Vegan Spaetzle with Wild Garlic
This tried and tested recipe for homemade vegan spaetzle with wild garlic (ramsons) is ideal for anyone who wants to discover a delicious, egg-free version of classic spaetzle. In addition to a simple basic recipe for wild garlic spaetzle as a side dish, I’ll also show you my favorite version of spaetzle as a main course.
Welcoming Spring into the Kitchen
When the wild garlic season comes around, it’s a sign that spring is on its way. Hallelujah, another winter survived!
Every year, I can’t wait to grab a big bag and head out to collect wild garlic. Luckily, it grows like crazy in Vienna, like in the Augarten, Prater or at Pötzleinsdorfer Schlosspark.
You can find wild garlic in supermarkets, but it often seems overpriced, especially since it grows like a weed in so many places. Let’s be honest — homemade wild garlic spaetzle tastes even better when made with foraged wild garlic! (No offense if you buy it — store-bought is still better than none at all.).
Check out this little video I made about the wild garlic prices. “Jeden Frühling in Wien” means “every spring in Vienna”.
I usually turn my freshly picked wild garlic into a vibrant pesto. Sometimes, I make a warm wild garlic sauce for potatoes or even a creamy wild garlic soup. But not too long ago, I finally treated myself to a proper spaetzle scraper and set out to make my own vegan wild garlic spaetzle.
A classic but without egg
Austrian spaetzle are usually prepared with egg(s), but you will see that it is totally unnecessary. These spaetzle recipe is also dairy-free. I’ve tried different variations and finally settled on just a few simple ingredients:
- Flour: All-purpose flour or strong/bread flour
- Semolina: Durum wheat semolina or regular wheat semolina
- Fresh wild garlic (ramsons)
- Spices: Freshly grated nutmeg, salt
- Other ingredients: oil, vegan butter if desired, plant-based milk and sparkling water (soda water or sparkling mineral water).
Which flour or semolina?
It doesn’t matter – both work! I’ve tried different combinations and they’ve all worked:
✔ All-purpose flour + durum wheat semolina
✔ Strong/bread flour + regular wheat semolina
✔ Strong/bread flour + durum wheat semolina
✔ All-purpose flour + regular wheat semolina
If there’s a noticeable difference, it might be in the last one: it might be a little too doughy with too little bite. But that’s complaining on a high level — in the end, this version also worked wonderfully and tasted great.
Make your own spaetzle
Why not try making your own vegan spaetzle? They’re so easy to make, that I wonder why I didn’t start much earlier. So, don’t wait — give them a go!
Before we dive in, a quick note: wild garlic spaetzle are straightforward, but they do leave a fair bit of washing up. If you don’t have a dishwasher, be sure to set aside some time for cleaning up.
You’ll need to wash a bunch of stuff like a cutting board, mixer, dough bowl, saucepan, spaetzle scraper, colander, bowl for quenching, bowl for keeping warm, knives, dough hooks, or wooden spoons. And that’s just the “wild garlic spaetzle as a side dish” version.
If you have a dishwasher, they’re still quick to make:
- First, mix the dry ingredients together. In a bowl, combine the flour, semolina, salt, and nutmeg (use a food processor if you have one).
- Next, puree the wild garlic. Roughly chop the wild garlic (so it doesn’t get stuck in the blender jug) and blend *) finely with the oil and plant-based milk.
- Next, mix the dough by adding the wild garlic mixture and sparkling water to the dry ingredients. Use a food processor and mix for about 5 minutes until the dough starts to bubble. Alternatively, you can beat vigorously with a wooden spoon—a good arm workout! ‘The spaetzle batter consistency should be fairly thick.
- While you’re doing that, get the water ready. Fill a large pan with water and add salt. Keep the water boiling—don’t just let it simmer.
- Scrape the spaetzle: Rinse the spaetzle scraper briefly with water, hang it on the edge of the pot (without touching the boiling water, otherwise the spaetzle dough will stick and block the holes). Pour the dough into the grater in portions and move it back and forth with the scraper. Due to its great reviews I bought the WMF spaetzle grater and I am very happy with it. This spaetzle scraper *) is a similar modell you can get in the USA. If you want to make spaetzle without a specific spaetzle maker, you can also use the traditional method with a wooden board and knife. I prefer the efficient option.
- Cool down the spaetzle — as soon as they float to the top (after about 2 minutes), remove them with a slotted spoon and rinse them briefly in cold water.
From here you can decide what to do next …
Side dish or main course
Spaetzle as a side dish or as a main course – both are possible. Or simply enjoy the side dish as a main course: fried with only a little bit of vegan butter or oil and salted; this is my daughter’s favorite way to eat them.
Personally, I prefer spaetzle as a main course – in the classic form of cheese spaetzle. I’ve always enjoyed eating them, and I used to make them with ready-made spinach spaetzle.
Cheese spaetzle is usually topped with grated cheese and served with fried onions. I prefer to prepare them directly in the pan:
- Fry a finely chopped onion in oil
- Add the spaetzle
- Mix with vegan cheese and freshly ground black pepper
Delicious!
