Käsespätzle mit Zwiebeln und Weisswein

 

This is a lovely German style dish, one of my favourite comfort foods, small dough dumplings with onion, cheese and wine. The ingredients are very basic. All you need is some time and patience for making the dumplings. You can have Spätzle as a side dish on its own too, but I find that these cheese and onion Spätzle are superior. Have a look at my recipe below.

Käsespätzle mit Zwiebeln und Weisswein

Ingredients

Spätzle dough

2 cups wheat flour

½ cup polenta

2 tbsp potato flour

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 cup water

Other ingredients

2 onions

3 garlic cloves

½ cup white wine

150 g grated Emmental cheese

1 tbsp butter

Salt to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

Method

Make the Spätzle dough first. Mix it until it’s quite bouncy. Add more water or flour, if needed.

Bring water to the boil and press the dough through a Spätzlehobel or potato ricer to the boiling water.

Boil until the dumplings float on the surface and remove the cooked ones with a slotted spoon.

Heat the butter in a frying pan and add the finely chopped onions and garlic. Cook until they are soft and translucent.

Then add the cooked Spätzle to the pan followed by the cheese and wine, season with salt and black pepper and cook until the flavours have blended nicely and the cheese has melted around the Spätzle.

I served this cheese Spätzle with Emmental crisps, sunblushed tomatoes, homemade croutons and salad.

 

I’m sharing this dish with my Cheap Eats challenge. Check it out, you’ll still have plenty of time to take part.

Your VegHog

 

Creamy white asparagus soup

 

Happy May Day everyone! The Labour Day starts sunny here in Copenhagen and we will be enjoying a nice spring day off. The trees are blossoming and people seem happier now that it’s getting warmer. As I’ve already mentioned, I’ve been enjoying the wonderful spring veggies and today’s recipe is one of the dishes I made.

This is a German style creamy white asparagus soup with a little twist, as this soup is vegan. I made it with the very thick and nice Aito oat cream and the nicest white asparagus from the market. I haven’t eaten an asparagus soup for a long time, but it was so nice that I have to make it again while the veg is in season. Here is my recipe that makes a small starter soup for two or a larger bowl of soup for one person.

Creamy white asparagus soup

Ingredients

2-3 white asparagus

1 small onion

2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp vegan butter

100 ml oat cream

200 ml water

1 vegetable stock cube

1 tsp herb salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

50 ml white wine

Method

Peel and chop the asparagus to pieces. Chop the onion and garlic finely.

Start sweating the onion in the vegan butter until it’s soft and then also add the garlic followed by the asparagus.

Pour the oat cream, water and seasoning in and let simmer. Add more water if needed.

Purée the soup and let simmer a bit further after that with the white wine addition.

Enjoy once you are happy with the flavours. Add more seasoning to taste.

Have a lovely weekend!

Your VegHog

Spätzle – Alpine noodles

 

I have written many times about Spätzle on this blog, because it’s one of my absolute favourite foods. They are traditional noodles from the Alpine regions of Southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland. For years I made the egg variant that my friends from Southern Germany taught me. But then I started making a vegan version that contained polenta and potato flour, which made me realise that eggs are not needed for the texture. Most recently I made just a wheat flour variant, as I didn’t happen to have any polenta or potato flour at hand. It turned out very good as well and I’m posting that simple recipe here today.

The tools you use are crucial for making a successful Spätzle. Hence I bought the proper tool, Spätzlehobel, with a voucher that I got for Christmas. I haven’t regretted for a minute for buying this, as it makes Spätzle cooking so easy and effortless. You just place the dough into the small plastic container and then slide it on the metal grater over a pot of boiling water. The dough drops nicely to the water and cooks there. This is a very clean and easy method to work with that dough. However I have also used a potato ricer for many years for this purpose. It is also perfectly fine. Some traditional Spätzle makers also spread the dough on a wooden board and scratch it from there to the boiling water, but I have never tried that method, as it looks like a lot of skill is needed for that.

 

Here is my recipe for these semi-wholemeal Spätzle. The basic recipe is plantbased, but I always have my Spätzle with cheese (Emmental is good for this dish) and fried onions, so my dish was only vegetarian.

Vegan Spätzle

1 cup wheat flour

1 cup wholemeal wheat flour

1-1 ½ cup water

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp salt

Mix the dough until it’s bouncy. Add more water or flour, if the texture isn’t right.

