Vegan Yeast Dumplings with Szegedin Goulash (Hungarian Stew)

If you’ve been reading our blog for a while, you surely know that my family has Swabian roots. Therefore spaetzle and “Maultaschen” are part of my DNA, and I can prepare their vegan versions by heart. But today, I’m going into completely new territory because we will dive into Eastern European, to be exact, Hungarian cuisine. I have a big heart for many Eastern European dishes (such as pierogies, chimney cakes, and pancakes, to name just a few), but I prepare them far too seldom. So I was very happy to get to know another classic: Bohemian dumplings served with Szegedin goulash.

But what is Szegedin goulash actually? It originally came from Hungary, where it’s called “Székely gulyás.” The name doesn’t lead back to a city or region, as one might assume, but to the author and poet József Székely. He probably was the inspiration for this dish, which is why it was eventually named after him. Since the goulash mainly consists of sauerkraut and meat, it’s also called “cabbage meat.” It’s a lovely name, isn’t it? (Source)

In my research, I found recipes with a wide variety of ingredients. Sometimes caraway seeds were added, sometimes paprika, sometimes bell peppers, sometimes no bell peppers, sometimes more sour cream, and sometimes none at all. So we went with the main ingredients of the dish. Instead of pork neck or pork shoulder, we use canned seitan, which you can buy at the Asian supermarkets. It’s ready to eat and just needs to be sautéed. We also use sauerkraut from a jar and, of course, vegan sour cream or crème fraîche. Since Szegedin goulash is quite an intense goulash, we’ve used a lot of spices, but as always, it’s best to season it to your own taste.

Bohemian dumplings have their roots in the Czech Republic but are also known in the Austrian, Bavarian, and Hungarian cuisine. It’s a match! Since Bohemian dumplings are basically soft yeast pillows that like to swim in lots of sauce, they are perfect for our plant-based goulash. To prepare them, we used Demeter wheat flour type 550 from Bauckhof, which is particularly well-suited for our recipe because it’s ideal for doughs that should be very fluffy and fine-textured. So, in order for your Bohemian dumplings to get that pillowy, you should use wheat flour type 550, but of course, the flour isn’t only suitable for Bohemian dumplings but also for bread, pizza, cakes, cookies, pancakes, waffles, and sauces. If you’re now wondering what the numbers behind the flour types mean, here comes the answer: numbers like 405, 550, or 1050 indicate the degree of milling and, therefore, the mineral content in the flour. So for a wheat flour type 550, the mineral content is 550 mg per 100 g of flour. You can check out Bauckhof‘s online shop right here to stock up your pantry at home!

For the organic wheat flour 550, Bauckhof uses Demeter wheat from biodynamic cultivation. Biodynamic stands for the oldest and strictest form of organic farming. Each bag of Bauckhof Organic Wheat Flour 550 ensures that at least 4.42 square meters of land are farmed biodynamically and saved from pesticides. This is especially good for the groundwater and the climate. So one more reason to prepare Bohemian dumplings much more often, right?