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
- 450 g (16 oz) floury potatoes
- 100 g (0.75 cups) flour
- 1 tbsp starch
- 2 tbsp soft vegan butter
- 2 tbsp soy flour
- 750 g (26 oz) mixed fresh mushrooms
- 15 g (0.5 oz) dried porcini (or shiitake, or else)
- 1 onion
- 1 garlic clove
- 100 ml (0.5 cups) plant-based heavy cream
- 5 sprigs thyme
- salt
- pepper
- nutmeg
- vegan butter for frying
- parsley for serving
Instructions
Soak dried mushrooms in 250 ml (1 cup) hot water for at least 30 minutes.
Add unpeeled potatoes to a pot with cold water, season with salt, and let the potatoes simmer for approx. 20 minutes, or until soft. Once they’re done, drain and let them rest and steam. When they cooled down a bit, peel the potatoes.
While the potatoes cook and cool down, prepare the mushrooms sauce. Chop fresh mushrooms. Peel and finely dice onions and garlic. Heat some vegetable oil in a frying pan and fry onions over medium-low heat for approx. 3-4 minutes, or until translucent. Add garlic and keep frying for one minute, then add the fresh mushrooms and keep frying.
Drain the soaked mushrooms, but reserve the liquid and set aside. Chop soaked mushrooms and add them to the frying pan. Keep frying for approx. 10 minutes, then add the mushroom broth, plant-based heavy cream, and thyme leaves. Simmer over lower heat until the potato dumplings are done — season with salt and pepper to taste.
Add the peeled potatoes to a bowl or a pot and mash until smooth. Add flour, starch, soy flour, and vegan butter. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, then use your hands to knead everything into a smooth dough. If it’s still too sticky, add some more flour.
Halve the dough and roll into logs. Slice into thicker pieces (approx. as thick as your finger), and shape each one into potato dumplings that are thick in the middle and pointy towards both ends.
Bring a pot of salted water to a simmer and cook potato dumplings in batches. Once they float on the surface, they are done. This should only take a few minutes.
Once you’ve added the first potato dumplings to the pot, melt vegan butter (or oil) in a coated frying pan. Transfer the dumplings from the pot directly to the frying pan, but let them drain a bit in between. Fry the cooked dumplings in batches until golden brown. Continue this process of cooking, then frying until all dumplings are done.
Serve Schupfnudeln with mushrooms sauce, fresh parsley, and cress on top!