Bring water to the boil.

Press the dough through a Spätzlehobel or potato ricer to the boiling water.

Boil until the Spätzle float on the surface.

Remove the cooked Spätzle with a slotted spoon.

Serve the Spätzle with your favourite sides and enjoy!

Your VegHog

 

Pretzel dough flatbreads

 

It now seems a lifetime away that I lived in Germany. I moved away from there in 2007, so it has been a while indeed. I spent nearly ten years in Cologne, so of course I still miss many things from there. Today’s food is one of those things. There was, and still is, a bakery chain making these tasty flatbreads on a pretzel dough base. I would often get one as a snack on the go. That’s where my inspiration for these flatbreads comes from.

I made half of my flatbreads with an onion, garlic and Cheddar filling and the other half with bell peppers and Mozzarella. I also made sodium carbonate to make my basic pizza dough taste like pretzels. The dough is dipped in the sodium carbonate for a while before hand-stretching, filling and baking the flatbread. You can read all about this method in my previous Pretzel roll post.

Have a nice weekend!

Your VegHog

 

Schupfnudeln with fondue sauce

 

It has been a quiet week and weekend over here with very little significant events. And sometimes those are just the best weeks. I heard that a new street food market opened yesterday fairly close to our home, so I think we will check it out today. Otherwise there is just cooking Sunday dinner on the program. What have you been up to lately?

Schupfnudeln are one of my absolute German food favourites. They are large finger-shaped potato noodles, similar to gnocchi. I love them in any combination, and now I made them with a cheesy fondue sauce. It was so good, best comfort food when it starts getting a bit colder again. This dish is easy to make, it just requires some time and patience. Have a look at my recipe below.

 

Ingredients

 

Schupfnudeln

700 g potatoes

300 g wheat flour

75 g potato flour

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp vegetable oil

Fondue sauce

4 tbsp butter

2 garlic cloves

4 tbsp wheat flour

1 cup white wine

1-2 cups water

100 g Emmental cheese

Onion powder to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

Sea salt to taste

Method

Cook the potatoes and then peel them. Mash the potatoes and let them cool down.

Add the flours gradually to the potato mash, season with salt, add the oil and knead to an even dough.

Shape about 3-4 cm long noodles from the dough.

Cook the noodles in water for about 5 minutes until they float on the top.

Cool them in cold water and then fry in a pan until they have some golden brown frying marks.

Make the sauce in parallel. Melt the butter in a pan and cook the garlic in it.

Whisk the flour in and add the wine.

Then gradually also add water and whisk the mix into a smooth sauce. I put 1-2 cups water to the recipe. Add it until you have the desired thickness.

Then also whisk the Emmental cheese in until it melts.

Season to taste and combine with the noodles.

Serve the dish with a salad. I served some dehydrated cherry tomatoes, mini tomatoes from the garden and spinach leaves with it.

Have a nice Sunday!

Your VegHog

Schupfnudeln

Schupfnudeln are traditional German thick “finger” noodles or dumplings. Some of the basic recipes just use flour, eggs and water, but often also potato mash is added. Schupfnudeln can be eaten in both savoury and sweet dishes. There are regional differences, whether the noodles are just boiled in water or also fried. I definitely prefer the savoury potato variation fried.

I made vegan Schupfnudeln and first I was a bit nervous whether they would hold their shape, but they did so perfectly. I added some potato flour to the dough, which I think made a firmer texture. I served the Schupfnudeln with panfried smoked tofu and mushrooms and side salad. Here is my recipe, which really is simple. The shaping of the noodles just requires some effort and patience. Give it a try, these noodles really are amazing! This is also my last recipe to my German Food Week. I hope you've enjoyed it.

Schupfnudeln

Ingredients

700 g potatoes

300 g wheat flour

75 g potato flour

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp vegetable oil

Vegetable oil for frying

Method

Cook the potatoes and then peel them. Mash the potatoes and let them cool down.

Add the flours gradually to the potato mash, season with salt, add the oil and knead to an even dough.

Shape about 3-4 cm long noodles from the dough.

Cook the noodles in water for about 5 minutes until they float on the top.

Cool them in cold water and then fry in a pan until they have some golden brown frying marks.

Serve the Schupfnudeln with for example mushrooms like I did and enjoy!

