Probably, many are familiar with the feeling when you do not know what to cook for dinner for your family. Men usually prefer hearty main courses. But the first must be in the diet necessarily and on a regular basis. Therefore, you have to look for a middle ground. Delicious, hearty and nutritious soup with dough is a great alternative to main courses. The main thing is to learn how to cook them correctly.
First difficulties
After subtracting several recipes, the young housewife decides to surprise her family with a delicious dish. Usually everyone will be disappointed. Soup with dough resembles a paste, slices of dough become sour and become completely unappetizing. The broth in which they cooked quickly becomes turbid. I don’t really want to eat such a soup even in fresh form, but if it stands for several hours, it becomes a candidate for disposal by pouring it into the toilet. What can be done to make the soup with dough an excellent alternative to borsch and other favorite dishes?
Chopped Dough Soup
This is one of the simplest recipes that even a novice hostess can cook. This soup with dough is successful, and it cooks very quickly. You can cook the broth or take it ready. Alternatively, you can use vegetable broth or even milk. You will need:
- Bouillon (another base) - 2 liters.
- Flour - one and a half glasses.
- Water or milk - 1/2 cup.
Preparing the dough is very simple. To do this, mix the flour and water and knead the dough not too steep. You need to chop it quite finely with a knife and pluck it with your hands. The base is ready. Soup with dough is cooked quickly. As soon as the water boils, it can be removed from the fire. Salt and spices can be added to taste, but this dish should not be too spicy. To improve the taste, you can put in a soup or onion fried in oil, or whiten it with a glass of almond milk.
Secrets of making dumplings
There are a large number of recipes, so every housewife has a choice. The dish can be prepared from potatoes or semolina, the composition may include meat or beets. But the main components remain eggs, milk, butter and flour. In the simplest version, only three components are used, oil is excluded.
Every housewife needs to know that if in the future flour balls are served as a separate dish, then the dough needs to be started harder. It is cut into small pieces that need to be rounded. Leave them to lie down a little on the table, and then boil.
But the balls, which are designed to complement the soup, can be softer. In some cases, even batter is taken, as a pancake. It is poured into a boiling broth with a spoon. Appetizing flour products can be an original addition to a separate soup and main course. Even on their own with butter, they are very tasty.
Traditional dumplings
Each mistress has her own company recipe. Soup with dough will have its own shades of taste depending on the ingredients used. You will need the following products:
- Egg - 2 pcs.
- Strong broth - 2 tablespoons.
- Salt, water, how much dough will take.
Cooking for the first time seems difficult, but just baking the dough once or twice, and you will realize that there is nothing easier. The first step is to break the eggs into a bowl and stir lightly. Add broth and salt and start adding flour to make batter, like pancakes. Mix well and add flour to make the dough steep and smooth. It is advisable to let it stand for a while, then the dumplings will be especially tasty.
To make soup, take broth, potatoes, carrots and onions, if desired. 10 minutes before the dishes are cooked, dumplings are added. To do this, pinch off small pieces and throw them into the broth. Keep in mind that they swell a lot, so the pieces should be miniature.
How to diversify a dish
There are many options for cooking dumplings. Everyone chooses the recipe for the soup based on their family’s preferences. To diversify the taste, some housewives add chopped fresh herbs, exotic seasonings and dried herbs to the dough.
- To make the dough more tender, melted butter is added to it.
- Some use milk instead of water. In this case, the dumplings are airy.
- Flour can be mixed with semolina. In this case, the dumplings have a peculiar taste.
- To add originality to the finished dumplings, you can add turmeric or paprika to the dough.
Potato dumplings
This dish is considered to be a native of Belarusian cuisine, although with great pleasure such dumplings are cooked and eaten all over the world. Both experienced and novice housewives like to add dumplings to the soup. Unlike ordinary dumplings, potato need to be rolled up like meatballs, and after that already lowered into the broth. From this hostess double benefits. Dumplings will not fall apart and will have an attractive shape. For one serving you will need:
- Potatoes - 3 large root crops.
- Flour - 2 tablespoons.
- Chicken egg - 1 piece.
Mash the mashed potatoes and add the raw egg. Salt and add your favorite spices. Now sprinkle the flour gradually and make sure that the dough is not too thick. It is recommended to prepare all dumplings at once. To do this, wet your hands with water and quickly roll the balls. After that, they can be lowered into boiling broth. They instantly set and prepare in minutes.
Balls of dough with cheese
Dumplings are often reproached for being too dense or sticky in the center. It directly depends on the density and nature of the dough mix. It is difficult for a novice housewife to assess the nature of the prepared dough. To facilitate the task, you can add cheese to it. This provides the desired consistency of the test. On the one hand, the dumplings will be quite dense, and on the other, they will not fall apart. Of course, for the manufacture of this product it is recommended to use the hardest type of cheese, with a spicy taste. Otherwise, you simply will not feel the addition of this product.
The more cheese, the more delicious the dumplings will be. It is best to add cheese crumbs in equal proportions with flour. And if you add greens, the taste is more piquant.
Meat dumplings
If you are good at making pastry for noodle soup, then there will be no big problems with dumplings either. So, you can use them including as a second dish. That is, fry, bake, cook and cook without broth. For cooking, you need to perform the following simple steps:
- The meat must be boiled in an amount sufficient for soup.
- Grind it with half the onion. You can use a blender for this.
- In the resulting mass, add salt and pepper to taste.
- Add flour until a viscous and sticky mass is obtained.
Further cooking - according to the usual principle. Dumplings are formed by hand or with a spoon, and then are lowered into a boiling broth. They are boiled with all the ingredients until cooked.
For myself and for children
If you are tired of proving to the household that the first is very useful, then prepare the soup with the dough. The photos used in the article allow you to get a complete picture of the dish. It can be decorated with greens - and then a regular soup takes on a very aesthetic appearance. Meat dumplings can be called simple meatballs. But they are not prepared at all like that, and they differ in taste and structure.
And it’s best not to cook classics, but to bring some kind of variety. And then loved ones are guaranteed to appreciate your experiment. Some may even ask for supplements.
Lenten Dumplings
If for one reason or another you need to adhere to a diet, then a delicious and nutritious soup with mouth-watering pillows will be an excellent option for lunch. In fact, this is a modified homemade noodle. The recipe for the soup is as follows:
- Water - 150 ml.
- Wheat flour - 2 cups.
- Sunflower oil - 1 tsp.
- Salt is half a teaspoon.
- Seasonings to taste.
Thoroughly mix all the dry ingredients, add half the flour. Now, depending on the gluten content of the flour, gradually add the rest of the water and oil. The dough should be elastic. Divide it into four parts, from each form sausages and cut them slightly obliquely. Run the dumplings into the broth so that it covers them. Wait for boiling - and you can remove the pan from the heat. The dish turns out fragrant, satisfying and very tasty. To him, and bread is not needed.
Instead of a conclusion
Many housewives are faced with the fact that it is sometimes easier to cook a delicious second dish than to cook a good soup. There is nothing easier. Use one of the recipes above - and your loved ones will be asked to repeat the soup many, many times. Dumplings go well with milk soups for breakfast. Feel free to supplement them with vegetable and meat soups, the latter will benefit from this.