A favorite in our house, and I think only common in Northwestern Kansas, is green bean dumpling soup. It's been a popular soup in the area for over a century! Yesterday, I made green bean dumpling soup for my family. It was kind of cold in Hays (shocking! I know!) and I really wanted to make them soup and cinnamon rolls. I asked my sister which sounded better: hamburger soup or green bean dumpling soup! There was no hesitation when she chose green bean dumpling soup! Here's what you'll need to make green bean dumpling soup:
Ingredients
2 quarts, water or chicken stock (I just add some boullion cubes to my water!)
4 cups, peeled and diced white potatoes
1/4 cup, butter
3-4 cans, cut green beans
1 small yellow onion
1 tablespoon, cornstarch
1 pkg, traditional bacon
1 quart, heavy whipping cream
salt and pepper to taste
and of course, you're favorite way to make dumplings!
Instructions:
1. Fill a stock pot with 2 quarts water or chicken stock and dump your potatoes into the pot. Turn to medium / medium high heat. Add some salt to taste at this point (I put in like a tablespoon!)
2. Turn oven to 375 degrees. Lay out your bacon on aluminum foil pan and throw in oven. Cook until completed --about 15-20 minutes. I'd also recommend cooking the bacon beforehand!
3. While pot is beginning to boil and bacon is cooking, put butter in a saute pan and turn to medium heat. Chop and dice yellow onion. Once butter has melted, put your onions in the pan and begin to saute, add salt at this time. Once they are translucent, remove from heat and mix in 1 tablespoon of cornstarch--it's okay if the buttery onions do not absorb all the cornstarch.
4. Potatoes should be boiling by now. If they are not, turn the heat up more! Mix up your dumpling recipe and drop them into the boiling water of the potatoes. Once they have cooked, you can choose at this point to take out some of the water to make your soup a little thicker. I always do this and I ALWAYS take out exactly one cup of water!
5. Open green beans and drain water. Add to pot.
6. Add onions to pot.
7. Bacon should be done by now. Crumble bacon and add to pot.
8. Pour in entire container of heavy whipping cream. Stir everything together. Add A TON of fresh ground pepper. Really. Load it up. Add salt to taste, although it probably won't need much.
Voila! You have made the famous (or only famous in Volga German towns in Kansas) green bean dumpling soup! You can also dice up ham and throw it in instead of bacon--but I've never ever tried it that way!
