Fast creamy chicken stew with parsleyed dumplings

**This is not a gluten-free recipe and was posted before I eliminated gluten from my diet.**

I copied this recipe in late summer, but then promptly forgot about it. For some reason it came to mind the other day, and put it on my menu plan for the week. It's so nice to have recipes that start with whole wheat flour instead of trying to adapt things and hope they work!

Fast creamy chicken stew with parsleyed dumplings (adapted from "The New Whole Grains Cookbook" by Robin Asbell)

2 tsp olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

1 carrot, peeled and chopped (I cut mine in half before making thin slices)

1 celery stalk, chopped

4 oz. cooked chicken, cut into chunks (I used the meat from 2 legs that I roasted earlier in the week)

1 cup chicken stock

1/4 tsp dried thyme

1/4 tsp dried marjoram

2 Tbsp half-and-half

1/2 cup frozen butter beans, thawed

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup fresh parsley, minced

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 large egg (whisk white and yolk together before using half)

3 Tbsp plain yogurt

Heat olive oil over medium heat in a medium pot. Saute onion, carrot, and celery until tender. Add chicken, stock, thyme, marjoram, half-and-half, and butter beans. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and let simmer while you prepare dumpling mixture. For dumplings, mix flour, parsley, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. Mix in egg and yogurt. If it's stiff, add more yogurt. Drop mixture by heaping tablespoons onto stew, turn heat up to medium-high, cover, and cook for 7 min. Check to see if dumplings are done, and cook for several more minutes if they're still doughy in the middle. Serves 2.

Holy crap this is good. I'm glad that something made me remember this recipe because this stuff needed to be a part of my life. Next time (and believe me, there will be a next time) I'll add more liquid. I halved the recipe but ended up using more veggies because it was more convenient. As a result, there was hardly any liquid at the end. I think this also made my dumplings take longer to cook because there wasn't much steam created. Anyway, the flavor was all there. I'm somewhat sad that I halved the recipe now, but it still remains to be seen how this will taste reheated.

I was planning to make a birthday cake for Darwin tonight (he's 200 today!), but I'm so full that the cake will have to wait. Perhaps he would appreciate a Valentine's cake...