Beetroot, beef and bacon soup with cream cheese dumplings

For a 3.5–4.5L slow cooker.

Ingredients

For the soup

1.2kg fresh beetroot, peeled, trimmed and cut into 1cm cubes

250g lean stewing beef (such as blade, topside or chuck),
cut into 8mm cubes

1 onion, finely diced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

100g rindless bacon, diced

400g tin diced tomatoes

500ml chicken or vegetable stock or water

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons quince or redcurrant jelly

For the dumplings

1 tablespoon cream cheese

½ cup self-raising flour

¼ teaspoon salt

1 spring onion, finely chopped

60g rindless bacon, diced

¼ cup milk, approximately

Method

To make the soup, place all the ingredients into the slow cooker and stir to combine. Cover and cook on high for four hours or low for seven hours or until the beef and beetroot are tender. Add salt and pepper to taste. If on low, turn the cooker to high 30 minutes before the end of the cooking time.

To make the dumplings, rub the cream cheese into the flour and salt with the fingertips or in a food processor until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Mix in the spring onion and bacon and then enough milk to make a soft dough.

Place small teaspoonfuls of the dough on top of the simmering soup, replace the lid and cook for 20–30 minutes or until the dumplings are puffed and cooked through.

Remove the dumplings with a slotted spoon. Ladle the soup into bowls and top each serve with several of the dumplings.

This recipe is from Sally Wise’s new book, Ultimate Slow Cooker, with kind permission of ABC Books and Harper Collins.