A delicious plant-based twist on a classic stew, this vegetarian and vegan chicken and dumplings soup is a cozy, dairy-free recipe with wholesome ingredients. It’s made without milk, subbing soy milk in its place, and uses chickpeas instead of chicken. The final result is still so creamy and protein-packed, you will barely notice the difference!
Ah, soup season. It’s here! I’m kicking it off with a heart-healthy version of the ultimate comfort food. This new recipe is a totally drool-worthy vegan chicken and dumplings that measures pretty darn high on the cozy scale.
Even with zero animal foods, it’s still packed with protein from soy milk, chickpeas, and peas. There are plenty of vegetables (of course!), carbohydrates, and fiber too, making it a complete and filling meal.
I’m excited to hear what you think of this recipe, so be sure to leave a comment and let me know. And if it has you craving more creamy yet healthy dishes for the fall and winter, check out the Mini Vegetarian Pot Pies and Healthy Tater Tot Casserole with Veggies!
Jump to:
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Extra virgin olive oil: You’ll need this for cooking the veggies for the soup and for adding some fat to the dumpling dough. Sub avocado oil or vegan butter if needed (regular butter is good too if you don’t need it to be vegan).
- Mirepoix: The ideal soup base, this is a mix of diced carrots, onion, and celery. You can use fresh or frozen veggies here. Any kind of onion (white, yellow, red) works, depending on what you have on hand.
- Poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper: Using poultry seasoning is ideal when making vegan chicken and dumplings so that it develops similar flavors to the original dish. If you don’t have poultry seasoning, you can create a makeshift version with dried sage, thyme, marjoram, parsley, and/or rosemary. Some versions have a pinch of nutmeg too.
- Garlic: I prefer to use fresh garlic in the soup and garlic powder in the dumplings, but you can use all garlic powder if that’s what you have (sub 1 teaspoon for the 3 cloves of fresh garlic).
- Flour: I use all purpose flour for both coating the veggies to thicken the soup and for making the dumplings. I have not tried it with a gluten-free option, but I suspect that a 1:1 gluten-free all purpose flour would work well. Let me (and other readers) know if you try it!
- Vegetable broth: Sub chicken broth if that’s what you have and you don’t need the recipe to be vegan or vegetarian.
- Soy milk: You can use any plant-based milk that you enjoy for this dish, but I prefer soy milk. It’s higher in protein than other options and it lends a good creaminess to the soup. Look for an unsweetened version and ideally one that is made with just soy beans and water. I really like Eden Organic Soymilk. Oat milk would provide good creaminess too, but it’s not as high in protein. If you don’t need the recipe to be vegan, you can use cow’s milk.
- Chickpeas: Feel free to swap in white beans or another bean of choice.
- Frozen peas: You can also use a pea, carrot, and corn blend (and skip the carrots in the mirepoix).
- Parsley: I love fresh parsley, but you can use thyme or rosemary as a garnish too.
Instructions
The full recipe card for vegan chicken and dumplings is at the bottom of the post. Here’s a preview of the steps with photos to guide you.
Chop the veggies and gather the ingredients.
Cook the veggies in olive oil until slightly softened. Stir in the poultry seasoning, salt, pepper, and garlic, and cook for a few minutes. Then, stir in the flour until the veggies are coated.
In the meantime, combine the ingredients for the homemade vegan dumplings. The dough will be sticky.
Slowly pour soy milk into the pot, stirring as you go, until it thickens.
Add the broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for 5 minutes before adding the chickpeas and peas. Then, drop the dumplings into the pot in about 1.5-teaspoon portions.
Keep the heat at a level to maintain a gentle simmer. Cover the pot and cook, undisturbed, for 10 to 15 minutes until the dumplings are cooked through. Gently stir in the parsley.
