Carrot Spätzle in Chive Cream Sauce

This dish is also perfect at Easter time. It’s colorful with lots of spring flavor from the fresh chives. Mildly translated to “Little Sparrows” this southern Germany specialty is one of my favorites. I usually order käsespätzle which has the dumplings mixed with cheese.

The spätzle has a mild carrot flavor. If you want to reduce the calories and fat in this dish, swap out reduced fat cream instead of the full-fat version when making the sauce.

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Carrot Spätzle in Chive Cream Sauce

Course Main Course, Side Dish

Cuisine German

Prep Time 40 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Servings 4

Author Lora Wiley-Lennartz

Ingredients

For the Carrot Spätzle:

• 2 +1/4 cups plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour separated
• Pinch of salt
• 3 medium-sized eggs
• 1 teaspoon canola or vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup plus one tablespoon fresh pure carrot juice
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

For the Chive Cream Sauce:

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives plus one teaspoon for garnish
• 1 +1/4 cups vegetable broth
• Scant 1 cup of heavy cream
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Whisk the salt into 1+ 1/4 cups of the all all-purpose flour.
2. Whisk the eggs together in a separate small bowl and then stir them into the flour mixture.
3. Add the canola oil and carrot juice. Use a wooden spoon to mix everything together into a smooth dough.
4. Cover the bowl and store in a warm place for 20 minutes.
5. Heat 3 tablespoons of the unsalted butter in a small deep skillet. Add the chives and cook, stirring occasionally until they soften.
6. Add the three tablespoons all-purpose flour and stir to coat the chive pieces.
7. Pour the 1+1/4 cups of vegetable broth and the heavy cream into the pan, stirring constantly. Cook for 5 minutes stirring often until the sauce thickens a bit more.
8. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.
9. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil.
10. Fill a separate bowl with ice cold water.
11. Retrieve the dough from its warm place.
12. Use a spätzle press or colander to squeeze the dough through the holes into the boiling salted water. The spätzle will sink to the bottom of the pan. When the spätzle floats up to the top, use a slotted spoon to remove it from the boiling water and transfer the cooked spätzle to the bowl with the cold water. Immersing the cooked spätzle in cold water helps it retain its light orange color.
13. When all of the spätzle has been cooked and transferred to the cold water, drain the cooked spätzle into a colander and shake off the excess water.
14. Heat the remaining two tablespoons of unsalted butter in a skillet or frying pan and the drained spätzle and heat, stirring to coat with the melted butter.
15. Add the chive cream sauce to the pan, stir to coat and heat until everything is the same temperature 5-6 minutes.
16. Transfer to a serving platter, garnish with chopped chives and serve.
17. Alternately, you can plate the naked spätzle and drizzle some of the warm cream sauce over the top and serve the rest in a small pitcher.

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