Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Hi. Wondering if people are using recipes with egg subs or recipes that don't contain any 'eggs'. I have found a couple of recipes on line for each type with positive comments. I would imagine that the 'egg' versions puff up a little more and would be a more traditional type of finished product; however, I would appreciate any comments regarding your spaetzle recipes. Cheers.

I don't have any recipes for you, but I just want to say that I am also on the hunt for a good one. I went to Berlin last week and ate at YoYo Foodworld a few times where they had spatzle on the menu. They made it fresh and served it with some vegan cheese and onions. I loved it. Perfect comfort food.

I'll share any links I find. Haven't had the guts to make it myself yet!

I've had this one bookmarked. Wondering if I could sub the soyflour for something else. http://dieflaschenpost.blogspot.nl/2007/04/sptzle.html

There's a recipe in World Vegan Feast, which I haven't actually tried. It contains flour, chickpea flour, salt, and non-dairy milk.

I'm not too smart when it comes to understanding the purpose of different flours in stuff. Do you guys know why the spaetzle recipes call for things in addition to flour? Like soy or chickpea?

^ I don't know but I would guess that the reduction of gluten in the other flours makes for a less chewy, dumpling type of bite. I am kinda ignorant because I never tried original egg/dairy spaetzle so I don't know what am looking for beyond the various written descriptions.

Thanks for the link and the cookbook pointer too. I will add them to my try list. Coincidentally, I made the one you linked yesterday and it was okay: I made it too thick and had to adjust it half way through. It didn't really have any taste on its own but picked up the flavours of the sauce very well. I might just try it with an Ener G or two in there and something to add some richness to the flavour.

I am also going to try http://vegweb.com/recipes/vegan-spaetzle because it will test my theory of the eggs leavening changing the consistency to a more airy and puffed pieces.

Will keep you posted. Can't have spaetzle everyday though so it may take a couple of days.

How did you serve the spaetzle?

I think the chickpea flour in the World Vegan Feast recipe is to replicate the flavour from the eggs. Bryanna also uses chickpea flour in her pasta dough recipe, which I make all the time, for that reason. I've been meaning to try her spaetzle recipe for ages, because I really like most of her recipes. The only spaetzle recipe I've tried to date was the one in Urban Vegan, which was tasty but not terribly authentic. And the serving sizes were ridiculously small.

Many traditional spätzle recipes call for flour and semolina. You can even buy spätzle flour that is made with those ingredients. I think that is why the recipe linked to earlier in this thread calls for corn meal. The semolina cuts the gluten a bit like Jonny said and it gives the spätzle a firmer texture. The soy or chickpea flour is just an egg replacer since most vegan spätzle recipes are just the veganized version of a standard omni spätzle recipe. That calls for "1 egg and 1-2 tablespoons semolina per 100 g flour".

I follow my mother-in-law's way of making it and finely grate an onion and a potato into flour, salt and water. Sorry, I don't know the ratios cause I just eyeball it. And I just leave the egg out. Not traditional but the onion and potato add a lot of flavor.

Thanks great info above posts. I love the idea of the finely grated flavours. Semolina addition is an interesting idea which I will try for sure. Just as a note, the linked recipe has corn flour as opposed to corn meal.

Pickledtreats: I served it tossed in a bit of olive oil and nutritional yeast as a base with a quite dry mixture of sauteed onion/garlic, seitan sausage, garbanzo beans, chili peppers, mushrooms, chiffonade of Kale/Gai Lan/Escarole with a touch of stock, tom sauce/lemon juice and then thickened with ground flax.

Totally non traditional use of it but hot damn, it was really good and a nice change of texture compared to the usual base.

that cookbook below should be delivered to me today, it does have a spaetzle recipe in it, i'll check the ingredients and let you know.

http://www.amazon.com/The-30-Minute-Veg ... 0738214337



as for the soy flour, again i am not an expert in different flour types, but i do recall julie saying in her 'vegan diner' cookbook, for a specific recipe for a blueberry loaf, not to sub out the soy flour for ground flax seed or something else. she says, in this recipe, the soy flour really makes the bread loaf rise quite nicely.

so maybe, in in the case of spaetzle, the soy flour helps it puff up a bit and not be so doughy and chewy?

as for the cookbook link i mentioned above, his spaetzle recipe calls for spelt flour, flax seed mixed with water, soy milk, and some seasonings.

Seems to be like a veganized version of a real traditional recipe with egg/milk replacements. I am leaning towards this method having the best texture.