It’s been chilly the last few days and that means that I have been thinking about warming bowls of soup, like this shrimp creole soup with bacon and cheddar dumplings. A bowl of this soup warms you up in two ways with the temperature of the soup and with the spicy heat from the TABASCO® sauce, it’s pure comfort food in a bowl! The inspiration for this soup was a hearty bowl of shrimp creole, which is usually more of a thick stew that is served with rice, to which I added more broth and dumplings, but not just any dumplings, bacon and cheddar dumplings! The dumplings replace the rice as the carb in this one-pot meal and they are made by mixing a simple dough with flour, corn meal, butter, butter milk and green onions in addition to the bacon and cheddar cheese and the dough is spooned into the broth of the soup to cook in balls. This shrimp croele soup is just packed with flavour but the bacon and cheddar cornmeal dumplings take it over the edge in goodness!
Shrimp Creole Soup with Bacon and Cheddar Dumplings
A creole style shrimp soup with bacon and cheddar cornmeal dumplings!
ingredients
- 4 slices bacon
- 1 cup onion, diced
- 1 cup celery, diced
- 1 cup bell pepper, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 teaspoon thyme, chopped
- 1/4 cup flour (or rice flour)
- 4 cups chicken broth (or shrimp broth)
- 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes (or 4 cups fresh tomatoes, diced)
- 1 tablespoon creole seasoning
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tablespoon TABASCO sauce
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 3/4 cup flour (or rice flour)
- 1/4 cup cornmeal
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1/2 cup buttermilk (or milk)
- 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
- 1/4 cup green onions, sliced
- 1 pound shrimp, shelled and deviened
- salt, pepper and cayenne to taste
- 1/2 cup green onions, sliced
directions
- Cook the bacon in a large sauce pan until crispy and set aside.
- Add the onion, celery and peppers to the sauce pan and cook in the bacon grease over medium-high heat until tender and slightly golden brown, about 5-7 minutes.
- Add the garlic and thyme and cook until fragrant, about a minute.
- Sprinkle in the flour and cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes.
- Add 1/2 cup of the broth and deglaze the pan by scraping up the brown bits on the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon while the broth simmers.
- Add the remaining broth, the tomatoes, creole seasoning, bay leaves, TABASCO sauce, Worcestershire sauce and fish sauce, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Mix the flour, cornmeal, baking soda, butter, buttermilk, cheddar cheese and green onions along with the reserved bacon and drop 1 tablespoon ‘balls’ of the dough into the soup before letting them cook for 10 minutes, flipping the dumplings and letting them cook another 10 minutes.
- Add the shrimp and cook until they just turn pink, about 3 minutes before seasoning with salt and pepper to taste and serving garnished with green onions.
Shrimp Creole
Shrimp Jambalaya
Shrimp Gumbo
Shrimp Etouffee
Cajun Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo
Shrimp Linguine in a Tomato and White Wine Sauce
Cajun Shrimp Cauliflower Alfredo Linguini
Shrimp and Roasted Corn Chowder
Shrimp Wonton Soup
Tom Yum Goong Soup (Thai Hot and Sour Shrimp Soup)
Pad Thai Soup
Cajun Sweet Potato Seafood Chowder
Cheddar Biscuits and Shrimp and Andouille Gravy
Shrimp and Feta Soup (aka Shrimp Saganaki Soup)
Cajun Shrimp and Andouille Cheese Dip
Creamy Shrimp Alfredo Linguine
This soup looks and sounds amazing… This would satisfy a craving for sure and warm you at the same time… Happy Holidays with love Janice
Love your recipes but have a problem printing them????
Just had to add this one to my "Soup for 3 Months" board on Pinterest…plus I actually printed it out. Planning to make this on Friday before Christmas.
I have fed my family several of your recipes and there is never a failed one. Merry Christmas to you and yours. Can't wait to see what's in store in 2017.
This sounds and looks delicious! And sure do love those one pot meals. Must try soon. 🙂
Sounds like just what we need today – its 15 degrees and feels like 5 degrees!
I would like to make this, but my husband is timid on spice. If I keep the Tobasco on the side for me, how spicy (hot) is the creole seasoning?
This looks wonderful so much that I can almost already taste it. Planning on making it for our starters at our family Christmas lunch before our "Traditional Aussie Roast". It even looks Chrismassy being red and green. Have loved your 2016 menus and now waiting for 2017. Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2017. Thank you Kevin.
Yum! Made this for dinner tonight and it was a huge hit.
Susan McCann: Each spice blend has a different amount of heat and everyones desired level of heat is different so I would add the creole seasoning a bit at a time. Enjoy!
Anonymous: I'm glad you like it!
If I don't have fish sauce, what would be a good substitute? Love all your recipes, they all have been delish & big hits w/the hubby. Thanks for sharing.
Norma Pearson: You can replace it with soy sauce or simply omit it and season with salt appropriately. Enjoy!
Watch out for store-bought Cajun seasoning. It is mostly salt. I put one tablespoon in and combined with the bacon and fish sauce made the dish way too salty. The dumpling came out a soggy mess. Not a keeper even without the salt.
I always use my homemade cajun seasoning to control the salt (follow the link in the recipe for my recipe). What happened to your dumplings? They should be nice and light and chewy!
Amazing! I ordered a king cake from New Orleans and it arrives today. Looked through Pinterest for a Cajun recipe to go with it and your recipe jumped out at me. So happy I took the time to make it for lunch today. It is delicious with very authentic flavors. This is a recipe I will be making over and over again!
I’m wondering if you could use the red lobster cheddar bay biscuit mix as a short cut, adding bacon and chives?
Those would be good!