The reason why I decided to experiment with a variety of grains such as rye is that I have a sensitivity to grains containing gluten protein. I do however tolerate ancient rye grain quite well and I thought I may try to make my favourite and well missed dumplings (which originally are made of wheat flour) using rye flour.
The rye dumplings are a little bit tougher in its consistency than the regular wheat based ones, however they are still divine! I had some leftover chicken drumsticks from the chicken broth I made the day before which made a great filling for the dumplings.
Once they are cooked you can serve them either boiled with a little bit of olive oil and sea salt or fry them gently until brown gold. Great with a root or red cabbage slaw!
How to make dumplings with minced chicken filling:
- Leftover chicken (I used organic chicken drumsticks)
- Leftover cooked vegetables (I used carrots, onion and parsnip which I used in my chicken soup the day before)
- Mince it all together in a food processor. Add some oats to the mixture to make it drier and easier to scoop into dumplings.
How to make the dough for ryemeal dumplings:
- About 350/400g of rye flour
- 1 cup of water
- 1 free range egg
- salt
Bring water (about 2 litres) to the boil, add some sea salt and refined olive oil (keeps the dumplings separate while cooking).
Separately fold 1 egg, flour and cup of water together. Mix until all ingredients are combined and the mixture is getting thick. Add a little bit extra rye flour if the consistency is too sticky and keep kneading it until dough is formed and it's easy to roll out.
Roll out using a rolling pin until a big thin pancake is formed. Cut out smaller pancakes with a cup/glass and with a spoon put the mince meat mixture into individual pancakes. Seal both end of the pancake with a finger (use a little bit of water on your finger to glue the edges), use fork to shape the edges into half-moons. Once the dumplings are formed pop them into boiling water until they start floating up on the surface (this means they are ready).
Serve with melted butter/olive oil or lightly fried with the accompany of red cabbage slaw.
Enjoy!
“Different types of wheat have different numbers of chromosomes, and some studies show that the older wheats, with fewer chromosomes, tend to have lower levels of gliadins, the type of gluten proteins that seem to cause most sensitivities.
Einkorn, the oldest known type of wheat in our current food supply, has just 14 chromosomes, and is called a diploid wheat. Durum wheat (the kind most often used for pasta) and emmer are tetraploid wheats, with 28 chromosomes. Common wheat (used for most everything) and spelt have 42 chromosomes and are known as hexaploid wheats https://wholegrainscouncil.org/blog/2012/01/research-sheds-light-gluten-issues”