Vegan Potato Dumplings (Schupfnudeln) with Mushroom Sauce
Coming home after a busy day of work, you probably won't be too motivated to spend a lot of time in the kitchen cooking a complicated dish for dinner, right? These are the moments when the refrigerated counter in a supermarket seems like a knight in shining armor. There are already plenty of vegan options to be found there, from vegan puff pastry to gnocchi, ravioli, to tarte flambée dough. But somehow the German potato dumplings called 'Schupfnudeln' are always made with eggs.
So what a blessing for all of us that it's so easy to make these vegan Schupfnudeln from scratch! Basically, all you need to do is to use mashed potatoes as a base and add flour and some starch to be able to form them. This step looks more complicated than it is, and it's actually a lot of fun! We're using soy flour and vegan butter as an egg substitute in this recipe as they help to make the dough sticky and not too dry.
These 'Schupfnudeln' can be served both sweet and savory. You can find our sweet version with poppy seeds and a plum sauce here. For today's mushroom sauce, feel free to use any kind of dried mushrooms, but make sure to save the broth after soaking them. It's a wonderfully flavorful sauce. If you can't find dried mushrooms, you could also use fresh mushrooms only and vegetable broth instead of the mushroom stock.
If you're not into a mushroom sauce at all, try the classic German combination with sauerkraut. Melt some vegan butter, fry diced onions until translucent, then add the sauerkraut. Season with apple cider vinegar, salt, cumin, and pepper. As a bacon alternative, you could fry diced smoked tofu until golden brown and crispy.
Vegan Potato Dumplings (Schupfnudeln) with Mushroom Sauce
Ingredients
For the potato noodles (Schupfnudeln):
- 450 g (1 lb) starchy potatoes
- 100 g (0.75 cup) wheat flour (type 405)
- 1 tbsp (0.5 oz) cornstarch
- 2 tbsp (1 oz) vegan butter
- 2 tbsp (0.5 oz) soy flour
- salt
- pepper
- nutmeg
For the mushroom pan:
- 15 g (0.5 oz) dried porcini mushrooms (or shiitake mushrooms)
- 250 ml (1 cup) hot water
- 750 g (26.5 oz) mixed fresh mushrooms
- 1 onion
- 1 garlic clove
- 100 ml (0.5 cup) vegan cooking cream
- 5 sprigs thyme
- salt
- pepper
- nutmeg
- neutral vegetable oil for frying
For serving:
- fresh parsle
Instructions
Place the dried mushrooms in 250 milliliters (1 cup) hot water and let them soak for approx. 30 minutes. In the meantime, for the potato noodles, cover the unpeeled potatoes in a pot with cold water, salt, and cook for approx. 20 minutes until soft. Then drain, let them rest for a few minutes, and peel once they're lukewarm.
While the potatoes are cooking and steaming off, start with the rest of the sauce. Chop the fresh mushrooms into small pieces, peel and finely dice the onion and garlic. Heat vegetable oil in a pan and first sauté the onion cubes over low heat for 3–4 minutes until translucent. Add the garlic and fry for another minute. Now add the fresh mushrooms, increase the heat, and fry the mushrooms over medium heat for approx. 10 minutes until they start to brown.
Drain the dried mushrooms but catch and keep the broth. Chop the soaked mushrooms into small pieces and add them to the pan. Fry everything together for another 10 minutes. Then add the mushroom broth, vegan cream, and thyme leaves. Let the mushroom pan continue to simmer over low heat until the potato noodles are ready. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
In a bowl, mash the peeled potatoes together with flour, cornstarch, soft vegan butter, and soy flour using a potato masher or fork so a smooth mass without chunks forms. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. If it's too sticky, add a bit more flour. Quarter the dough and form each into a roll. Cut these into approx. 5 centimeter (2 inch) long pieces and shape into a potato noodle so they taper to a point at both ends.
Bring salted water to a simmer in a large pot and cook the potato noodles in portions for approx. 3 minutes. The water shouldn't boil at any point.
As soon as the first potato noodles are in the water, heat some vegetable oil in a well-coated pan in parallel. Remove the cooked potato noodles from the water, let them drain briefly, and then place them directly in the pan and fry in portions.
Serve the fried potato noodles with the mushroom sauce and top with fresh parsley.
