Vegetable Beef Stew with Onion Herbed Dumplings

I came across a variation of this in my websurfings. Husb likes Chicken and Dumplings, so I thought this style of it would be a interesting mix. I tweaked it to my tastes and it came out great. Nice for the changing seasons.


Vegetable Beef Stew with Onion Herbed Dumplings

Ingredients

2 lbs stew meat
1 can beef broth
1 cup water
1 can diced tomatoes, with juice
4 carrots, peeled and sliced in buttons
2 celery, sliced
2 onions, sliced
1 package sliced mushrooms
2 bay leaves
2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 1/2 tsp dried mustard
salt and pepper
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup water



Dumplings:
1/2 cup (a few more TBSP if needed)
1 1/2 cup flour
2 tbsp cold butter, in small pieces
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried rosemary (crushed up)
1 tbsp dried minced onion


Stew:

Get a skillet hot on medium high heat. Add meat, in batches to sear each side.

Put meat in the crockpot with broth, water, tomatoes, carrots, celery, onions, mushrooms, bay leaves and spices.

Cook on low 8-10 hours or high 4-5.  Add salt and pepper to taste. Whisk water and flour and add to soup.

Put all the dry ingredients of dumplings into a bowl. Add butter. Cut in with pastry cutter, forks, metal whisk, or even your hands. Make sure the butter is mixed well. Add milk and stir until just mixed.

Drop glops of this into the stew, cover, and cook on high until toothpick comes out clean.