Vegan German Spaetzle
Serves 4
Adapted from Ve Eat Cook Bake
3 cups (400 grams) all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons semolina flour
3 tablespoons potato starch
3 teaspoons salt
¼ - ½ teaspoon turmeric, for color
You might be tempted to add more turmeric because you won’t see much of a color change after adding this amount, but avoid the temptation! The Spaetzle will come out much more orange than you may want if you add too much!
⅛ - ¼ teaspoon Kala Namak, also known as Himalayan black salt, for egg taste
1½ - 2 cups (400 - 500 milliliters) plant-based milk, unsweetened (I like using oat milk)
Heat a very large pot of water over medium-high heat and let it boil. This can take 20-30 minutes, so start this process early. This is the pot that the noodles will fall in to cook. Because noodle making is a lengthier process and the pot won’t have a lid, I advise using a larger pot or else you’ll constantly need to add water back to the pot and get it back to boiling.
In a large bowl, sift the all-purpose flour. Mix in the semolina flour, potato starch, salt, turmeric, Kala Namak, and 1½ cup plant-based milk. Using a wooden spoon, mix the ingredients until it forms a uniform batter. You’ll notice lumps in the batter, but it will evetually become one homogenous batter. This can take 5 minutes. If the batter is too thick, slowly add additional plant-based milk, up to ½ cup as you also don’t want the batter to be too runny.
Continue beating and whipping the batter, until little air pockets/bubbles to appear in the batter. This takes some time, so it can be another 10-15 minutes. The final batter will still look grainy. Pictured above is what the final batter will look like.
Once the batter is ready and the water is boiling, place your Spaetzle maker over the boiling pot of water and add batter to the hopper. Slide the hopper back and forth, allowing the noodles to fall in the water.
Once the hopper is empty and the Spaetzle float to the surface, use a slotted spoon to fish the noodles out and place them in a colander to let them drain. Once drained, pour the finished noodles in backing pan.
Repeat these steps until all of the batter and cheese are used up.
The vegan Spaetzle will be more glutinous and sticky than Spaetzle made with egg, so you plan on storing these Spaetzle for later use, rinse the noodles off under cold water before storing them or else they’ll stick and clump together.
Serve them the same way you’d serve egg-based Spaetzle: with a melty, vegan cheese, with a delicious sauce, or sautéed up in a pan.
Enjoy!