Your VegHog

Currywurst

Is everyone having a nice Friday? Perhaps you are craving a vegan sausage dish. At least now you've come to a place where you can read about one. Maybe you will be inspired to make this German style dish.

Currywurst, curry sausage, is a true working class hero from Germany and it is eaten a lot. The dish was invented in Berlin in 1949 by Herta Heuwer, who sold her creation as streetfood. Since then it has become a favourite in many German regions and is often enjoyed as takeaway or streetfood. Traditionally it's a cut sausage (yes, the cutting is a must!) served with tomato based and curry spiced sauce. Usually fries are served on the side.

Of course I veganised the traditional recipe and made the sauce myself. I also added some more veg to the serving: homemade twice-cooked potato fries, grated turnip, braised fennel and pickled red cabbage. I spiced my sauce with ground cumin, ground turmeric, smoked paprika, onion powder, cayenne pepper and ground black pepper, as my kitchen was lacking curry powder. It was a nice and comforting dish.

I have previously made a tri-lingual post about currywurst, which you can find here. How do you feel about currywurst? Have you ever tasted it, or would you like to?

Have a nice weekend!

Your VegHog

Spätzle

Here comes my second German recipe, after I started a German food week last weekend by posting a recipe for Laugenbrötchen, pretzel rolls. This one is a Swabian classic Spätzle, chunky noodles/thin dumplings. I've posted a Spätzle recipe a few times before that my friends from that region taught me, but now I made vegan Spätzle for the first time. These noodles are normally made with egg, but I took the plunge and tried to substitute the eggs with a mix of oil, polenta and potato flour as the binding agent. The vegan version was perfectly fine. In fact I didn't notice any difference in the texture or flavour to the eggy version. I will surely be always making vegan Spätzle from now on.

I hadn't made this recipe for a while, as I was lacking an important tool; we gave our potato ricer away when we moved to Denmark, and that was my go-to Spätzle maker. For making Spätzle you will need something with a surface of approximately 5x5 mm holes, where you can press the dough through to boiling water. I took the risk and decided to try this recipe with just my coarse cheese grater, and it worked out nicely. Making Spätzle is a real regional art and there are a few ways to make it. I quite like this article by Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper, where they compare the tools for making Spätzle. And don't worry, if you don't speak German, the article has a nice demonstration video for each method. I really recommend watching those, if you consider making this dish.

So here is my basic recipe for vegan Spätzle, which I unfortunately ruined for vegans by baking the noodles with slow cooked onions and cheese. I personally think that's the best combination, but also just frying them after the boiling is a nice variation.

Vegan Spätzle

Ingredients

2 cups wheat flour

1 cup water

½ cup polenta

2 tbsp potato flour

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp salt

Method

Mix the dough ingredients together to form a bouncy and stretchy texture. Add more flour or water, if needed.

Boil water in a large pan and start pressing the dough through a potato ricer or the tool of your choice.

Once the noodles swim on the top, they are done and can be removed from the water.

That's how easy it is!

Your VegHog

Laugenbrötchen and German Food Week

I'm starting off a German food week, which I unofficially call the “Novemberfest”, as I've been making many of my favourite German dishes lately. Germans have many suitable dishes especially for this season, so I thought that this is a perfect time to share some of them with you. All my dishes will be of course vegetarian, but they will even be mostly vegan or very easy to veganise. I hope you'll be following this special week.

I lived nearly ten years in Cologne, Germany, where I studied at the university. Students don't have such a great budget for eating out, but I got well acquainted with many German dishes during that time, including some excellent traditional homecooking and baking. I moved from Germany to the UK in 2007, so I've been away for quite a while notwithstanding a few visits. This year I was lucky enough to be able to travel twice to Cologne on business. Then I could go to my old doorstep and quarter and also eat some local food.

The first recipe in this German food week is for Laugenbrötchen aka pretzel rolls. I just love the flavour of pretzel rolls, and they are nice with just a little butter and cheese. You can make a more premium version with tomato and mozzarella as well. If you're a regular reader, you might already know how I like baking different savoury rolls. I haven't made pretzel rolls for a long while, but making them now again reminded me of their goodness.

I have already published a recipe for Laugenbrötchen on my blog, so I will just link the recipe here, if you want to have a look at the details.

Do you have any vegetarian or vegan German food favourites?

