Lighter käsespätzle (Swabian cheese noodles)
60 min · 30 g protein · 513 cals / serving
Soft, eggy homemade spätzle layered with nutty Gruyère and Swiss cheese until it melts into stretchy strands, then buried under a heap of sweet, deeply browned onions and chives. A little quark in the dough makes the noodles extra tender. Serve it straight from the pan with the crisp, mustardy green salad Germans always eat with it.
Ingredients
Spätzle
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 large eggs
- generous 3/4 cup quark, or plain skyr
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
Onions
- 2 tsp butter
- 1 tsp canola oil
- 4 medium onions, halved and thinly sliced
Cheese
- 1 3/4 oz gruyere, or mountain cheese, grated
- 3 oz reduced fat Swiss cheese, grated
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
To serve
- 1/4 cup fresh chives, snipped
Green salad
- 2 heads butterhead lettuce, leaves torn
- 1 1/2 large cucumbers, thinly sliced
- 1 large tomato, in wedges
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar, or white wine vinegar
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 2 tsp olive oil
Steps
- Heat the butter and oil in a large skillet over medium heat, add the onions and a pinch of salt and cook, stirring now and then, 25–30 minutes until soft and deep golden brown. Turn the heat up for the last few minutes so some edges crisp.
- Heat the oven to 400°F. Meanwhile, beat the flour, eggs, quark, salt and nutmeg with a wooden spoon for 2–3 minutes, until the thick batter is smooth and starts to blister with air bubbles. It should drop slowly from the spoon; beat in a spoonful of water if it is stiffer than that. Rest 10 minutes. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
- Press the batter through a spätzle maker or a colander with large holes into the simmering water in batches (or scrape thin strips off a wet board with a knife). When the spätzle float, give them 30 seconds, then lift them out with a slotted spoon.
- Layer the hot spätzle in a baking dish with the two cheeses and the pepper, ending with cheese, and bake 8–10 minutes until bubbling and melted.
- Pile the onions and chives on top. Toss the lettuce, cucumber and tomato with the vinegar, mustard, oil and a pinch of salt, and serve alongside.
Good to know
No spätzle maker?
Push the batter through a colander or a coarse grater with a spatula, straight over the pot. Or use 1 lb store-bought fresh spätzle and start at the layering step.
Which cheese is traditional?
Swabian cooks use Emmentaler mixed with a stronger mountain cheese (Bergkäse). A full-fat Swiss in place of the reduced-fat one is richer and more classic, at about 50 instead of 54.
Can I do it all in the skillet?
Yes. Toss the spätzle and cheese in a large ovenproof skillet over low heat until melted, then top with the onions.
Per
- Calories
- 100
- Protein
- (24%)
- 6 g
- Fat
- (29%)
- 3 g
- Carbohydrates
- (47%)
- 12 g
- of which sugar
- 3 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 122 mg
More meals
Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 2052 kcal goes into the pot and 2261 g of ingredients comes out as about 2050 g of food: 100 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.