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

 

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

 

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

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

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

Cheese and shallot Spätzle bake

I have already shared one of my Spätzle recipes here, and here comes another one. To the first recipe I added some bell peppers, but today I'm just making my basic shallot Spätzle bake. Maybe I'll have to explain again what Spätzle is to those who aren't familiar with it. Spätzle is a German dish, Swabian egg noodles or small dumplings, mostly eaten as a side. I however feel that Spätzle can make wonderful stand-alone dishes and therefore use it as the main star of these recipes. It's great weekend food as well.

Spätzle dough:

400g wheat flour

4 eggs

1tsp salt

250ml water

Bake ingredients:

4 shallots

4 garlic cloves

1tbsp olive oil

150g emmental cheese

First caramelise the shallots in olive oil, and also fry the garlic.

Make the Spätzle dough by whisking the dough ingredients into an even batter. It should be fairly moist, yet elastic. Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil and press the Spätzle dough through the largest setting of a potato ricer straight into the heavily boiling water. Do this in small batches, but make sure that the water is always boiling, otherwise it could lead into dissolving of the dough structure into the water. After a couple of minutes the Spätzle start floating on the surface, and then they can be taken out.

Add the cooked Spätzle to the shallot and garlic pan and mix. Put the mixture into an oven dish, you can make one large dish or several smaller ones. Grate the cheese and place it on the top of the bakes.

Bake at 200C for about 20 minutes until the cheese topping is golden brown.

Enjoy with a lovely Riesling and a fresh side salad!

Your VegHog