Homemade soup with scandinavian dumplings

I try to make this soup every other month and my hubby just loves it. In Sweden it's called "köttsoppa" (meat soup in translation) and there are as many ways of making it as there are people making it.
The main ingredients I learned to always use is boiled meat with bones, carrots, rutabaga, celeriac, potatoes, leaks, broth and dumplings. Everyone I know makes this soup. We usually used reindeer when I grew up, but moose and beef is very common too. I usually have moose since my hubby is a hunter.

This is one of my favourite ways to make food, real food. I can spend a whole day cooking and my family just loves it. In this life everything is in such a hurry so taking my time makes me feel good about myself. I usually do a bigger batch when I do take the time and I finally got myself a bigger pan. It holds 15 litres so the days when I used two 7 litres just for the soup is finally over.

This is "köttsoppa". We always have sandwiches with cheese and a glass of cold milk to it!

I made the soup with boiled moose meat and vegetables in one pan and then I made dumplings in another pan to keep the broth clear. It will only get better when you heat it up again, but I do so much that I don't heat it all up again. I usually just heat up enough for a meal and make more dumplings.

I always start early morning to boil the meat. I use some white pepper corns, salt and bouillon cubes after I skim the broth. I boil the meat until it's falling off the bones. Then I pick the meat from the bones and strain the broth. I reheat the broth and start to add my vegetables. I don't do celeriac, I don't like it so I don't use it. I do all the other vegetables and top it off with leaks. I usually put the meat back in the broth when I put in the potatoes. Potatoes are always one of the last vegetables I add so it doesn't boil to pieces.

I do my dumplings with flour, salt and water. Some use milk instead of water, but I find them to be softer if I use water. Some use eggs, but I have never learned to use it. I only use spelt flour and that makes a difference too. I have seen dumplings done in other ways, but never like we do them so I thought I would show you how I have learned to do them.
(When I googled it I found a blog post about the art of making dumplings the scandinavian way. The description for making them was in most ways like I do them, but you can add both eggs and cream and use different flour.)

I mix flour and salt in a bowl and then I add water until I get it right. I always use a fork to mix it. It needs to be more like a batter than a dough, but it has to hold together more than batter.

I boil water and put in a couple of bouillon cubes for the dumplings. It needs to be boiling a lot all the time otherwise the dumplings stick to the bottom of the pan. Then I use a spoon to take a bit of batter and drop it in the boiling broth. Once in a while I stir so it doesn't stick togheter in the pan. I also dip the spoon in the broth between every dumpling to prevent the batter from sticking to it.

When all the dumplings are in the pan I turn down the heat and let them simmer for about 10 minutes.

I started thinking about how easy this is to do. I could easily do it over open fire if I want to. There's a lot I haven't thought about before but with our cabin getting closer to be finished I get all this new ideas. When I started to learn more about homesteading it also changed a lot about my way of thinking. Soup is such amazing food, but I don't do it as often as I should. That's something I could do a lot more. I think one of my smaller pans will be dedicated for use over open fire at our cabin and now I just need to find more soups to make. I have been thinking a lot about canning soup too, but why only do one kind of soup?

What kind of soups do you make? Do you have a favourite? I would love to hear about it, I could really use some inspiration!

Until next time, be well.
//S