How to Make Sourdough Discard Dumplings

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These Sourdough Discard Dumplings are a delicious and exotic dinner you can make when you literally have nothing in your cupboard.  Making Dumplings is an age-old skill that is utterly worth the extra time and effort.

What is the most Frugal Dinner Recipe you Can Make on A Budget?

Sourdough Discard Dumplings have got to be the most frugal recipe you can make for dinner when you are on a tight budget.

I love dumplings, for the fact that with extra care and time, you can transform simple ingredients like flour and water into one of the tastiest morsels on the planet. Tasty morsels that are healthy and nourishing. Tasty morsels that feed a crowd. Plus, the children LOVE them!

How satisfying is that?

And here’s a bonus – it’s a sourdough dough!  This sourdough discard dumpling dough is left to rest for 7 hours while you go about your day. This fermentation time allows the phytates in the flour to break down, making the dumplings easier to digest.

My dumplings are very rustic, but they are SO frugal and delicious and nutritious I struggle through the difficult shaping. No one in this household minds how scruffy they look!

Is Sourdough Discard Actually Healthy?

Yes, sourdough discard is healthy! It is basically just a small portion of Sourdough Starter, which is full of beneficial vitamins, bacteria and probiotics.

Sourdough Starter (and therefore, the discard) also contains many vitamins and minerals including iron, calcium and potassium, which support blood and bone health (source).

Because the antinutrient phytates have been reduced during fermentation, these nutrients are more readily absorbed by the body.

Plus, it is 13% protein, which is relatively high for a carbohydrate! That’s more protein than the 9% in lentils!

Why Does Sourdough Breadmaking involve Sourdough Discard?

Sourdough Starter is an interesting form of yeast in that it needs to be fed regularly in order to be an effective rising agent for your bread.

Your Sourdough Starter needs to be fed about once per week if you do not use her oftener than that, and placed in the fridge in between times.

The tricky thing about your Sourdough Starter is that she cannot just be fed the flour + water concoction. She first needs to have a portion of herself discard, and then replaced with equal quantities of flour and water.

That’s why Sourdough Breadmakers have copious quantities of sourdough discard on hand therefore, why they usually get into making more than just bread!

Because whenever you make a loaf of bread, there is always a portion of discard that needs to be used.

Can you Discard Too Much Starter?

The more starter you discard, the better. Sourdough Starter loves fresh food, so if you discard more than half of your starter and replace than with equal quantities of flour and water, your starter will LOVE it and become super bubbly and active.

When I went away for three weeks, I left my Sourdough Starter in the fridge for all that time, unused and unfed. I used the above feeding method when I came back (as I was worried about her dying). But, with lots of large, daily feedings in this way, she came to life and is a super happy little pet.

Other Recipes That will Use Up Sourdough Discard:

Sourdough Breadmaking does not actually use up a large portion of starter, so if you are looking for recipes that use up a large portion of Discard (so you can feed your starter lavishly), I’ve listed some ideas below.

Other than these wonderful Sourdough Discard Dumplings, Sourdough Discard can be used in so many ways:

• Sourdough Pizza
• Date and Yoghurt Spiced Loaf
• Scones
• Pancakes
• Tortillas
• Easy Overnight Sourdough Discard Bread
• Muffins
• Sourdough Discard Butterscotch Cookies – this one uses the MOST discard and is overnight fermented for extra health benefits!
• Cakes
• Sourdough Discard Bagels
• Waffles
• Pasta Dough

How long does Sourdough Starter Last?

As long as your Sourdough Starter is fed regularly and not severely neglected, she will last a long time. My Sourdough Starter is going on 4 years (we started her from scratch in May 2019), which is not long at all in the relative lifespan of Sourdough Starters.

I worked in a French Cafe as a student. Their sourdough bread was gold-medal-winning, and they used a starter which was over 88 years old.

The oldest Sourdough Starter on record is apparently 4500 years old! Imagine that! The older the starter is, the better bread it will make, so rejoice in it’s age (and do not fear it).

When to start the Sourdough Discard Dumpling Dough:

I like to start the Sourdough Discard Dumpling dough at the beginning of the day, and leave it to rest until I am ready to cook in the evening.  Making the dough early is beneficial for multiple reasons:

It allows for fermentation to occur – the phytates in the flour to break down so the dumplings are easier for your tummy to digest.  7 hours is the optimum time for this.

Making it early also saves a bottleneck of preparation at the end of the day. When I have two curious, awake, and energetic boys at my ankles and a massive meal to prepare, I get super stressed. SO, I make it early to save time later on. Otherwise I would be a time-bomb wanting to explode! 

Normally, I will cook the filling while my sons are napping in the early afternoon, which gives it time to cool before I actually have to shape the dumplings.

Dinner time

When it gets to 5 o’clock, I pass the boys to the hubby, but on some music, and get in the dumpling zone. 

It usually takes me an hour to make and fry (or boil) all the sourdough discard dumplings, which is a long time for me (usually I like to spend half an hour, tops, at dinner-making time, in the Kitchen).

However, the satisfaction of knowing that you have produced a tasty and satisfying meal from simply flour and water is utterly worth the extra time and effort!

So I challenge you to take up this Ancient skill yourself and give it a go!