Chef Klaus
Allgäuer Käsesuppe
The Allgäu's Alpine cheese soup works only if the Bergkäse melts gently off the heat, where it turns smooth instead of stringy.
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Linsen mit Spätzle und Saiten
Created by
Swabia's weekday and Sunday lentil plate, brown lentils sharpened with vinegar only after they soften, spooned over fresh Spätzle with a Saitenwürstle alongside.
Soups & Stews
German
Weeknight
Budget Friendly
Comfort Food
35 min
Active Time
1 hr 10 min cook•1 hr 45 min total
Yield4 servings
Linsen mit Spätzle und Saiten is Swabian table food, and Swabia is not shy about claiming it. Brown lentils, fresh Spätzle, a Saitenwürstle, a little vinegar to wake the pot. It is weeknight food when you have the lentils soaked, Sunday food when the Spätzle are made properly, and budget food because a small piece of smoked bacon can season the whole pot.
Im Norden anders, im Süden anders. The north gives you pea soup with smoked pork and rye bread; the Rhineland likes its lentils sweeter with vinegar and apple here and there. Swabia puts them over Spätzle, because a good noodle catches the broth and turns a plain lentil stew into a plate you remember.
The rule is simple: the vinegar goes in at the end. Put it in early and the acid tightens the lentil skins, so they stay hard while the inside goes tired. Add it after the lentils are tender and it cuts through the bacon, the broth, and the floury Spätzle without ruining the texture. Erst verstehen, dann kochen.
Make the Spätzle fresh if you can. Beat the batter until it pulls and bubbles, rest it, then scrape or press it into water that's moving but not angry. The Saiten are warmed gently, never boiled hard, because a split sausage has already told you the cook stopped paying attention. Schön ist, was schmeckt.
Linsen mit Spätzle und Saiten is most closely tied to Württemberg and Swabia, where lentils were grown on the poor, stony soils of the Swabian Alb before large-scale imports pushed local varieties out in the 20th century. The old Alb-Leisa lentils nearly disappeared, then were revived from seed-bank stock in the early 2000s by growers around Lauterach, which put a regional crop back under a dish many people had kept cooking with imported lentils. The Saitenwürstle, a slim smoked pork and beef sausage related to the Frankfurter, marks the dish as southern German, while the vinegar edge keeps it in the sour-savoury line of Swabian cooking.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
brown lentils, preferably Alb-Leisa or small mountain lentils
Quantity
250g
lard or neutral oil
Quantity
1 tablespoon
smoked bacon
Quantity
100g
diced
onion
Quantity
1
finely diced
carrot
Quantity
1
finely diced
small leek
Quantity
1
finely diced
celeriac or celery stalk
Quantity
1 small piece or 1 stalk
finely diced
tomato paste
Quantity
1 tablespoon
bay leaf
Quantity
1
beef stock or vegetable stock
Quantity
1 litre
butter
Quantity
1 tablespoon
plain flour
Quantity
1 tablespoon
red wine vinegar
Quantity
2 to 3 tablespoons, plus more at the table
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
to taste
Saitenwürstle or Frankfurter-style smoked sausages
Quantity
4
plain flour for Spätzle
Quantity
400g
eggs
Quantity
4
cold water or milk
Quantity
120ml, plus more as needed
salt for Spätzle batter
Quantity
1 teaspoon
freshly grated nutmeg
Quantity
a little
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| brown lentils, preferably Alb-Leisa or small mountain lentils | 250g |
| lard or neutral oil | 1 tablespoon |
| smoked bacondiced | 100g |
| onionfinely diced | 1 |
| carrotfinely diced | 1 |
| small leekfinely diced | 1 |
| celeriac or celery stalkfinely diced | 1 small piece or 1 stalk |
| tomato paste | 1 tablespoon |
| bay leaf | 1 |
| beef stock or vegetable stock | 1 litre |
| butter | 1 tablespoon |
| plain flour | 1 tablespoon |
| red wine vinegar | 2 to 3 tablespoons, plus more at the table |
| salt and freshly ground black pepper | to taste |
| Saitenwürstle or Frankfurter-style smoked sausages | 4 |
| plain flour for Spätzle | 400g |
| eggs | 4 |
| cold water or milk | 120ml, plus more as needed |
| salt for Spätzle batter | 1 teaspoon |
| freshly grated nutmeg | a little |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy 4 litre pot
- •Spätzle press or wooden board and scraper
- •Wide pot for cooking Spätzle
- •Slotted spoon
Instructions
- 1
Start the lentils
Rinse the lentils and pick out any stones. Small brown lentils don't need soaking, but a 2-hour soak shortens the cooking and helps them finish evenly; old lentils are stubborn, and the soak tells you before dinner is late.