Have a nice weekend!

Your VegHog

Spätzle bake with mushroom sauce

Sorry about the few day's silence. This week has been quite something, full of work, future planning, less cooking at home, dinners with friends... but I'm back again. I want to share with you my absolute favourite for this season, and in my opinion, best German food of all time: Swabian egg noodles known as Spätzle. Spätzle as such is already really lovely, but baking it with cheese and onion just elevates it to another winning combination. The mushroom sauce also goes really well with it, making the dish so comforting.

I have published a few Spätzle recipes before, as I just love these Swabian egg noodles. My basic recipe always remains the same with the occasional variation between full wheat or partly spelt version. During my study days in Germany my two Swabian friends taught me to cook this traditional dish from their region, and I have made it regularly ever since. This time I tried something new by adding cashew nuts onto the top, and it actually worked really well. I also made a smaller batch than usual. Double the ingredients, if you have more than two eaters.

Have a look below how I made my bake and have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Spätzle bake with mushroom sauce

Spätzle ingredients

150 g wheat flour

50 g spelt flour

200 ml water

2 eggs

1 tsp salt

Other ingredients

50 g cashew nuts

150 g grated cheese

1 onion

1 garlic clove

Olive oil

Salt

Creamy mushroom sauce (chestnut mushrooms, onion, garlic, oat cream, salt, pepper)

Lambs lettuce

Method

Chop the onion and garlic and fry them in olive oil until they are soft and the onion is lightly browned.

Chop the cashew nuts coarsely.

Mix the Spätzle ingredients together into a smooth batter.

Bring water to the boil and press the Spätzle batter straight into the boiling water through a potato ricer. Use the largest holes for the ricer.

Let them boil for a couple of minutes until they swim on the surface.

Mix the drained Spätzle with the onion mix, put into ramekins and cover with cheese and the cashew nut crunch.

Bake at 200 C for about 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Bratkartoffeln – German style fried potatoes

I'm off to Germany tonight!! I'm so happy to have holiday and be able to visit my old home country. I try to post something from there, but if I don't manage, please don't wonder where I am, I'll be back very soon.

Before I'd leave, I wanted to make a vegetarian German dish and chose the good old Bratkartoffeln (fried potatoes) this time. They can be close to heaven when made correctly with a crispy surface and soft middle with an extinct taste. It helps, if the potatoes are cooked the previous day and then directly fried in hot oil and butter. I prefer adding some butter, as it gives them some extra flavour, but you can easily veganise this dish by using plant substitutes for butter. I served the Bratkartoffeln with some fried chestnut mushrooms as a side and here's how I made them.

Ingredients

500 g potatoes

1 large onion

2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp vegetable oil

25 g butter

Salt

Ground black pepper

Parsley

Method

Boil the potatoes in water on the previous night, cool down and store in the fridge overnight. The next day cut them into generous slices or wedges. I left the skins on on mine, but you can also peel them, if you prefer.

Heat the oil and butter in a pan and add the potatoes. Fry them until they are crispy and golden brown.

Chop the onion and garlic finely. Fry them in a separate pan in some oil and add them to the potatoes once they are soft and slightly browned.

Season the dish to taste and enjoy!

Bis bald!

Euer vegetarischer Igel

Spelt Spätzle with smoky leeks

I have posted Spätzle recipes here a couple of times before. Please also see my Cheese and shallot Spätzle bake and the original Spätzle post. Those posts include a bit more detailed instructions for the making, if you're actually up for it. I am also very keen in answering any questions you might have about the process. I can't basically stop talking about this, if only anyone is interested.

Spätzle are Swabian egg noodles, a southern German classic dish. I love them and always want to find new ways to combine them in veggie dishes. One day I thought how great it would be to try Spätzle made of spelt flour, and I made a half and half mix. That was quite successful, so I went even bolder this time and only used spelt flour for this Spätzle. They stuck together just as well as with wheat flour and were wonderfully earthy and tasty.

In order to add even more to the earthiness of the recipe, I baked the Spätzle covered with cheese and hugged by a smoky leek sauce. If you got interested, read the recipe below. It's surprisingly straight forward even though you're making your own noodle batter.

