I spent a lot of time yesterday making cupcakes. Lots of cupcakes. And you would be correct if you also assumed that I spent a lot of time yesterday taste- testing cupcake batter, cupcakes, and frosting. Please don’t judge. This is what I do.

By evening, though, I had consumed my fill of everything sweet and knew I wanted something for dinner that was light and not even remotely cupcake-y.

I hinted around to my family before Christmas that I would love The Pioneer Woman’s latest cookbook, Super Easy, but my hinting fell on deaf ears. Not one to easily accept defeat though, I took matters into my own hands and smartly bought it for myself.

Merry Christmas to me.

When I was reading the cookbook before bed the other night (again, please don’t judge, this is also what I do) (geeky, I know) I came across the recipe for Speedy Dumpling Soup and was intrigued. Could something this simple and fast actually be good? Typically I’m a slow-simmer, all day long type cook, so I was a little skeptical. But on my last run to the grocery store I threw all the ingredients into my cart, and decided last night to try it out.

And it really IS so good. And it REALLY DOES take less than 30 minutes beginning to end.

You should make this for yourself- even if you don’t eat raw cupcake batter and read cookbooks like novels.

Lu

Speedy Dumpling Soup

The Pioneer Woman

**My bag of slaw mix was just 9 oz. so I threw in the whole thing, and instead of frozen dumplings I used pork pot stickers from the fresh sushi section of the grocery store- they came with two little containers of dipping sauce so I put those in the soup too! Make sure not to overcook -if you heat it too violently at the end, the dumplings/potstickers will begin to fall apart.

Ingredients

6 cups low-sodium chicken broth

Half a 12-ounce bag broccoli slaw mix (with broccoli, carrots and red cabbage) 

2 to 3 tablespoons soy sauce 

1 tablespoon minced ginger 

4 scallions, white and green parts separated, thinly sliced 

2 cloves garlic, minced 

1 small red pepper, seeded and thinly sliced 

One 14- to 16-ounce bag frozen pork dumplings

Directions

1. Combine the broth, slaw mix, soy sauce, ginger, scallion whites, garlic and red pepper slices in a large saucepan, then bring to a simmer. Add the dumplings and return to a simmer. Simmer until the veggies are tender and the dumplings are cooked, about 10 minutes. Garnish with the scallion greens.