For those who miss dumplings and noodles, here ya go!  A lot of work, off and on, went into creating these tasty gems.  I hope you enjoy them with your family.  I get a lot of questions about whether the amount of glucomannon is correct.  I’ll say up front it is not in error.  The stuff swells in liquid.  🙂

When you can’t have flour, it’s really really hard to make dumplings that will hold together during cooking. I’ve used almond flour, coconut flour, flax meal and a variety of alternate flours.  You name it and I’ve probably tried that alternate flour to make a dumpling.  This challenge was no easy low-carb feat but I just wouldn’t stop experimentation until I got there.  I had to have that old familiar taste and mouth feel as the dumplings I made before my low-carbing days.  All attempts before this one were mediocre, at best.

Somewhere on the net some years back, someone on a forum mentioned they made dumplings with glucomannan powder.  Not being at all familiar with this product, I ordered some from Netrition.com and began to experiment.  Its gel-like, fibrous qualities lend themselves to a dumpling, providing structure and texture.  It is also useful for thickening gravies, sauces and puddings.  I’ve even found a tad of this stuff enhances low-carb cake, cookie and bread baking results, both in volume and texture.  I’d love to give credit to my inspiration on this recipe, but I must admit I failed to write down the name of the person who’s ingenious idea this really was.  But I’m thankful they triggered off some experimentation that has paid off!

Glucomannan powder, it comes from the Konjac tuber, and is used to make shirataki noodles seen in Asian cooking.   It can be used as a binding agent in some recipes.  It is virtually a zero carb food, in that the fiber content is so high, it virtually negates the few carbs it contains, as fiber is indigestible and passes right out of the system with zero blood sugar impact.   Most importantly, glucomannan adds the structure and elasticity needed for dumplings and noodles.

I’m getting more comfortable using this tricky ingredient and have finally come up with a “dumpling” that feels and almost tastes like my dumplings of old.  This will now be my go-to low-carb dumpling recipe.  As you can see in the pic above, they hold together nicely during very gentle simmering (unlike all previous attempts), and the gluc powder also slightly releases in to the broth to thicken it as well!  NICE!

For you “experimenters”  under no circumstances, increase the oat fiber!!  I did once and they came out just awful, hard as a rock, plus they did not absorb any flavor from the chicken broth because of the density.  Trust me, you DON’T want to go there!  This balance of ingredients it really pretty special and all attempts to “improve” them have been unpleasant to me.

Best low-carb chicken and dumplings I’ve had in all my low-carbing now.  My husband gave these two thumbs up today, and he’s pretty picky.  They don’t have much taste, but pick up the flavor of whatever broth you cook them in.  Guilt free dumplings at last!!  YAAAAAAY!

The recipe posted elsewhere on my site for chicken and dumplings is good, don’t get me wrong.  But you have to bake the rolls separately for that recipe.   With this dumpling recipe, I can stir the ingredients together, roll gently in my palm, I again stress, simmer them GENTLY with surface water barely bubbling!  Much easier!  And you regular readers know I’m really in to EASY cooking.

The ones made up smaller (about 1/2″ raw balls of ‘dough’) work nicely in soups.  I have made small, oblong shapes for marvelous gnocchi served in rich cream sauces.  Some more adventurous cooks at Low Carb Neighborhod forums are even using pasta extruders and coming up with all kinds of noodle shapes for this dough!  But I don’t own an extruder and probably wouldn’t go to that much trouble for noodles.  Just being very honest.  I’m a lazy cook. 🙂

These dumplings are not suitable until the grains rung of the Atkins OWL ladder due to the oat fiber, but omitting it is just not an option for good results.   I’m very proud to have developed a dumpling recipe that many who have tried freely admit fills a dumpling/noodle void in their low-carb lifestyles.  🙂

My Lobster Linguine recipe is the first time I tried rolling and cutting it into noodles and the final dish was quite good.

This recipe isn’t 100% gluten-free.  But you’ll find many other tasty and easy to cook recipes in Jennifer Eloff’s cookbooks, with a few of mine included.  Any hostess would be happy to serve any of these recipes to family or guests. Click here for a photo preview of some of those tasty dishes here:  LCAF Cookbook Facebook Page.  Also available at Amazon or: here

INGREDIENTS:

3/4 tsp. baking powder

1½ T. glucomannan powder (Konjac powder)

1½ T. oat fiber (For gluten-free version, try substituting oat flour ground from 100% gluten-free oats, but I’m not making any promises that will work.  It SHOULD, however.    Carbs will be only slightly higher.)

1/8 tsp. salt

¼ c. +2 T. water

1 extra large or jumbo egg, beaten

VARIATION:  Add 1-2 T. finely chopped parsley to the dry ingredients

DIRECTIONS:   Beat the egg in a small bowl with a fork.  Add the water and beat until well blended.  On a paper plate or in another bowl, mix the dry ingredients well.  Slowly sprinkle the dry ingredients into the wet, stirring with a fork or whisk.  Switching to a rubber spatula, stir and begin to fold the slowly thickening mixture over and over itself until it is a contiguous batter and eventually turns into a thick, almost dry dough.  I let mine sit by the stove 2-3 minutes.  Then, using a teaspoon, dip 3/4″-1″ dollops of the dough into your palm.  This step is important:  roll them GENTLY without much pressure to form a ball shape.  I set the balls on my counter or a silicone sheet until all are made as a few minutes of sitting seems to help them structurally.  If you just drop them directly into the broth from the spoon without rolling, they tend to fall apart in the broth during cooking.  For gnocchi, roll the dough into “rope shape” on your counter and cut into 3/4″ lengths.  then cook as already described.

I like to remove chicken, meat or large chunks of vegetables to a platter before putting on dumplings to cook.  That approach seems to be best for these dumplings as well.  This allows ample room for them to rise and swell without getting ‘beat up” by chicken pieces.

Bring your soup/broth to a rolling boil to get started.  Make up your dough as instructed above.  Drop the round dumplings/gnocchi into slowly simmering broth and immediately turn heat to low so it will only gently simmer.  I can’t stress this enough.  If using an electric stove-top, wait for cool down with bubbles very small.  Cover with tight lid.  Set a timer for exactly 10 minutes for dumplings (8 minutes for smaller gnocchi).   DO NOT LIFT THE LID or disturb the pot during cooking.  When time is up, lift the lid and VOILA!!  They’re done!  You probably won’t have to add thickener to the stock, as some of the glucomannan sloughs off into the broth, thickening it right up enough for us.  But as always you can always addd your favorite thickener if you prefer a thicker final result.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 12 medium 1½” dumplings (24 gnocchi), each contains:  (halve the numbers for each gnocchi)

7.17 calories, 0.49 g  fat, 1.38 g  carbs, 1.29 g  fiber, 0.1 g  NET CARBS, 0.61 g  protein, 55 mg sodium