Ingredients:

2 leeks

4 shallots

2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp butter

50 ml dry cider

2 tsp vegetable stock powder

100 g smoky cheddar

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

A few fresh thyme leaves

200 g mozzarella and cheddar mix

Spätzle dough:

400 g spelt flour

4 eggs

1 tsp salt

250 ml water

Method:

Chop the leeks, shallots and garlic and cook them in butter at medium heat for about 10 minutes.

Add the cider and vegetable stock powder.

Finally add the grated smoky cheddar and season with salt, pepper and fresh thyme.

Then mix the Spätzle dough ingredients together into an even batter.

Bring water to the boil and press the Spätzle dough into the water through a potato ricer to make thick noodles.

Cook them until they float on the surface.

Mix the Spätzle with the leek mix and place into an oven dish.

Cover with the mozzarella and cheddar mix and bake until the cheese has melted and is golden brown.

Enjoy the yummy winter flavours!

Your VegHog

Schupfnudeln mit Schnitzel

This dish is basically just something I assembled for a Sunday dinner. Only the sauce is my own creamy vegan mushroom sauce, but the other components are ready made. This is a perfect dinner for a Sunday when you don't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

The main part of this dish are Schupfnudeln, which are southern German and Austrian potato dumplings or thick noodles that are just being pan-fried to get a nice and crispy coating. I'm determined to make my own some day, just like Schnitzel of this style, so watch this space! Schupfnudel can be purchased in various online shops and German shops even outside of Germany, so you should be able to get the ready made ones as well.

Here's a list of the components for this German inspired dish, and how I prepared each one of them.

300 g chestnut mushrooms

250 ml oat cream

1 tbsp olive oil

4 spring onions

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

1 tsp parsley

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

4 vegetarian breaded Schnitzel

160 g flower sprouts

500 g Schupfnudeln

Butter for frying (oil is also fine for a lighter meal)

The mushroom sauce takes the longest to make, so start with prepping that. Slice the mushrooms and chop the spring onions, onion and garlic. Heat the olive oil in a pan and cook the onion and garlic soft. Add the mushrooms and spring onions, and let it cook for a few minutes so that the mushrooms turn a bit darker. Add the oat cream and seasoning. Let the sauce cook until the cream has absorbed the mushroom flavour nicely.

I baked the Schnitzel in the oven to avoid extra oil usage. They just needed about 15 minutes in the oven.

At the same time I steamed the flower sprouts, which are a hybrid vegetable between kale and brussels sprouts. They make a really nice side to many autumn and winter dishes.

Cook the Schupfnudeln in hot butter in a frying pan until they get golden brown and little crispy.

And that's all! Enjoy your meal!

Your VegHog

German street food and drink

If I once more may return to my holiday experiences in Germany, I would like to write about the German street food and drink culture. Obviously in Bremen there was loads street food in the offer as the big fair took place. I have already written here about Ischa Freimaak! In this post I'm also referring to my old recipes, as it seems that I have already posted several recipes for these German “street classics”. What I am noticing, is that German street food has still remained quite traditional, not much has changed since my days. There are fried mushrooms with garlic sauce, fried cauliflower, pizza, crêpes, brezel, poffertjes, donuts etc. I think in large cities a different kind of street food movement is already noticeable, for example in Hamburg's Markthalle in the Speicherstadt. It's a covered food market with amazing international food, and many vegetarian alternatives as well.

I enjoyed some local vegetarian delicacies like Reibekuchen, potato fritters with apple sauce, of which I have also published a recipe here. Then I tasted a novelty potato dish, potato spiral in beer batter. These were both very tasty dishes, yet quite rich on deep-fry fat. A little bit of beer was needed to wash them down. 

Vegetarian Flammkuchen I love, and it's more and more often available as a quick snack to go. I sometimes make my own veggie Flammkuchen, and you can find my flame cake recipe here. 

There are more than enough exquisite sweet alternatives to eat, and the Lebkuchen hearts are of course one of the classics. Unfortunately this time I wasn't so much in the mood for sweet dishes.

During the holiday I also started the Glühwein season by drinking the first mulled wine of the autumn outdoors. Drinking mulled wine outdoors is one of my favourite pastimes for this season and I'm so thrilled about the fact that Christmas markets will open soon! It was also possible to drink beer and wine at street stands (of course in Germany!), and actually the weather was really nice for that on couple of days.

I would like to hear about your experiences of German street food culture. Do I have any German readers who have more idea of the current trends?