In the face of our third snow storm this month (hello, Iowa spring!), I decided what I needed was soup. I’ve got kind of a thing for soup, and I like trying new recipes. Last night I made this carrot-ginger soup (with some variations for what I had on hand).

I also tried something else I’d never made before, soup dumplings. I used the Italian dumpling recipe in The Baker’s Companion, which is basically bread crumbs and flavorings held together with egg, then simmered in the soup.

I had some bread chunks left over from a store-bought Italian loaf I turned into a big egg boat (pretty tasty), and knowing I would need bread crumbs for a recipe or two in TBC, I saved them in a bag in the freezer. I’ve never used fresh bread crumbs in a recipe before, just panko for breading every once in a while, so it felt kind of weird to be putting ripped-up hunks of bread in the freezer. It was also weird to chop them up in the blender, but it did a pretty good job of turning chunks to crumbs.

These dumplings are supposed to go with a broth-based soup. And while chicken broth is the main liquid component of the soup recipe above, the soup gets pureed, so it’s thick. Probably not optimal dumpling-simmering liquid. It did work, but the dumplings turned into funny orange blobs. I thought they were quite tasty, though.

I deviated from the dumpling recipe by using rosemary instead of parsley, because bunnies got to my parsley and I’ve only managed to keep my rosemary alive over the winter. However, I think it worked very nicely with the lemon zest in the dumplings. And while lemony, I think they were a nice savory addition to the sweet carrot soup.

Husband tends to like plainer food than I do, but he still finished his bowl.

“I will say I like a lemon tang in baked goods. I’m not sold on it in vegetable soup combinations,” Husband said when I asked for feedback. “Possibly worth trying again at some point.”

But if you like a hint of lemon on savory dishes, I’d say definitely give them a try.