Thanksgiving is this week, and I’m not 100% sure how that happened. For all of us who didn’t see it sneak up on them, I made this perfect, amazing stew. This vegan Thanksgiving stew with cranberry cornbread dumplings is addictive. The best idea for a small Thanksgiving or to use up your leftovers. The stew tastes like green bean casserole with hints of stuffing and pretty much everything good about Thanksgiving. It is topped with fluffy, tender and delicious cornbread dumplings that are studded with cranberries.
What You Need For This Festive Stew:
- Olive Oil: To sauté the veggies.
- Garlic, Celery, Carrots, Leeks, Green Beans and Mushrooms: These are the veggies that go into the stew and created a spot on Thanksgiving flavor.
- Poultry Seasoning: This usually has nutmeg, thyme, rosemary, marjoram and pepper.
- Cashews and Non-dairy Milk: Blended together these make the best cream replacement.
- Vegetable Broth: Broth mixed with the cashew cream make the liquid for the stew.
- Flour, Cornmeal, Baking Powder, Salt and Sugar: These make up the dry ingredients for the dumplings.
- Non-dairy Milk and Melted Vegan Butter: These make up the wet ingredients for the dumplings.
- Cranberries: I like to use fresh cranberries. They burst while they cook and it is so good. But, they are pretty tart, so you can use dried cranberries if you prefer a sweeter taste to your cornbread.
This vegan Thanksgiving stew is a little more time consuming than most of my recipes. But, much of that time is not active. You just need to let it simmer for about 30 minutes, but I just take a seat and relax while this stew makes my whole house smell incredible. You just mix together the simple dumpling batter. Then sauté the veggies, add the liquid and then drop dollops of dumpling batter on top. Then cover and wait for the most delicious things ever!
Why Should You Make This Stew?
- Its taste and smell are out of control amazing.
- It is so simple and really cozy.
- The cranberry cornbread dumplings are the absolute best!
- The stew is so creamy with no cream!
- It is great for those of us who are having a few people over or riding solo for Thanksgiving or to use up some leftovers.
Vegan Thanksgiving Stew and Dumplings
This creamy festive fall stew tastes like green bean casserole and is topped with cranberry cornbread dumplings.
Ingredients
For The Stew
- 1 Cup Raw cashews, soaked*
- 1 Cup Non-dairy milk, unsweetened I used oat milk
- 2 Tablespoons Olive oil
- 4 Cloves Garlic, chopped
- 1 Leek, chopped
- 2 Stalks Celery, diced
- 2 Large Carrots, chopped
- 20 Ounes Baby bella mushrooms, chopped
- 1/2 Pound(8oz.) Fresh green beans or haricot vert
- 1 1/2 teaspoon Poultry seasoning (usually contains Thyme, Sage, Rosemary and Nutmeg)
- 4 Cups Vegetable broth
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Cranberry Cornbread Dumplings
- 1 1/2 Cups All purpose flour
- 1/2 Cup Cornmeal
- 2 teaspoons Baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 2 Tablespoons Sugar
- 1 Cup Non-dairy milk
- 3 Tablespoons Vegan butter, melted
- 1 Cup Fresh cranberries, halved
Instructions
- First make some cashew cream. Drain the cashews you soaked and then add them to a blender. Then pour the non-dairy milk into the blender a long with a pinch of salt and pepper. Blend, scraping down the sides as needed until it is completely smooth. Set aside.
- Now, make the dumpling batter. Whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar and salt.
- Pour in the non-dairy milk and melted butter. Stir to fully combine all the dry ingredients with the wet.
- Now, fold in the cranberries. Set aside.
- Now, heat the olive in a large soup pot on medium high.
- Add the garlic, leeks, celery and carrots. Sauté, reducing heat as needed until they start to soften a bit. About 2-3 minutes. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper.
- Then add the mushrooms and sauté for 4-5 minutes or until they release their liquid and they start to brown a little.
- Add the green beans and another pinch of salt and pepper. Continue to sauté the veggies for 1-2 minutes.
- Sprinkle the poultry seasoning onto the veggies and toss to coat.
- Then pour in the vegetable broth and the cashew cream you made. Along with another pinch of salt and pepper. Stir to combine everything.
- Bring to a very low simmer, you want to keep it very low or the cashew cream will get super bubbly and frothy. If that happens it's really okay, the frothiness will go down as it cools.
- Once you have it at a low simmer drop about 1/4 cup dollops of the dumpling batter all over the top of the stew, they may look like they are sinking a bit, don't worry , they will fluff up and be on top.
- Cover the pot and simmer for 30-35 minutes or until the dumplings are fluffy and cooked through.
- Serve some stew with a dumpling on top.
Notes
*Soak the cashews in room temperature water for 8 hours or over night or simmer in boiling water for about 20 minutes.
Nutrition
Calories: 462kcal | Carbohydrates: 60g | Protein: 11g | Fat: 21g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 11g | Trans Fat: 1g | Sodium: 940mg | Potassium: 605mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 14g | Vitamin A: 5165IU | Vitamin C: 9mg | Calcium: 212mg | Iron: 4mg
I made this for our Thanksgiving dinner and served it in half of a roasted acorn squash. It was so hearty, healthy and festive all at the same time. (I didn’t have cranberries so I reduced the sugar to 1T in the dumpling recipe, but otherwise followed the recipe. I think the cranberries would be great, though, so will be sure to have them on hand next time..) The house smelled like stuffing and the stew is delicious. This may become a new tradition at our house, so thank you for a great recipe!
Made this two nights ago, so good as usual lol…. Can’t thank you enough for making our Vegan life tasty and delicious 😋