Heirloom recipes are a passion for AJ Dixon, who has taken up the cause of preserving her familial culinary traditions. First up, we have this tomato dumpling soup passed down from Dixon’s mother’s mother. It’s more than the sum of its parts. Or even the parts. It reminds Dixon of where she comes from, which is something she’s still trying to figure out. “I’ve been doing genealogy work. My mom’s side is really hard to figure out. Everyone was from Iron Mountain [Michigan]. I only get so far on the Finnish-Canadian side. There’s possibly German-Hungarian-Austrian [lineage].”
Deep in the bed of that fact-finding is this concoction her mom made from a recipe “stashed in the same drawer,” she says. Multiple renditions of it exist if you look into it. The soup followed a simple formula: bacon fat, celery, V8 juice and drop dumplings. No problem there, but Dixon wanted something a little different, “more than just that,” she says. The challenge was “how to keep the same profile of an immigrant soup and make it nicer – classier and nicer.” She did that with minor additions – fresh dill to the dumplings and smoked paprika to the broth – and switching out the V8 for 100% tomato juice. Long with the ingredient mods, the process is Dixon’s own. She outlines it: “I cook the bacon and take it out, leave the fat in the pan and cook the celery and onions in that. To that, I add a little flour, the tomato juice and spices. It’s really stupid-simple but really good.”
When it comes to making it, that just doesn’t happen often enough, says Dixon. “It’s nice if you’re looking for something hearty.” Along with a salad, you’ve got a lovely dinner.
