This Jamaican cornmeal dumplings recipe is quick, easy using 4 ingredients. Dumplings are a great carbohydrate enriched addition for soup and stews.
**FOR THE SAKE OF GOOGLE SEARCH AND SEO TERMS THE TITLE IS "JAMAICAN CORNMEAL DUMPLINGS" NOT "JAMAICAN CORNMEAL DUMPLING"as the Jamaican linguistics would call it. I just wanted to clarify the reasons for that specific wording. It's not because I don't know what my own cultural cuisines are called**
Just like any other culture out there dumplings play a crucial role for many Caribbean islands.
The good news for you is that they aren't overly complex to make and only require a small amount of ingredients.
It is simply a case of making a dough ball and then shaping it and then boiling it alone or as part of a cuisine.
What is a dumpling
A dumpling is a ball of dough made primarily from flour, water and baking powder (although this is optional for some) that is either boiled or fried. In the Jamaican cultural there are a few variations of dumpling.
- Jamaican Fried dumpling (this can be sweet or savoury) (known as johnny cakes) A good example of a fried version is Jamaican Festival (fried cornmeal dumpling).
- Boiled dumpling - cassava, green banana, coconut dumpling, cornmeal or a Plain Flour Dumpling
Fried dumplings can be eaten alone as an appetizer or used to accompany a recipe i.e Saltfish and callaloo or the Jamaican national dish Ackee and saltfish .
Boiled dumpling are more dense in texture, for that reason they generally eaten/served with other root/ground provisions.
If you are making a stew i.e chicken, stew peas you want to may include them, alternatively, soup is a more popular choice for their addition .i.e mutton soup, mannish water, Chicken Soup etc...
Today I'm going to be showing you a basic tutorial of how to boil some wheat free, no gluten cornmeal dumplings.
This will give you an idea of what they are and how to use them accordingly.
Ingredients you will need
- Gluten free flour (I recommend Bob Red Mills 1 to 1 flour)
- Cornmeal (fine)
- Himalayan pink salt
- Water
How to make Jamaican cornmeal dumplings
- Fill ½ of a large pot with water, sprinkle in ¼ teaspoon of pink salt and bring it to a boil then reduce the heat to medium (picture 1).
- Grab a medium sized bowl and place the flour, pink salt and cornmeal (picture 2)
- Mix all 3 ingredients together so the cornmeal is blended in with the flour.
- Slowly pour in the water, a bit at a time (DON'T ADD ALL THE WATER AT ONCE AS YOU MAY NOT NEED ALL OF IT), and use your hands to mix the flour to make a big ball of dough. The dough should be pliable, not too sticky and not too stuff/flour based. Add more water (1tbsp at time or flour 1tbsp at a time if needed) (picture 3-5).
- Once you have formed a huge dough ball, break off a piece of the dough and use both hands to form into a ball about the size of a golf ball (picture 6).
- Flatten the ball to about ½'' thick disc into one hand and use your thumb to make a dip in the middle (picture 7-8).
- Carefully lower the dumpling into the pot (use a slotted spoon if you aren't feeling confident) and then repeat the same process (picture 9).
- Once all of the dumplings have been added use a wooden or silicon spoon to give the pot a stir. This will stop them from sticking (picture 10-11).
- Bring the pot to a boil then reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
- Once the dumpling have cooked use a slotted spoon to remove them (picture 12).
Notes and tips
- Make sure your finger nails aren't excessively long has this can inhibit making satisfactory dumpling.
- Use a fine texture type of cornmeal as this takes a lot quicker to cook than coarse cornmeal.
- DON'T add ALL of the water at once, add the water in increments as you will have better control over how much is needed to make the dough.
- Make sure the water in the pot is pre-boiled and continues to boil throughout the preparation.
- If the dough is too sticky you can save it by adding a small amount of flour at a time. Alternatively, dry dough can be leveled out with a splash of water
- DO NOT use cornstarch this is NOT the same as cornmeal. Cornstarch is a thicken and doesn't serve the same purpose as cornmeal.
- This recipe makes roughly 6-8 dumplings, depending on the size.
Frequently asked questions
I am Caribbean, but not gluten free. Can I still make this recipe?
Yes, follow the steps accordingly but use regular flour instead
I am making the dumpling for soup, when do I make them?
Add them when you are boiling/simmering your soup. Keep in mind that the dumpling alone will take around 15 minutes to cook.
Can I use just cornmeal without flour to make this recipe?
No. I have tried making flourless dumpling with cornmeal alone and it doesn't work because you need something else to bind it together which is why a ratio of 50/50 works best.
Why do you only recommend fine cornmeal and not coarse?
Coarse cornmeal takes longer to cook so you will run the risk of having a dumpling with hard grain/grainy texture if undercooked. I grew up using fine cornmeal so recommend to follow suit by using the same texture.
Where can I buy cornmeal?
Online, try to purchase organic is possible. Caribbean supermarkets sell it but they aren't usually organic.
