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.

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.

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.

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

September 25, 2019

by Tim

Cuisine German

Category Organ Meat Spätzle

Persons

4

Ingredients

For the liver spätzle:

• 10.5 ounces (300 g) beef liver, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 2 eggs (size L)
• 10.5 ounces (300 g) spätzle flour (dumpling flour, type 00) or all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon dried marjoram
• 3 tablespoons water

For the onions and apples:

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 4 medium-sized onions, sliced, about 3 cups
• 2 medium-sized tart apples, deseeded and sliced as thinly as possible
• lemon juice, to taste
• salt, to taste

For serving:

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 cup flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
• black pepper, to taste
• salt, to taste

Instructions

Make the spätzle:

• In a blender, puree the liver together with the eggs until smooth. Combine the flour, salt, and marjoram in a large bowl and mix well. Add in your pureed liver-egg-mixture along with 3 tablespoons of water. Beat the dough violently using a wooden spoon until air bubbles start to form. The dough should have the consistency of an extremely thick and sturdy pancake batter. It should neither be runny nor completely dry. Adjust the consistency by adding in more water or flour if needed. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
• In the meantime, heat a large pot of water and season liberally with salt as if cooking pasta. Working in small batches, spread some of your spätzle dough on a small wooden cutting board and scrape the spätzle dough into the boiling water forming noodle-like dumplings using the method described in my spätzle basics post. You can also press your spätzle dough through your spätzle press or use your spätzle maker for this task. After 1-2 minutes of cooking time, the spätzle are ready. Take them out of the cooking water and immediately cool in an ice bath. Once cool, drain them and set them aside for later.

Sweat the onions and apples:

• In a large nonstick pan, heat 1 tablespoon of butter over medium-low heat. Add the onion and apple slices and sweat them for about 15 minutes stirring occasionally until the onions are translucent and very lightly charred on the edges. Season to taste with a few drops of lemon juice and salt. Set aside.

Sweat the spätzle in butter:

• In a large nonstick pan, heat another tablespoon of butter over medium heat and add your spätzle. Sweat them inside the butter for 3-4 minutes or until warmed through. Add the onions and apples into the pan and stir everything to combine. Stir in the flat leaf parsley and season to taste with black pepper and salt. Serve with a green salad on the side.

Tags

apple,

onions,

organ meat,

spätzle,

swabian

https://www.mygermantable.com/liver-spatzle-with-apples-and-onions-gebratene-leberspatzle/