Monday, April 23, 2007

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!

25 comments:

myriam said...

YUM! i do spätzle with curd in it. it makes it a little lighter but still yum. actually... i might make some next week. will let you know.
m

Anonymous said...

oh! i *love* spatzle! i don't have that awesome gadget you have, but i'd love to try your recipe some time soon! thank you for sharing your beautiful creation!

peace,
stonielove

Connie said...

hm, i've only had spatzle once and lets say it was my dad's crazy little project and it didn't turn out so well... but you've inspired me to give it another go!

vko said...

How fun & yummy. Your picture looks so pretty. I want to try that at some point- looks like perfect comfort food!

bazu said...

I want some!

Farmzalot said...

what do you use as 'butter'?

Anonymous said...

Hi. Thanks for the recipe. The German site is excellent. The instructions say to have the mixture rest for 30 minutes.

Dumb Okie said...

Hi I made these spaetzle tonight and they tasted absolutely delicious. Thing is, I just about broke my ricer. Now, I did put the dough in the fridge while I made my stroganoff (which rocked, btw: a vegan version of the stroganoff from Passionate Vegetarian with pfifferlinge instead of buttons). Maybe this was the cause of my problem. That is my question to you: Was my dough too cold? Was there not enough water? Too little water? Why was it so difficult to squish the dough through my ricer that I didn't have the hand strength to do it, leading my boyfriend to squish it so hard that it bent the whole contraption? Thanks in advance for your insights. Cheers, DumbOkie

Rosey said...

Scraping the spaetzle off a wooden cutting board is the traditional way to make them. My great grandmother was told as a child that she could never get married until she could make her spaetzle very thin and even.

Anonymous said...

I made these just a few minutes ago with just flour, vegitable spread and a little soy milk.They turned out FANTASTIC. They're firm and just as good as egg spaetzl. I seasoned them with a bit of sage, too. And stuck them in vegitable stock as "dumplings"! It was awesome.

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Adrian said...

I think I'll make these for our upcoming Valentine's Day themed potluck - everyone will love 'em.logo design

Marta Jeremy Emily and Abigail said...

Thanks for posting this recipe. I grew up on my Oma's Spaezle and now I have a way to make them egg free! Your site had the most authentic looking spaezle of any of the vegan ones I saw. Can't wait to try these. I grew up eating it in a creamy mushroom stroganoff gravy with chunks of homemade gluten steaks. Amazing! Its also good if you puree some spinach (use less water) to add in, then do a cream Alfredo type sauce on top! Wow!

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Gudrun said...

I will have to try these. I am allergic to corn, so I will try to use cream of wheat instead and see if that works. I could a "touch" of tumeric to help color it a light yellow! DO YOU KNOW WHERE I CAN FIND A GLUTEN FREE RECIPE. MY NEPHEW HAS CELIAC DISEASE AND I WOULD LIKE TO FIND A TRIED AND TRUE RECIPE!!!! Thank you so much.
Oh Hello Marta, Jeremy, Emily and Abigail!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Is the corn flour in your recipe corn starch or corn meal?

WILDFIRE said...

Oh Danke fire den Tip! I will have to try this ASAP!

Alison said...

Thank you, so wonderful I have guests from Germany and as a gift they bought me a speatzleria - I'm lacto vegan, so hope to delight them!!

Johanna said...

Ich war ein Au-Pair maechen im Baden-Württemberg...yes, I learned quite well how to made the egg/cheese-based version. These look great!

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Léa W said...

These look amazing!
Any idea of how i could turn this gluten free??