup comes to a boil.

Drop in biscuit dough - rounded tablespoons-full provided nine dumplings - cover pot, and simmer for 20 minutes over low heat. Flip dumplings carefully with a spoon, cover again, and simmer for 10 more minutes.

**Cooks Note: Since you can't stir the soup once you've dropped in the dumplings, you may want to avoid scraping the bottom of the pot when serving, just to avoid the possibility of scraping up anything that may have adhered to the bottom of the pot and burned. To avoid this, use as low a heat as possible to keep the soup simmering.

Here's Pamela's Biscuit recipe by the way.