Leberspätzle
Organ Meat, Spätzle

Liver spätzle with apples and onions (‘Gebratene Leberspätzle’)

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Last Updated on 4 years by Tim

Out of all the different spätzle varieties, liver spätzle are my absolute favorite. There’s something about their savoriness that makes them irresistible.

Liver spätzle are commonly served in two different ways: Inside a savory beef broth or sweated in butter together with onions.

In my recipe, I added some apple slices to make the dish extra juicy and delicious. If you’ve ever tasted liver with apples you will know how great they pair. If not, it’s time for you to make this recipe. Now.

The choice of liver is up to you

When shopping for liver it’s up to you to decide whether you like to prepare your liver spätzle using calf or beef liver. I prefer beef liver which is stronger in taste.

You’re going to incorporate the pureed liver into your spätzle dough so that the flavor will get diluted. So I like my liver to be a little edgier.

However, in case you’re new to eating organ meat or generally dislike stronger tasting meat I recommend you to go with calf liver. In Germany, it’s about 5 times the price of beef liver as it is much more tender and delicate in flavor.

How to prepare your liver spätzle

In case you’ve read my post about wild garlic spätzle, this process will be familiar to you already. You puree the liver in a blender together with the eggs and then add them to your flour.

Liver spätzle is one of the few spätzle varieties where I like to add spice into the dough. Marjoram is often used as a bratwurst spice. In case you don’t have marjoram on hand, you can simply substitute it with oregano or leave it out.

As always when making spätzle, beat the dough vigorously. The dough should start forming air bubbles.

It’s up to you whether you want to traditionally scrape your spätzle as I did. If you have a spätzle press or spätzle maker on hand feel free to use it. In case you’re new to making spätzle and need some guidance, check out my basics post where I explained all these methods in detail.

Cooked liver spätzle

Serving your liver spätzle

The onions and apples need to be sweated before you add your liver spätzle into the pan.

It’s best to use a nonstick pan for this task. Simply heat some butter over medium-low heat and sweat the onion and apple slices for about 15 minutes until they have softened and the onions are very lightly charred. Don’t forget to season them with lemon juice to balance the sweetness.

Apples fresh from the tree

I like to use the same pan for sweating the liver spätzle. I take out my onion and apple slices and set them aside, heat another tablespoon of butter in my pan and sweat the liver spätzle over medium heat until they’re warmed through.

To finish the dish for serving, you just need to add the onion and apple slices back into the pan and garnish with some chopped parsley leaves and black pepper.

4 Comments

  1. Pingback: Cheese Spaetzle ('Kässpätzle') - My German Table

  2. Pingback: Wild Garlic Spaetzle ('Bärlauchspätzle') - My German Table

  3. Sieglinde Vogg

    It’s so wonderful to see all my German ( Schwäbische) recipes on line . I don’t have to write them out for my grandchildren

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