Wild garlic dumplings (canederli)

These mouthwatering Italian bread dumplings (also known as canederli or Knödel) are infused with wild garlic and served with melted vegan butter or in vegetable broth. Satisfying and filling, they are quick and easy to make and very economical.

Canederli in Italian, or Knödeln in German, come from Trentino – Alto Adige, a bilingual region in North East Italy.

About bread dumplings (canederli)

Bread dumplings are widespread all over Europe, where they are often served as an accompaniment to meat stews and roasts. From dumplings in the UK to Czech Knedlíki, German Semmelknödel and Knödel in Austria, to mention just a few, these little bread balls were a lifesaver in times when food was scarce. The word canederli comes from the German and Austrian word Knödel (dumplings).

Originally a poor man’s dish, bread dumplings were made with stale bread and other leftovers. Today they are a well-known speciality dish which is served with pride throughout the regions of Trentino – Alto Adige, Friuli and parts of Veneto. You’ll often find them on the menu in local restaurants.

This particular bread dumpling recipe of mine is flavoured with wild garlic, which is in season right now. You can forage for it for free in the woods, bearing in mind that it’s important to always harvest sustainably. Not sure where to find wild garlic or how to recognise it? Read my detailed post on How to identify, forage and eat wild garlic. There, you’ll find everything you need to know – including how to steer clear of poisonous lookalikes. Then, you can come back here and learn how to make these delicious wild garlic bread dumplings (canederli) with the leaves you have harvested!

I love wild garlic, and, given its health benefits, it makes sense to eat as much of it as you can while you can! I’m lucky because there’s a big patch of it just a 30-minute walk away from where I live. We’re coming towards the end of the season now but I went to get some more yesterday and made these beauties.

Substitutions

Can’t find wild garlic and want to make these dumplings anyway? No problem – substitute the wild garlic leaves with fresh baby spinach leaves (equal weight) and add a clove of minced garlic to the mixture in step 5 (see recipe card below).

Once you have made these Italian bread dumplings (canederli) a couple of times, and you understand the chemistry behind the ingredients, you can get adventurous and make them with different flavourings according to the season! In winter, I make Canederli with Italian radicchio and Hokkaido pumpkin or with mushrooms.

Spinach is a versatile alternative that’s available pretty much all year round. Other vegan variations include artichoke, beetroot or leek. Use whatever you have! Dumplings were invented as a way to feed a family with stale bread and other leftovers.

How to make Italian wild garlic bread dumplings (canederli)

These wild garlic bread dumplings (canederli) are very economical and so easy to make. They only take 12 minutes to cook and about 30 minutes to prepare.

Traditionally, they contain speck, and/or cheese, and are held together with beaten eggs. This recipe for wild garlic bread dumplings (canederli) is a vegan version which is just as tasty and satisfying as the original, with no animal suffering involved! I use nutritional yeast instead of cheese, soya milk instead of dairy to moisten the bread, and ground chia seeds as a binder instead of eggs. These dumplings hold together equally as well, if not better, than their non-vegan counterparts and can be superior in taste.

Ingredients

• Stale bread – Use any stale bread which you can easily reduce to crumbs – white bread is usually easier to grate.
• Nutritional yeast flakes – These give the bread dumplings a delicate cheesy flavour.
• Chia seeds – You can use either white or black. Chia seeds act as a binder in this recipe, and they must be ground to a powder in a grinder or blender. Don’t omit them as they are the egg substitute, or the “glue”, that holds everything together.
• Olive oil – You’ll need a couple of tablespoons of olive oil for sautéing the onion.
• Onion – Finely chopped yellow onion is best for this recipe.
• Wild garlic leaves – You can substitute these with fresh baby spinach and a clove of crushed garlic. Half of the leaves are chopped, and the other half are blended with half of the soya milk.
• Soya milk – If you prefer, you can use a different kind of unsweetened plant-based milk. Alternatively, water or (cold) vegetable broth will do the trick. The drier the bread, the more milk (or water/broth) you’ll need. My bread is always completely dried out, so I always need the full amount stated in the recipe below. If your bread still has moisture in it, you may need a bit less.
• Unrefined sea salt – I use my favourite, Guérande natural unrefined sea salt, for all my recipes. Read about its health benefits here.
• Freshly ground black pepper – To taste.