Vegan feta also goes perfectly with it, for example an aromatic homemade almond cheese. Alternatively, you can serve your vegan spaetzle with a spicy lentil dish or a simple tomato sauce.
Freezing wild garlic spaetzle
If you don’t want to eat the spaetzle straight away or if you simply want to make them in advance, you can easily freeze them. There are two ways to prevent them from sticking together:
- Freeze them beforehand: Place the spaetzle on a baking tray lined with baking paper and leave to freeze. Then transfer in portions to freezer bags or airtight containers. With this variant, the spaetzle won’t stick together. Alternatively, you can also freeze them directly.
- Freeze them directly: Pack the spaetzle directly into freezer bags in practical portions.
When you’re ready to eat your vegan spaetzle, you can either heat them briefly in boiling water or fry them directly in a pan. Just be careful not to heat them for too long so that they don’t become too soft.
You might also like to eat …
Homemade Vegan Spaetzle with Wild Garlic (without Eggs & Dairy-free)
Equipment
- mini blender *)
Ingredients
Wild Garlic Spaetzle
- 300 g flour see notes
- 75 g semolina see notes
- pinch nutmeg freshly ground
- 1 tsp salt
- 200 g wild garlic fresh, about 5 hands full
- 2 tbsp oil e.g. rapeseed oil
- 120 ml milk e.g. oat milk
- 140 ml sparkling water
- 1 tbsp salt for the cooking water
- black pepper
Wild Garlic Cheese Spaetzle
- 1 onion a larger one
- 2 tbsp oil
- 200 grams grated vegan cheese
- some chives
Instructions
Wild Garlic Spaetzle
- Mix the dry ingredients (flour, semolina, nutmeg, salt) in the mixing bowl of your kitchen machine.
- Next, wash and roughly chop the wild garlic and blend finely with the oil and vegan milk. For this step I either use my small blender (like a NutriBullet) or my immersion blender.
- Next, add the wild garlic mixture to the dry ingredients.
- Then add the sparkling water. I always swirl the blender jug briefly with it.
- Now mix everything (using the kitchen machine with the normal dough attachment that you also use for cake doughs) for about 5 minutes on high speed. Alternatively, you can train your muscle power with a wooden spoon.
- Leave the dough to rest briefly, while you bring the water to the boil and add the salt. From now on, the water must boil constantly and not just be boiling hot.
- Rinse the grater briefly with water and hang it on the edge of the pan. The grater must not touch the boiling water (otherwise the dough will stick and block the holes). Now add the spaetzle dough to the grater in portions (!). Move back and forth with the scraper until it is used up.
- The spaetzle are ready when they float to the top (takes about two minutes). Take them out with a slotted spoon and rinse in cold water: Prepare a separate bowl of cold water.
- Then take your spaetzle out again from the cold water and put them in a sieve to drain.
- If you don't want to process your spaetzle straight away, but want to keep them warm, you could now put them in a casserole dish with a knob of vegan butter or a little oil and keep them warm in the oven at around 120 degrees Celsius (248 °F) top/bottom heat.
Cheese Spaetzle
- Peel and finely chop the onion.
- Heat a little oil in a pan and fry the onion until translucent.
- Now add the wild garlic spaetzle and the grated vegan cheese. Fry everything a little until the cheese has melted.
- Season to taste with salt and pepper and sprinkle with finely chopped chives if you like.
Video
@plantbased.redhead 🇦🇹Vegane Bärlauchspätzle / 🇺🇸Vegan Wild Garlic (Ramsons) Spaetzle 🇦🇹Ein einfaches und vielfach erprobtes Rezept für köstliche vegane Bärlauchspätzle – schmecken als Beilage oder als herzhafte Hauptspeise in Form von veganen Käsespätzle. 💚 👉Das detaillierte Rezept findest du auf plantbasedredhead.com 🌱👩🦰 🇺🇸Homemade vegan spaetzle with wild garlic – a hearty Austrian spaetzle dish without eggs or dairy. Enjoy it as a side dish or as a hearty main course as vegan cheese spaetzle. 💚 👉Visit my blog for the detailed recipe: plantbasedredhead.com 🌱👩🦰 #vegan #plantbased #plantbasedredhead #vegansoftiktok #fyp #bärlauch #bärlauchspätzle #wildgarlic #spaetzle
♬ Anxiety – Doechii
Notes
- The quantity is enough for about 4 portions as a side dish. If you use it to make cheese spaetzle, it will make 2 to 3 portions.
- Flour and semolina: I have tried different combinations and the following worked well:
-
- All purpose-flour and durum wheat semolina
- Bread flour and (soft) wheat semolina
- Bread flour and durum wheat semolina
- All purpose-flour and (soft) wheat semolina (this version is perhaps a little doughy, but it still worked and tasted good).
- The cooking time for the spaetzle is actually only two minutes, but as you can’t make them all at once, I noted ten minutes to the cooking time above.
- When the wild garlic season is over, I like to make spinach spaetzle with this recipe: simply replace the wild garlic with (baby) spinach leaves or frozen spinach (do not squeeze when defrosting).
- The spaetzle can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 2 days.
- The nutritional values refer to the pure spaetzle as a side dish.