- 2
Build the base
Warm the lard in a heavy pot and cook the bacon until its fat runs and the edges take colour. Add the onion, carrot, leek, and celeriac with a pinch of salt and cook until the onion turns glassy, because the vegetables need to sweeten before the liquid goes in. Stir in the tomato paste for a minute so it darkens and loses its raw tin taste.
- 3
Simmer until tender
Add the lentils, bay leaf, and stock, then bring it to a gentle simmer. Keep the pot moving quietly, not boiling hard, because hard boiling breaks the lentils before their skins soften. Cook 35 to 50 minutes, depending on the age of the lentils, until they are tender but still whole.
- 4
Make the Spätzle batter
While the lentils cook, beat the flour, eggs, water or milk, salt, and nutmeg into a thick batter that pulls from the spoon in heavy ribbons. Beat it until bubbles show, then rest it 15 minutes; the beating gives the dough strength, and the rest lets the flour drink the liquid so the Spätzle cook springy instead of pasty.
The batter should be softer than bread dough and thicker than pancake batter. If it sits like cement, add a spoon of water; if it runs like cream, beat in a little flour. - 5
Cook the Spätzle
Bring a wide pot of salted water to a lively simmer. Press the batter through a Spätzle press or scrape it from a board into the water, working in batches so the noodles have room. When they float, give them another 30 seconds, then lift them out with a slotted spoon; floating tells you the starch has set and the egg has cooked through.
- 6
Thicken the stew
Melt the butter in a small pan, stir in the flour, and cook it until pale nut-brown. Stir this roux into the lentils and simmer 5 minutes so the raw flour taste disappears and the broth turns lightly glossy. Nicht aus dem Glas. The sauce is made in the pot, not poured from one.
- 7
Add vinegar last
Take out the bay leaf, then season the lentils with salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons vinegar. Taste, then add the last spoon if the pot still tastes flat. The vinegar belongs after the lentils are tender, because acid tightens the skins early but brightens the broth late. Würzen, Fett, Salz zum Schluss.
- 8
Warm the Saiten
Lay the Saitenwürstle in hot water or in the top of the lentil pot for 8 to 10 minutes without boiling. A hard boil splits the casing and drives out the fat, and that fat is the flavour you paid for. Spoon Spätzle into warm shallow bowls, ladle the lentils over them, and set a sausage alongside.
Chef Tips
- •Use small brown lentils, mountain lentils, or Alb-Leisa if you can get them. Big flat lentils turn mealy before the pot tastes right, and red lentils collapse completely, which is another dish.
- •The vinegar sits on the table in Swabia for a reason. Put some in the pot, then let each person sharpen their own plate. One cook's right sour is another cook's argument.
- •Fresh Spätzle matter here because they catch the lentil broth. Dried noodles will feed you, but they won't give the same soft, irregular edges. That edge is where the sauce holds.
- •Save the bacon rind if you have it and simmer it with the lentils, then pull it out before serving. Weggeworfen wird nichts, and rind gives body to the broth without needing more meat.
Advance Preparation
- •The lentils can be cooked one day ahead without the vinegar. Reheat gently and add the vinegar after warming, because the sharpness tastes cleaner when it hasn't been boiled away.
- •The Spätzle batter can rest up to 1 hour at room temperature. Cooked Spätzle can be held lightly buttered for a few hours, then rewarmed in a pan before serving.
- •Leftover lentils thicken overnight. Loosen them with a splash of stock or water when reheating, then taste again for vinegar and salt.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 740g)
Calories
1085 calories
Total Fat
39 g
Saturated Fat
14 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
21 g
Cholesterol
295 mg
Sodium
2590 mg
Total Carbohydrates
141 g
Dietary Fiber
15 g
Sugars
9 g
Protein
48 g
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