Method

• Reduce the stale bread to crumbs or very small pieces. The best way to do this is to grate it on the coarse side of a cheese grater. Put the breadcrumbs in a large bowl.
• Add the nutritional yeast flakes. Grind the chia seeds to a powder and add them to the bowl with the breadcrumbs and nutritional yeast. Mix well.
• Put the oil into a pan and heat it up. Add the chopped onion and sweat on a low heat without colour for 5 minutes.
• In the meantime, wash the wild garlic leaves and pat them dry. Put half of them in a blender with half of the soy milk and blend until smooth. Finely chop the other half.
• Put the contents of the blender, the rest of the soy milk, the chopped wild garlic leaves, onion, salt and pepper into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix well. Allow the mixture to stand for about 10 minutes.
• The total weight of the mixture should be about 960 g. Make 12 compact balls weighing about 80 g each.
• Spray or smear a little oil on the bottom of the steamer basket to stop the dumplings from sticking to it. Place the balls into the steamer basket. Put the basket into the pan (with the water already simmering), put the lid on and steam on a low heat with the lid on for 12 minutes. You’ll need to do this in two batches of 6.
• When the second batch is almost ready, prepare some thin strips of wild garlic and heat some vegan butter in a saucepan. Pour the melted butter (or vegetable broth) over the dumplings, garnish with the strips of wild garlic and serve immediately.

How to serve your wild garlic bread dumplings (canederli)

As a main course, calculate 3 dumplings per person as they are quite filling.

For a traditional Italian approach, serve them in vegetable broth or drench them in melted vegan butter the way they do in Trentino – Alto Adige.

In vegetable broth

Homemade vegetable broth is quick and easy to make. Just put an onion, a carrot, a stick of celery and a little leek (optional) in a litre of water and simmer them while you make the dumplings. By the time you’ve done, the broth will be ready. Add a little unrefined sea salt, and you’ve got a healthy homemade vegetable broth! Or go one step further and make your own vegetable broth from carrot peelings, the outer layers of onion, celery and leek trimmings – a zero-waste idea to use up kitchen scraps and make great homemade vegetable broth.

I put all the vegetable scraps in a ziplock bag in the freezer and get them out when I need them. I always like to have some homemade vegetable broth on hand whenever I’m in a hurry. Alternatively, you can use vegetable stock powder or cube and follow the manufacturer’s instructions.

With melted vegan butter

If you’re making canederli with vegan butter, simply melt it in a pan and pour it over the canederli when plated. You could sprinkle some vegan parmesan cheese over the top for the perfect finishing touch. Here on my blog, you’ll find a recipe for vegan parmesan cheese that you can make in 5 minutes with 4 ingredients.

Other serving ideas

For something a little different, you could serve them in homemade tomato sauce or in a vegetable stew like vegan goulash. In this case, I recommend you make them smaller, about the size of a meatball. You can make 24 dumplings weighing about 40 g each, or if you reduce the stated quantities by half, you can still make 12 smaller ones.

How to store your wild garlic bread dumplings (canederli)

Store any leftover dumplings in an airtight container in the fridge, where they will keep for 3 – 4 days. I’m pretty sure you can also freeze these bread dumplings, although we’ve never tried because we always finish them all off within a couple of days!

To reheat, you can either heat them up slowly in vegetable broth, in the steamer or in the microwave. If frozen, allow them to completely defrost before reheating them.

I hope you like this recipe for vegan wild garlic bread dumplings (canederli)! If you do, it would be great if you could give it a star rating and leave a comment below! It helps other readers to find my content and posts and ultimately makes my blog more successful! Thanks so much for your support! Deborah xx

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