Adventures in Spätzle.

We have been experimenting with spätzle recipes around here lately.  My main motivation was to figure out how to subtly work more vegetables into Lulu's diet without a fight (did I mention that she's now three?).  So, I figured that spätzle would be an easy way to do so.

First up was Spinatspätzle (spinach spätzle).  Quickly blanching spinach and then pureeing it in the blender with the water was the only extra step to spätzle and, man, was it tasty!  You couldn't taste the spinach at all (for better or worse), but you could certainly see the color!

told you it was GREEN!!!

wienerschnitzel, carrots, and spinach spätzle

Tonight, it was beet spätzle. We had an extra roasted beet rolling around our freezer (from what I don't know), so I decided to puree it the same way I did the spinach and see what happened.  Lulu was supervising my cooking--quite a challenge to deal with sticky spätzle dough, boiling water, and a curious toddler all at the same time!

 You can definitely taste the beet, but it's a very subtle flavor. I think these would be delicious with poppy seeds!

the chef with her creation

look at that gorgeous color!

I can imagine a really kitschy Christmas side dish with beet and spinach spätzle--red and green.  What do you think?