Growing up there wasn’t a holiday where my Dad didn’t make up a big batch of spätzle. He always made extra so that he could send all our guest home with to-go packages. My parents both love to cook, but once they started down the vegan path, it was my mom who took over veganizing old family favorites and one that she has been working on for the past ten years is my Dad’s spätzle recipe.
Spätzle is traditionally an egg noodle so in previous attempts she would use other egg substitutes like tofu, but nothing seemed to work, until the Vegg. Hmmm…that kind of sounds like one of those infomercials you see on late night T.V. trying to sell you something. I would just like to say now, that the Vegg did not give me free product or ask me to write a review. I purchased the Vegg when it first became available at our little vegan grocery store, Vegan Haven, formerly Sidecar for Pigs Peace, and brought it to my mom. She has experimented with it far more than I have with great success.
My three favorite German foods as a kid were Jäger Schnitzel, Roladin, and Spätzle. The Jäger Schnitzel I was able to replicate awhile ago and you may read the recipe here, but please don’t make a decision based on the picture. It was one of the first recipes I did on the blog before I figured out how to use a camera and lighting! The other two dishes my Mom made vegan this year for our New Year’s Eve dinner. The Roladin was great but she wants to tweak it a bit more before sharing. The spätzle on the other hand is amazing and ready for the world to see.
Notes:
*My parents made spätzle a lot so they actually have a press which is the same thing as a potato ricer. I feel it would be difficult to replicate this recipe without this type of tool. I have read that you can push the dough through holes of a colander and cut to the size you want. If anyone has tried this method I would love your thoughts.
*I apologize for part of the recipe being in metric. That is how my Mom does it and she swears it doesn’t work if you try to convert. Hey, I’m just happy to have the recipe!
Ingredients:
150 ml water + 200 ml water
1 tbsp the Vegg
1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1 3/4 cups unbleached flour
1/2 cup garbanzo bean flour
1 tsp Himaylan salt (fine grind)
3 tbsp vegan butter
Directions:
Mix together the Vegg and cornstarch so that they are well blended. Add 150 ml water and with either an immersion blender or regular blender mix together.
In a large bowl mix together both flours and salt. Create a well in the center of the flour mixture.
Add remaining water to the Vegg mix and then pour into the well in the center of the flour. Mix by hand until smooth. Mixture will be thicker than pancake batter.
In a large pot bring 3 quarts of water to a boil. In small patches press noodles into boiling water and cook for about 5 minutes, until they come to the top. Remove from water and strain. Repeat until you have cooked all of the dough.
Once noodles have cooled, melt butter in a frying pan over medium heat and fry until for a couple of minutes. Serve.
Don't Fear the Vegan 
traditionally you just scrave(?) the spätzle off a wet cutting board, there are special scrapers but you can also use a normal kitchen knife. search for “spätzle schaben” (in german) for pictures. of course it’s more comfortable with special appliances, but the traditional method works (if your dough has the right consistency) and I like the taste when some spätzle are thicker than others.
I’ll definitely try the recipe though! and you really don’t taste the garbanzo bean flour?
I had no idea. I have only seen my family make it and they have used the press. Good to know, thanks for sharing! I am not a fan of garbanzo bean flour and was skeptical, but I could not taste it. I wasn’t there when she made it, so I actually didn’t know it was used until I was writing the recipe.
Garbanzo bean flour is supposed to make things taste more “eggy,” I think. I haven’t tried it, though. Do you find this is true? Is that good, here?
I believe it does. I have only used it in gluten-free baking, but my mom has used it for omelet’s, crepes, and now these noodles. I couldn’t tell in the crepes or noodles, but I could with the omelet, though I saw her put the flour in that one where I didn’t with the others so it may have just been psychological. 🙂
Replace the garbanzo flour with durum flour. This creates a noodle that has a bit more body and is similar to the spaetzle that you can get in Germany. I’ve only been making spaetzle for a short time. My Hungarian family made a similar food that I tried once when I was a kid. I do not remember the name of it for the world of me but it was almost identical. And my grandfather, while Hungarian, was born to a Hungarian dad and an Austrian mom. And we know that many of the eastern block countries all served similar dishes. Try it with the durum. You won’t be sorry.
This looks very Yummy!!!!
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