I got an SOS call recently from someone who was entertaining and needed a nice vegetarian recipe for one of her guests. She is a good cook herself but was stuck for something nice to make which did not feature meat. This got me thinking about how it can be easy when you are a meat eater to fall into the trap of thinking that it’s not a meal if it doesn’t involve meat…especially when you cook for a man! Vegetarian cooking can be seen as the poor relation of cooking and is often an after thought in restaurants. We eat meat in our house, but I have mentioned before how we usually have a meat free meal at least once a week. This is a new dish I made this week and thought is was really great – the tomato salsa with the anchovies give a lovely sweet and salty balance to the dumplings. The dumplings are filled with spinach and ricotta as well as eggs so there is plenty of oomph in these to fill you up.. Add the fact that you are getting a great boost of vitamins from the spinach, betacarotene and lycopene from the tomatoes & chives and a bang of protein from the eggs and cheese… Great all round and delicious too.
Dumplings
200gr baby spinach -wilted, dried and chopped well
200gr ricotta
50gr fresh grated Parmesan
50gr plain gluten free flour and more for rolling the dumplings in
2 eggs
25gr chopped chives
1 clove garlic chopped and mashed
Combine all the ingredients, season lightly and mix until a sticky dough forms
Roll tablespoons of the mix into balls and roll in the extra flour
Cook in batches in boiling water for 3-4 minutes until firm. Flip them over half way and tip them out onto parchment paper.
Melt butter in a non stick pan and cook the dumplings for 2 minutes each side until golden brown.
Serve with the Tomato Salsa and sprinkle on some extra Parmesan if wished.
Salsa
300gr mixed cherry tomatoes and small heirloom tomatoes
4 anchovy fillets chopped
25gr mint leaves chopped
1 clove garlic chopped and mashed
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
salt and pepper
Place everything in a bowl, season and toss to combine.
Set aside until you need it.
oliveoilandlemon 
That looks excellent. I am a meat eater but love to go ‘veg’ every now and then. I imagine it’s very tasty.
Best,
Conor
It really is, my other half a big meat eater and felt good and full after this!
I love the idea of these dumplings, but the salsa isn’t vegetarian (anchovies) – any recommendations for a substitute?
Somethingwith a good hit of salt will add a similar effect …salt itself (!) or feta crumbled throught it might be quite nice if you eat cheese that is.
Reblogged this on WordPress Report.