Gluten-Free Dumplings (for stew)

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Serving these Gluten-Free Dumplings with your soup or stew will give you so many cosy vibes. This is good old fashioned comfort food at its best. Fluffy and light, these herby dumplings are absolutely delicious cooked in your favourite heart-warming casserole.

What are dumplings?

Dumplings are a catch-all term for dough with or without a filling. These traditional boiled dumplings don’t have a filling and are usually cooked in a stew or soup. 

Why you’ll love this Gluten-Free Dumpling recipe

• The dumplings are incredibly easy to make and take 10 minutes to prepare and 30 minutes to cook.
• They are light and fluffy and won’t weigh down your meal.
• They have a lovely gentle neutral taste with a little bit of bite from mustard powder and freshness from the herby parsley.
• This recipe can be adapted by swapping in a variety of alternative flours to flavour match the meal you are serving them with. 
• You can cook them in any of your favourite soups or stews. They work particularly well with this Gluten-Free Chicken Casserole

What are dumplings made from?

These kinds of old fashioned boiled dumplings are usually made from:

• Flour.
• Fat. Usually suet but here we are substituting it for lard.
• Liquid to bind the ingredients. We use milk here.
• Seasoning.

In this recipe we are also adding:

• English mustard powder. For depth of flavour
• Parsley. For herby freshness.

What is the best flour to use for Gluten-Free Dumplings?

Like most gluten-free recipes dumplings benefit from a blend of flours. Here we use three gluten-free flours in our blend to give our dumplings great body, texture and taste.

1. Sweet Rice Flour. Sometimes called glutinous rice flour for its very sticky properties. This flour helps to bind our dumplings together and give them a lovely bounce and lightness.
2. Tapioca Flour. Too much sweet rice flour can make our dumplings a bit stodgy so we balance it out with tapioca flour which is also excellent for binding ingredients.
3. White Rice Flour. This gives a delicate neutral flavour base which will compliment any stew, soup or casserole. It has a full-bodied texture and gives fluffiness to our dumplings.

Flour Substitutions

The sweet rice flour and tapioca flour cannot be substituted. However, you can swap in a number of different flours for the white rice flour depending on what you would like to serve your dumplings with. 

• Cassava Flour. A lovely neutral taste that is a great alternative to the white rice flour.
• Buckwheat Flour. This flour will give your dumplings a great earthy texture which is delicious in a stew with more robust meat like beef.
• Teff Flour. A beautifully light flour which is rich in flavour and works exceedingly well with a vegetable stew where you might want a little more flavour to your dumplings. 
• Chestnut Flour. If you are cooking a game stew, such as venison, then chestnut flour dumplings are a revelation. Also lovely with a vegetable dish.

What is the best fat to use for Gluten-Free Dumplings?

Suet. Dumplings are traditionally made with suet, which is the fat that surrounds the kidneys of the animals, usually cows in this instance. 

Does suet contain gluten?

Suet itself does not contain gluten as it’s an animal product. However commercial suet from the supermarket is usually coated in wheat flour. You can buy gluten-free suet but it is a vegetarian product usually made from palm oil or vegetable oil.

Where can you buy gluten-free beef suet?

You would need to source your suet from the butcher which comes in a big solid block. You can prepare this suet by grating it with a dash of gluten-free flour to create pellets similar to the suet you can buy in the supermarket.

Suet Substitution

Lard. This is the easiest ingredient to sub in for suet. It is also animal fat but it comes from pigs and is sourced in a block which you can freeze and then grate into your dumpling mix. It creates lovely light dumplings which are full of flavour.

This recipe uses lard as it is the most easily available but you can exchange it for fresh beef suet or gluten-free vegetarian suet as you prefer.

How to make Gluten-Free Dumplings from scratch

For full recipe instructions go to the recipe card at the end of this post. 

The steps are simple:

1. Whisk together the sweet rice flour, white rice flour, tapioca flour, baking powder, mustard powder, chopped parsley, salt and pepper in a large mixing bowl.
2. Grate the lard (or suet) into the mixture and disperse it evenly with your fingertips.
3. Make a well in the centre and pour in the milk. Bring the dough together with your hands until you form a smooth ball which isn’t sticky.
4. Roll the dough into 8 balls of equal size (about 35-40g) and drop into your soup or stew for the final 30 minutes of its cooking time. Cook with the lid on.

Tips for Gluten-Free Dumplings

Lard – It’s easiest to work with frozen lard. Freeze it in a whole block. Take it straight out of the freezer and dip the lard in your flour mix to coat before you grate it. The flour helps prevent the lard from sticking to the grater. It works even better if you use the attachment on your food processor for grating as it’s quick and fast. Grating by hand usually results in the lard melting in your fingertips and it also doesn’t disperse as well.

Bringing the dough together. Use your fingertips to disperse the grated lard throughout the mixture.

Milk. This recipe requires 80ml milk. Different gluten-free flours will absorb liquid differently depending on how finely they have been ground. They might need up to 100ml milk. Your dumpling mixture should be soft and come together to produce little dumpling balls that are pliable and not too sticky.

Shop the Recipe

• Food Processor
• Gluten-Free Sweet Rice Flour
• Gluten-Free White Rice Flour
• Gluten-Free Tapioca Flour

Can you make Gluten-Free Dumplings in advance?

I recommend making the dumpling dough on the same day you are going to cook it otherwise it will dry out. Once cooked in a soup or stew you can store for up to 2 days in an airtight container in the fridge.

Can you freeze Gluten-Free Dumplings?

These dumplings freeze really well pre-cooking. Prepare the dumplings so they are little balls of dough. Store in the freezer in an airtight container. Defrost completely for 3-4 hours before cooking in a soup or stew.

You can also freeze the dumplings cooked in a soup or stew. Freeze the whole meal in an airtight container. Make sure to place the dumplings at the top so the other ingredients don’t squash them. Defrost completely overnight before reheating thoroughly.

Can you make Gluten-Free Dumplings vegan?

Yes, you can swap the lard/suet out for vegan suet and use non-dairy milk. Cashew milk works particularly well, but you can just use your favourite.

More gluten-free dinners you’ll love:

I urge you to give these Gluten-Free Dumplings a try. If you do then please leave a comment below and give the recipe a rating which helps others find the recipe on Google. If you then go on to use this recipe as a launchpad for your own culinary creation then I’d also love it if you’d share it and tag me on Instagram. It is so lovely for me to see your versions and variations of my recipes.