Storage and Reheating
Store vegetarian no chicken and dumplings in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days. Reheat on the stove over medium heat, stirring frequently to prevent scorching, or in the microwave in intervals until warmed through. You can technically freeze this recipe, but I don’t usually recommend it because the dumplings won’t reheat well and will change the texture of the dish to mushy or soggy.
More Soup Recipes
Love vegan chicken and dumplings? Check out these other soups while you’re here!
📖 Recipe
Vegan “Chicken” and Dumplings
Ingredients
For the soup
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion - diced, about 1.5 cups
- 2 medium carrots - peeled, trimmed, and diced, about 1 cup
- 2 ribs celery - diced, about 1 cup
- 3 cloves garlic - minced, or sub 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1.5 teaspoons poultry seasoning
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 1 cup unsweetened soy milk
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 15.5 ounce chickpeas - drained and rinsed
- 1.5 cups frozen peas
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
For the dumplings
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1.5 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup unsweetened soy milk
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Warm olive oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the diced onion, carrots, and celery, and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened.
- Stir in the garlic, poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper. Cook for a couple minutes until fragrant. Sprinkle in the 3 tablespoons of flour and stir to coat the veggies.
- Slowly pour in the 1 cup of soy milk, stirring as you pour. The coating on the veggies should now be thick and creamy.
- Pour the vegetable broth into the pot, stirring well. Increase heat to bring to a boil, cover, then reduce heat to maintain a simmer. Cook for 5 minutes.
- While the veggies are cooking, make the dumpling dough. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, garlic powder, and salt. Pour in the soy milk and olive oil. Stir with a rubber spatula until combined. The dough should be sticky.
- Fill a bowl with water. Place the bowl with the dumpling dough and the bowl with water next to the pot of soup.
- After the veggies have cooked 5 minutes, uncover the soup. Add the chickpeas and frozen peas. Then, begin to drop the dumplings into the pot. To do this, dip a spoon in the water bowl, then use the spoon to scoop out about 1.5 teaspoons of dough. Dip your fingers in the water and use them to roughly shape the dough into a ball as you slide it into the pot. Repeat until all of the dough has been separated into dumplings and spooned into the pot. Dip your spoon and your fingers in the water as needed during the process (it's so helpful to prevent sticky fingers). You will get about 20 to 22 dumplings. They should be floating on top of the pot. They will also expand while they cook, so 1.5 teaspoons of dough may not seem like enough, but the dumplings will get much bigger.
- Make sure the heat is adjusted to maintain a simmer, then cover the pot and cook undisturbed for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, gently stir the soup and stir in the chopped parsley. Test a dumpling for doneness by cutting it open to see if it's cooked through inside or by inserting a toothpick in the center to see if it comes out clean. If they need a little more time, cover the pot again and cook for 5 more minutes. Taste, and adjust seasonings as desired.
- Ladle the soup into bowls, scooping out about 5 dumplings per serving. Enjoy!
- Leave a rating or review by tapping the stars on this recipe card (above) or in the comments section (at the end of the post)!
Notes
- Shortcut option: Use refrigerated biscuits cut into quarters instead of making homemade dumplings. Just make sure they are vegan if you want them to be.
- Storage: Leftovers will keep well in an airtight container in the fridge for 2 to 3 days. Reheat on the stove in a pot over medium heat, stirring occasionally, or in the microwave in intervals.
- Poultry seasoning sub: I like to use poultry seasoning to get the flavors to be similar to chicken and dumplings, but you can make a homemade blend if you don’t have it on hand. Combine ½ teaspoon each dried sage and thyme and ¼ teaspoon each dried parsley, rosemary, and marjoram. Add a pinch of nutmeg if desired.
Sue
The flavors are very nice, unfortunately my dumplings did not rise although were edible. I added a peeled zucchini just because I needed to use it up and some sliced brown mushrooms which worked well in the mix.
Lizzie Streit, MS, RDN
Hi Sue, thanks for your comment! What exactly do you mean by the dumplings not rising? Did they not rise to the top of the pot when you dropped them into it?