Caribbean recipes you may want to serve dumpling with
- Caribbean curried butter beans
- Jamaican ox tail stew
- Escovitch fish
- Jamaican steamed cabbage
- Jamaican steamed fish
- Gungo peas soup
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Jamaican cornmeal dumplings
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups of fine cornmeal organic, if possible, 200g
- 1 ½ cups of gluten free flour Bob Red mills 1 to 1 baking flour
- 1 ½ cups of warm water (use the water as a general guide)
- ¼ teaspoon of himalayan salt + ¼tsp for the boiling water
Instructions
- Fill ½ of a large pot with water, sprinkle in ¼ teaspoon of pink salt and bring it to a boil then reduce the heat to medium
- Grab a medium sized bowl and place the flour, pink salt and cornmeal
- Mix all 3 ingredients together so the cornmeal is blended in with the flour.
- Slowly pour in the water, abit at a time (DON'T ADD ALL THE WATER AT ONCE AS YOU MAY NOT NEED ALL OF IT), and use your hands to mix the flour to make a big ball of dough. The dough should be pliable, not too sticky and not too stuff/flour based. Add more water (1tbsp at time or flour 1tbsp at a time if needed).
- Once you have formed a huge dough ball, break off a piece of the dough and use both hands to form into a ball about the size of a golf ball.
- Flatten the ball to about ½'' thick disc into one hand and use thumb to make a dip in the middle.
- Carefully lower the dumpling into the pot (use a slotted spoon if you aren't feeling confident) and then repeat the same process.
- Once all of the dumplings have been added use a wooden or silicon spoon to give the pot a stir. This will stop them from sticking
- Bring the pot to a boil then reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
- Once the dumpling have cooked use a slotted spoon to remove them.
Notes
- Make sure your finger nails aren't excessively long has this can inhibit making satisfactory dumpling.
- Use a fine texture type of cornmeal as this takes a lot quicker to cook than coarse cornmeal.
- DON'T add ALL of the water at once, add the water in increments as you will have better control over how much is needed to make the dough.
- Make sure the water in the pot is pre-boiled and continues to boil throughout the preparation.
- If the dough is too sticky you can save it by adding a small amount of flour at a time. Alternatively, dry dough can be leveled out with a splash of water
- DO NOT use cornstarch this is NOT the same as cornmeal. Cornstarch is a thicken and doesn't serve the same purpose as cornmeal.
- This recipe makes roughly 6-8 dumplings, depending on the size.
Debbie says
This came out great! I added a table spoon of coconut flour and sugar and Used cold coconut milk for kneading! It came out so wonderful!
Charla says
Yay! I'm so glad it came out perfect for you.
Nice Niecy says
Thank you! Added it to my jerked mustard greens soup
Charla says
You are welcome. Sounds wonderful!!
Lisa says
Thanks so much for all your yummy gf recipes! I have been searching for a good site for nice West Indian treats and have found it here. I have an answer to one of the comments above about getting a good flour to fry “dumplings”. If you are looking for a chewy Trinidadian bake (as in bakes an salt fish) I have an answer.. I found a flour you need to mix up yourself that works really well! If you have a scale it’s easier but I’ve included the cup measurements too.. mix 280g (2cups+2tbsp) sweet rice flour (not white rice flour), 280g (2 cups +5 tsp) white or brown rice flour, 120 g (1 cup+5 tsp) tapioca flour or starch and 120g (1/2 cup+3 tbsp) potato starch (not potato flour!). This gf bread flour keeps well in a canister on your counter. I used your recipe for dumplings, adding 1/2 tsp xanthum gum and 1 tsp baking powder to three cups of this flour above. Both the boiled version and fried ones were excellent!
Charla says
You are welcome Lisa. Thanks for sharing that information. I have fried dumpling (bakes) on my to do list for June (hopefully). I will definitely give this a try.
Stacy says
Hi,
I’m a waiting eagerly for your fried dumpling recipe. I’m on a diet of no wheat- low carb so am cooking a lot with almond and coconut flour sometimes buckwheat. was wondering if I can make them with one of these flours?
Charla says
Buckwheat would be your best bet (the others will need eggs for structure) but because that flour is extremely dense you will need to mix it with another flour such as brown rice. I am still working on a fried dumpling recipe, currently testing some flour blends until I perfect it then will post the recipe. I hope that helps for now!
Tanesha Brown says
These are just like the dumpling my sweet mother use to make, wonderful memories
Charla says
Thank you Tanesha
Elizabeth Patterson-Smith says
Hi
Cant wait to try these. If I want to fry them do I still need to cook them in water first.
Charla says
Hi there. Fried dumpling and boiled dumpling aren't the same thing. You wouldn't be able to boil the dumplings first and then fry them. It's one method or the other and this recipe is only suitable for boiling. I hope that makes sense.
Simon Lekola says
Hi, here in South Africa when we prepare the dough we normally uses luke warm water then leaves it in the sun for at least 30min to rise but I see you guys don't... I love to experiment with food & drinks like making stuff that you does such as punch, smoothies, fat cakes, baking cookies, crumpets/ flat jacks etc & I have noticed that we do have something very much common in terms of the things I enjoy doing when I play with food.
Thanx to you Charla, I will be trying some of that Jamaican style recipes this festive
😉
Charla says
Hi Simon. Thank you for commenting. I love learning about how similar my culture is to various countries and of course Africa is no different. We do have similarities with West Africa because the majority of the Caribbean people are traced back to there but I wasn't aware of having such similarities with South Africa too.
Mel Simpson says
Those dumplings look lovely. These remind me of dumplingsmy mother and grandmother made in JA, I can't wait to make these tonight with your brown stew chicken. I have been making this since I found it on your website.
Charla says
Thank you Mel.