Spätzle

No, those aren't worms, I promise! A week or so ago I felt like making spaetzle, a German dumpling/noodle. Unfortunately, the orginal version calls for lots of eggs, but with the help of this German vegan website, I was able to make a very nice vegan version that still has the doughy, dumpling-like quality of the original kind. If you speak any German, have a look at that site...it has hundreds and hundreds of very yummy sounding vegan recipes!

All the späztle I tried in Germany were really big and doughy compared to the kinds I've tried in the US. The dough isn't as thick as bread dough but it's pretty close. You use this spaetzle press thing which looks like a potato ricer to make them. But I know I've read somewhere that you can spread the dough over a cutting board and scrape it off in little strips into the boiling water. If you have a colander or seive with really wide holes or a food mill I imagine you could press in through that as well.

Spaetzle

Please don't feel the need to use exactly these amounts of flour or water! The dough should be thicker than pancake batter, but not as thick as bread dough, so about as thick as biscuit dough.

1 cup corn flour

4 tbsp softened 'butter'

2 cups white flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp soy flour
approx. 1 1/4 cup water

Put a large pot of water on to boil. Meanwhile, mix all the ingredients together to form a smooth, moderately stiff dough. Liberally salt the water, and then press the dough into the water using a potato ricer. You will probably have to press in 3 or 4 batches. After you press the dough into the water, immediately stir around with a large slotted spoon or else they will clump together. They will float up to the top when they are ready. This takes 2-3 minutes-- just try one to make sure it is done. I can tell you from experience that over cooking them makes them quite tough! Take the finished spaetzle out of the water, and mix with a tiny bit of butter to keep them from sticking. Repeat until no more dough remains.

In Germany these are traditionally served (at least in Baden-Württemberg) with copious amounts of cheese (bleh!), or lentils (SO GOOD! Just mix cooked lentils with sauteed onion, salt, and vinegar. Sounds weird but seriously the best way to eat them), or a mushroom sauce. I served them with a mushroom stroganoff-esque sauce. I just sauteed lots of onions and mushrooms until soft, and mixed in Tofutti sour cream, a little veggie broth, chopped parsley, peas, and sprinkled with pepper and paprika.I know that sounds really complicated, but the spätzle really take less than 20 minutes to make! I'd be interested to hear if anyone tries these!