Comments on: Spaetzle und Linsen—Homemade Spaetzle Noodles with Lentil Sauce

By: Fuji Mama (Rachael)

Fuji Mama (Rachael) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:48:03 +0000

@Ron Staiger, Thank you for sharing your memories Ron!

By: Ron Staiger

Ron Staiger — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:08:30 +0000

I too watched my Oma cook Linsen und spaetzles and while she used the press to squeeze the spatzles into the boiling water, she also showed me how to cut them off a cutting board with a knife- a method that is a lot more fun, albeit messy. To the two bags of washed, carefully picked over lentils we always added a cup of rough chopped carrots, 1/4 cup diced onions, 2 bay leaves, 1 tsp cracked pepper, 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar (or to your taste- start with 1/4 cup), and 2 packages (or as my Oma would say, ein doppel packung) of Maggi brand Rouladen Sosse and 1 large smoked butt. Cover with spring or filtered water in large pot so that every thing is covered. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer, cover and cook for about 45 minutes stirring often. Remove bay leaves. When the lentils begin to soften and break down, remove two cups and mash to thicken sauce, return to pot and cook for an additional half hour- if needed add a little water but remember this is lentils with sauce not lentil soup.
For the spaetzles the above recipe is ok but we would use six eggs instead of four and add 1/2 tsp of white pepper and 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg. Leftover spaetzles are great fried in butter to have with eggs for breakfast instead of home fries. Guten Appetit

By: Kath (My Funny Little Life)

Kath (My Funny Little Life) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 22:31:58 +0000

This is a typical southern or south-western German dish. (In northern Germany, we don’t eat Spätzle.) I love how many stories are tied to that dish for you. Your Oma must have been an amazing woman! :D The butter-flour mix is called “Mehlschwitze” (roux) over here, although I find it peculiar to add chopped onions to it. But I’m sure that’s good as well. :) Kudos on making the noodles yourself! 8O

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 21:31:58 +0000

I can totaly relate to your memories growing up eating your grandparents cooking, Spaetzle und Linsen is one of our family favorites as well.

We use no flour in our recipe because the Linsen is vary startchy in itself, we usually use chunks of double smoke bacon as it adds an excellent inviting aroma and taste, I find it is best served slightly runny as this will help to incorperate through the noodles. (the noodles will soak in the flavore if let sit a few minutes prior to eating making the texture of the meal blend perfectly).

Thank you for shareing you story and your recipe.

By: Crushing On > Rachael Hutchings of La Fuji Mama plus Peko Peko Giveaway | foodiecrush

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 06:37:09 +0000

[...] Spanning the globe of culinary influences, you’ll find Rachael mentoring a young blogger about a fav Japanese comfort dish: Oyakodon and next posting an homage to her family’s history with her grandmother’s traditional German recipe of spaetzle and lentils. [...]

By: Maja

Maja — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 12:46:21 +0000

This looks awesome :) If you don’t find anything like a spaetzle maker, you could also try to make them the old fashioned way (which is really an adventure) and “scrape” (“Spätzle schaben”) them. You basically spread the dough onto a moist wooden board and scrape it into the boiling water with a spatula. If the posting of a youtube link is not allowed, I very much beg your pardon. The link is in German but I think everybody can figure out how it’s done :-)