Mandy's Bytes: Linsen, Spätzle und Saitenwürstle

Thanks to our followers on Facebook who voted in the poll the recipe I made yesterday was Spätzle. I did some googling to get ideas on what to make with it, since noodles on their own are a little plain, and came up with a traditional German dish Linsen, Spätzle and Saitenwürstle which is spätzle served with a lentil stew and frankfurter like sausages. We'll start with the Spätzle recipe, which I got from the Smitten Kitchen blog:

Dang, that's a lot of eggs!

- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 7 large eggs
- 1/4 cup milk
In a large mixing bowl combine the eggs, flour, and milk. If you have a mixer, I would recommend using it, I mixed my batter by hand and it got very sticky and hard to stir. After it's all mixed together, cover the top of the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for at least an hour.

After the dough has rested for an hour you can get ready to make the noodles. Start by setting a large pot of generously salted water to boil. You will also need to prepare an ice bath to put the noodles into when they come out of the boiling water. You can make the noodles a few different ways, of course if you have a Spätzle press you can use that, you can make lines of dough on a cutting board and use a knife to cut pieces into the pot, or the way I made them is to press the dough through a colander set on top of the pot.

Wear over mitts for this! Steam is hot!

Put about a quarter of the dough into your colander and use a spoon or spatula to press it gently through the holes. Don't put too much in the pot at once or they will all stick together in a big blob. Once in the water let the noodles boil until they float to the top, then scoop them our with a slotted spoon and drop them into the ice bath.

Once you've made all the Spätzle you can drain them out of the ice bath and serve them however you want. I adapted the recipe for the lentil stew from this recipe and you'll need the following ingredients.
- 1 1/2 cups uncooked, rinsed lentils
- 4 1/4 cups meat or vegetable stock
- 1 onion chopped
- 1 carrot chopped
- 2 slices bacon cut into small pieces
- Vegetable oil for fyring
- 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
- Saitenwürstle sausages
I wasn't able to find any Saitenwürstle, but the recipe described them as fairly similar for frankfurters so I settled for some good beef franks instead. I started out by starting the lentils to boil in the stock.

In a large skillet heat up the oil and fry the bacon pieces, carrot and onion until the carrot and onion start to soften. Once the lentils have boiled until they are tender, add the lentils and stock to the skillet and combine with the carrot, onion and bacon mixture. Next you can take the franks and add them to the skillet to heat up. I also put the Spätzle in another pot to warm them back up after the ice bath.

As you can see this recipe makes a LOT of food, so if you plan on making it, have some friends over to share. Once the Spätzle are warmed up, serve the lentil stew and franks over the Spätzle and enjoy!