Looking for knoephla soup recipe

I visited North Dakota last year and at a restaurant I had something called knoephla soup.  Does anyone have a recipe for this or even know what I am talking about?

Thank you in advance!

Hi Perry;   Google to the rescue

1/2 cup butter (cut into cubes)
3 baking potatoes (peeled and cut into cubes)
1 onion (small, diced)
1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
3 cups whole milk
6 cups water
2 tablespoons chicken bouillon
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
7 tablespoons whole milk (or more as needed)
1 egg (beaten)
2 teaspoons dill weed
2 teaspoons parsley
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt

Prep

15 m
Cook

55 m
Ready In

1 h 10 m
Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat; saute potatoes, onion, and 1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper until just tender, about 20 minutes. Stir 3 cups milk into potato mixture and heat until almost boiling, about 5 minutes. Remove skillet from heat.
Bring water and chicken bouillon to a boil in a Dutch oven or heavy pot.
Combine flour, 7 tablespoons milk, egg, dill, parsley, 1 teaspoon pepper, and salt together in a bowl until dough is stiff. Add more milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, if needed. Roll dough into ropes about 1/2-inch thick on a work surface. Cut ropes into 1/4-inch pieces and drop into boiling broth. Reduce heat, cover Dutch oven with a lid, and simmer until knoephla begin to float, about 10 minutes.
Stir potato mixture into broth and knoephla; simmer until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.

Thank you!

This sounds delicious (comfort food at 20 below, YES!) but the recipe has me confused- in the first step I’m sautéing potatoes ‘until tender’ (20 min) and then in the last step I’m simmering the same potatoes ‘until tender’ (20 min). Weren’t they already tender from the sauté? 40 minutes is a long time to cook cubed potatoes. Plus that’s not even counting the time they sat in boiling milk.

I got curious when reading this thread, so I also googled.
Some sites said it was a traditional German dish which it definitely isn't.

I found the interesting story of the origin (and spelling varieties) of this North Dakota dish on this website:
https://ramshacklepantry.com/history-of-knephla-soup/

Traditional "Knöpfle" (often used interchangeably with Spätzle) are a very popular dish on the other hand. I make it several times a month. Enjoy your soup!

Anita, thanks for reminding me of spätzle! I haven't thought of it in years, my mother used to make it every once in a while when I was a kid and I loved it, but it was only ever served with sauerbraten, which was yummy but I could do without the major production involved. I know you can just treat it like any other pasta but I figure you might have some fabulous ideas.

Spätzle are indeed yummy if served with lots of gravy -either roast gravy, vegetarian gravy or cream of mushrooms.
When I was a kid we simply ate it as a casserole dish, covered with grated cheese baked in the oven.
My kids love it the same way. A good salad as a side dish and you have a meal!
The longest thing about making them is waiting for the water to boil and afterwards cleaning the pot, really!

I have a colander type for making Spätzle which my grand aunt gave me. Using it always reminds me of her.

BTW, I don't like the Spätzle preparation that most people order in ski resorts: Served in a big iron pan with roasted onions and cheese, seasoned with lots of pepper. I guess it is what you learned to love as a kid!

Tereza Okava wrote:Anita, thanks for reminding me of spätzle! I haven't thought of it in years, my mother used to make it every once in a while when I was a kid and I loved it, but it was only ever served with sauerbraten, which was yummy but I could do without the major production involved. I know you can just treat it like any other pasta but I figure you might have some fabulous ideas.

ooh thanks. maybe this weekend i will fool around and see what i come up with.

I make spaetzli with chopped ham in a cheesy white sauce! Mmm

A good discussion of the soup in the North Dakota area:  https://hpr1.com/index.php/eat-and-drink/all-about-food/warm-up-with-some-knoephla-soup/

Was recently dining with a German colleague in downtown Fargo and had Mettwurst with spaetzle and rotkohl.  Quite good for restaurant fare and the spaetzle did indeed come with gravy.  I had to get the visitor to try the local 'kuchen', which although being the generic word for 'cake' in German nevertheless regionally refers to a more specific German-American northern Plains comestible.   He found it ..... well..... ."interesting".   Mostly a sweet bread base with sweet cream custard cushioning your fruit of choice.  My own recipe for that was passed down to me from my German-Russian grandmother and I felt compelled to wait until she passed before modifying it to my 'lazy man's' version of the recipe.  Anyway, a link to a recipe for the kuchen for anyone interested:   https://prairiecalifornian.com/dakota-kuchen/


Edited to add, for the vegans in the crowd, I've made knoepfla pretty successfully by using vegan butter substitutes, vegan chicken-flavored bouillon for stock, and almond-cashew milk for the creamy texture.

Edited again to note that the author of the knoepfla soup that I linked is the same one behind the Ramshackle Pantry that Anita M. linked above....