Roasted tomato and dumpling salad
plus 100% of $$ from new subscriptions this week to LA Wildfire fundraisers
Welcome to To Vegetables, With Love, a celebration of a vegetable life, less ordinary. ‘ Find archived recipes on my recipe index.
My book Tenderheart is available from Books are Magic, Kitchen, Arts and Letters, Book Larder, Bold Fork Books and also here or here.
This week’s recipe is for paid subscribers. I will be donating 100% of $$ from new subscriptions this week to Mutual Aid LA.
Over the past few days, it has been devastating to see the LA wildfires destroy so much. I am thinking of my LA friends who have had to evacuate, who have lost their homes, who are still living in fear of what’s to come. There are countless charities and GoFundMe’s online including this list which benefits the many hospitality industry folks who have lost it all. It is hard to know where to direct funds because of the goodhearted inundation of information online but I have been relying on friends in LA for information and they have shared suggestions such as Mutual Aid LA, Baby2Baby, Wildfire Recovery Fund and, of course, World Central Kitchen, And fellow Substacker Ariel who writes Rel's Recs is running a raffle, which includes a major bounty of wonderful culinary prizes including a signed copy of Tenderheart - check out her post here.
The ferocity of Mother Nature is something else; she is reminding us that our time is up! We must take more care of our planet now. No amount of money, celebrity or status can match her force.
Some get very passionate about the ins and outs of eating unseasonal vegetables. It can be a polarizing subject. I’ve heard people judged-slash-reprimanded for buying strawberries in January or for daring to cook an eggplant while the snow is falling. Summer produce is not something I’ll eat every day during the winter but once in a while, it offers the palette something else to consider, a fresh jolt of acidity or tang to awaken the senses. A palate cleanse, perhaps.
In the winter, I roast or slow braise tomatoes, a perfect way to coax out flavor and sweetness. My walk-away tomato sauce in Tenderheart, where the tomatoes are thrown into a heavy pot with butter and cumin seeds and then left to simmer for an hour or two, works perfectly with winter cherry tomatoes (it’s also a nice way to warm the apartment while leaving the heating off). While slow roasting coaxes sweetness, cooking at higher temperatures with a shorter burst encourages juiciness.
After playing around with this idea for a while, I relented and am offering you a winter version of my viral dumpling tomato salad which I developed for NYT Cooking. I’ve roasted the tomatoes at high-ish temperatures, encouraging them to fall apart and surrender their hidden essence. A hint of sugar and salt encourages and enhances flavour. Once the tomatoes are feeling cozy, I add dumplings to the baking sheet and both are roasting together until the tomatoes collapse and the dumplings are crispy around the edges. Take them out of the oven and, like the original recipe, dress with more chili crisp. Voila, a winter tomato dumpling salad is yours.
I used year round greenhouse grown tomatoes grown in Maine, a ‘cocktail’ size that is bigger than a cherry but smaller than a plum/roma tomato. They were actually very flavorful. If you prefer, you could also use canned whole tomatoes, draining the juices and just using the whole fruit.
I hope this recipe brings some brightness to your day, during these worrisome days.
Monday: I really like soup on Mondays, a mellow start to the week. Make it jaunty with this potato and white bean puttanesca soup.
Tuesday: Make this tzatziki chickpea salad and serve with falafels (I get frozen ones from the supermarket) and flatbread.
Wednesday: This Lentil ‘bolognese’ is so satisfying
Thursday: Make it greek salad, but add crispy gnocchi
Friday: Not quite the weekend, so make this weeknight spinach and ricotta lasagna
🥦 My cookbook, Tenderheart is for cooking vegetables, all year round. Pick up your copy here. It is also mostly vegan (or vegan-izable) and gluten-free adaptable.
Roasted tomato and dumpling salad
© By Hetty Lui McKinnon for To Vegetables, With Love.
If you’re using canned tomatoes, use 1 x 800g (28 ounce) can of whole tomatoes, draining off the liquid (reserve for other use).
Serves 4
900g (2 pounds) tomatoes, halved (I used cocktail tomatoes)
extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon brown sugar or maple syrup
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 to 4 tablespoons chili crisp
sea salt and black pepper
450g (1 pound) frozen vegetarian dumplings
3 to 4 handfuls baby spinach or torn kale leaves
2 scallions, thinly sliced
Preheat oven to 200˚C / 400˚F.
Place the tomatoes on a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle with 1 to 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and then add the brown sugar or maple syrup, garlic and 2 tablespoons of chili crisp and season with salt and pepper. Toss until the tomatoes are well coated and then arrange them cut side up. Place in the oven and roast for 10 minutes.
When the tomatoes are almost ready, take the frozen dumplings out for freezer and place them into a bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat. Remove the tomatoes from the oven and increase the temperature to 220˚C / 425˚F. Add the dumplings to the baking sheet, arranging them in and around the tomatoes, but making sure the dumplings are not touching one another. Return to the oven and roast until the dumplings are golden and the tomatoes are slightly shriveled and falling apart, 10 - 15 minutes.
Remove the tomatoes and dumplings from the oven and immediately add the kale or spinach leaves and toss well to combine, allowing the residual heat to soften the leaves. Transfer to serving bowls and top with more chili crisp and scallions. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Io Vegetables, With Love is dedicated to vegetables and it is a joy to bring you a new recipe every week. Thank you to everyone who subscribes, especially to paid subscribers who make this work possible.
Thank you, Hetty for always centring community care - whether it’s supporting mutual aid or sharing comfort through food. You are a great role model x
YUM! Can't wait to make this for dinner this week