Here's the German Meatball and Spaetzle recipe with pics!

Unfortunately, I messed it up thinking I knew what I was doing without paying too much attention to the recipe...WRONG!!!!  But I will give you the recipe and you can follow it which I..as you will soon see...did not!  This recipe is delicious IMHO and why I haven't made it in awhile is beyond me.  It could be that it is a little time consuming and dirties a lot of dishes...hmmm.  I think that's  why but just save it for when you have the time to spend.  A big plus is it is extremely inexpensive to make and you get a lot for your  money in this dish.  So, here goes...I'll show you the pictures with some comments and then I'll give you the recipe at the end.


Here's the meatballs:

After the meatballs are cooked you add beef broth, mushrooms and some onion:

This is the sour cream, flour and caraway seed that you mix together to make the yummy sauce:

This is what it looks like after you add the yummy sauce to the pan of meatballs, broth, mushrooms and onions that have cooked:

This is what happens when you don't pay attention to your recipe and think you "know it all" and add 2 cups of milk to the spaetzle recipe instead of just 1 like it calls for...DUH!!!!  Yours..if you follow the recipe which you probably will, will not look like the following:

The above does not even look anything like spaetzle and I couldn't take a picture of the process because it takes 2 hands and I couldn't get "the girls" to help me....per usual!  Spaeztle is like a dumpling/noodle and I set a colander over a pot of boiling water and pour the batter in and then stir with a wooden spoon to get the "noodles/dumplings" to drop into the boiling water and cook and then you drain the water off like you would for ordinary noodles. Unfortunately, since I added twice the amount of milk to the batter as was called for, my "noodles" turned out more like lumpy grits!  So, I did not drain them as it would have all drained out so I decided to eat "as was" and actually with some butter and salt and the yummy sauce it STILL tasted great!

I think next time I will make the meatballs ahead of time and freeze that way it won't be an all evening cooking extravaganza.  I usually serve a green vegetable on the side such as green beans.  
Here's the recipe...and do as I say not like I did! LOL!


German Meatballs and Spaetzle            4-6 servings

Meatball Recipe:
1 slightly beaten egg
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup fine, dry bread crumbs
1 T parsley (fresh if you have it but I had to use dry last night)
1/2 t salt
1/4 t poultry seasoning
dash of pepper
1 lb ground beef ( I used lean ground chuck and there wasn't even any fat to drain off)


Combine the 1 egg, 1/4 cup milk, bread crumbs, parsley, salt, poultry seasoning and pepper.  Add the ground beef and mix well.  Shape into 1 1/2 " meatballs.  In skillet, brown meatballs, drain fat.  Add the following:
1 can condensed beef broth
1 3-4 oz can chopped mushrooms, drained
1/2 C chopped onion
Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile mix together in a bowl:
1 C sour cream
1 T flour
1 t caraway seed ( you can adjust this to suit your taste)
After the meatballs have cooked their 30 minutes add the sour cream mixture.  Cook and stir until thick and bubbly.  Serve with spaetzle.


Spaetzle recipe:
2 C flour
2 slightly beaten eggs
1 C milk
1 t salt
Mix together the flour and salt.  Add the eggs and milk and beat well.  Let the batter rest for 5-10 minutes.  Run the batter through a colander with a wooden spoon over a pot of boiling, salted water.  Cook and stir for 5 minutes, drain and sprinkle with parsley.