
Glazed Chestnuts with Red Cabbage, Spätzle and Fried Onions
Spätzle with chestnuts and red cabbage is a winter classic that we used to have every weekend. Especially in those winters when my father bought a deer from the hunter. We children usually didn’t eat the dead bambi, so we were left with spaetzle, chestnuts and blue cabbage. To make the dish complete in vegan cuisine, you can, for example, have another side dish of pulses or glaze the chestnuts with chickpeas. The spätzle are based on the basic recipe from eat-this.org, but refined with the spices that are common in our family.
Tip: The chestnuts, blue cabbage and roasted onions can be made well in advance and kept warm or reheated.

Glazed Chestnuts
Ingredients
- 500 g frozen chestnuts
- ½ lemon, juice
- 200 g cooked chickpeas, optional
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
Instructions
- Defrost the chestnuts and sort them out, there may be wormy ones among them.
- Put the chestnuts in a pan and cover with water. Add the juice of half a lemon. Bring the water to the boil and cook the chestnuts for 5 minutes. Then drain the water. 3.
- Heat the chestnuts with the chickpeas and about 100 ml of water in a pan, add the sugar and simmer while stirring. Finally, season with maple syrup and stir to coat the chestnuts well.

Red Cabbage
Ingredients
- 500 g red cabbage
- 1 onion
- 1 apple
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp vinegar
- 125 ml water
- 1 bay leaf
- Salt
- Pepper
Instructions
- Peel the cabbage, remove the stalk and slice.
- Peel the onion, chop finely and fry in a non-stick pan. Wash the apple, cut into cubes and stir into the onion with the sugar. Sauté for 5 minutes.
- Add the cabbage and vinegar, cover and steam for 10 minutes.
- pour the water over the cabbage and add the bay leaf, salt and pepper. Cover and steam for 35 minutes until the cabbage is tender.

Spätzle and Fried Onions
Equipment
- spätzle sieve
- pastry spatula
Ingredients
Spätzle
- 320 g smoked flour
- 80 g durum wheat semolina
- 1 tsp kala namak salt
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 pinch turmeric
- nutmeg
- ½ tsp pepper
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 300 ml soy milk
- 150 ml water
Fried Onions
- 1 onion
- 1 tbsp coconutoil
- 1 pinch sugar
Instructions
Spätzle
- Mix wheat flour, durum wheat semolina, kala namak salt, turmeric, nutmeg and pepper in a bowl. Add the oil, vegetable milk and water and beat with a wooden spoon until it forms a uniform dough and bubbles. It is easier with a food processor.
- Bring 2 l of water to the boil in a large pot, pour about ¼ of the dough onto the spatula sieve and press the dough through the holes with a spatula.
- Stir briefly and fish out the spaetzle floating on top with a skimmer or sieve. Drain well so that they do not become sticky.
- Repeat steps 2 and 3 with the remaining dough. Keep the finished spaetzle warm in a casserole dish in the oven, turning occasionally so that they do not stick.
Fried Onion
- Peel the onion and cut into fine rings.
- Heat the coconut oil in a frying pan and brown the onion and sugar evenly over a medium heat.
Notes

