German Liver Dumpling Soup – Bavarian Specialty
The German liver dumpling soup is a Bavarian Specialty and is called in German “Leberknödelsuppe”. “Knödel” means dumpling and “Leber” means liver. If you travel to Bavaria one day, don’t forget to try this soup. It is served in almost every Bavarian Gasthaus (inn).
The recipe’s base is a beef broth, as described in one of my former recipes, and it would be best to make this broth from scratch. In Germany you can buy the Leberknödel pre-cooked in cans or frozen, unfortunately not in the USA (they cannot be imported). The good thing is that we can make them at home. Give it a try. Happy Cooking!
Ingredients German Liver Dumpling Soup
(serves 8)
2 liter beef broth
– How to Make Beef Broth –
750 g beef liver
300 g beef
8 older wheat rolls (preferably German rolls)
4 onions
fresh herbs, such as parsley, chives, tarragon, thyme, lovage (Liebstoeckel)
3 eggs
salt, pepper, nutmeg to taste
Original German Dumplings from a Box – Made Easy and Fast
Cooking Instructions
– Bring the broth in a bigger pan to a boil (Alternatively you can use organic instant beef or vegetable broth).
– Run the beef and liver through a meat grinder.
– Soak the rolls in warm water.
– Peel onions and chop them fine.
– Wash herbs and chop fine.
– Add the meat into a bowl and mix it with onions, herbs and eggs.
– Squeeze the water thoroughly out of the rolls, combine with the meat.
– Add spices to taste.
– With moist hands form dumplings, not too big.
– With a slotted spoon place dumplings into the boiling hot broth.
– Reduce heat.
– Let dumplings simmer for 15-20 minutes on low heat.
– Important: Don’t bring the broth to a boil anymore otherwise the dumplings will fall apart.
Serve the soup with some sprinkled parsley on top.
LOOKING FOR A GREAT GERMAN GIFT?
The German Christmas Box – available from Oct – Dec
Share the Recipes:
7 Comments on “German Liver Dumpling Soup – Bavarian Specialty”
—> Get Our NEWSLETTER
ORGANIC SPICES
MOST POPULAR RECIPES
Vacuum Cleaning Made Easy
Herbs & More
Get Our Newsletter
Authentic German Christmas Cookie Recipes
Authentic German Soup Recipes
Oh I just LOVE liver dumpling soup. Even a pale broth becomes really good, if you boil some dumplings in it! Yummy!
I use a different recipe for the dumplings: Mince some liver (a pound maybe) in your kitchen machine. it’s a bit of a mess 🙂 Give in some salt and pepper. Add herbs, if you like. You also don’t need eggs.
Then add breadcrumbs, maybe 4-5 big spoons full (if you use a pound, if less use less breadcrumbs) und mix it. Put this in the fridge for maybe half an hour.
Bring the broth to boil. If you now take the liver out of the fridge you will see, that the mixture is now more like a dough, much less liquid. You can take portions out of it and roll it to dumplings between your hands. put them into the boiling broth and wait till they’re done. They don’t fall apart, even if the broth boils a bit.
The taste is a bit stronger than a dumpling that consists of meat but also very good.
This is from one of my bavarian cookbooks. I am from Prussia and my man from Bavaria, so we eat prussian and bavarian food alot 🙂
thanks fo this variation, you always can send me more of your delicious recipes.
My “nana” made this soup in gallons….she used 1/3 liver to 2/3 beef and added raw rice to the mixture to help bind it together.
Thnaks. Nice tip.
Here is my recipe for Super Sauerkraut: one onion, one red apple, one potato…one pound Polish sausage, one jar sauerkraut…one beer…Dice the onion, and fry it. Dice the potato, which has already been cooked, add it to the pan. The Polish sausage, I cut in one inch pieces usually, add to pan. Drain the sauerkraut, add to the pan. The red apple, core it, and chop it, add to the pan. Add enough beer to keep it moist. My favorite is a berry-honey beer, it’s kind of like half beer, half wine, but almost any beer should work fine. My grandmother’s family came from Germany and Prussia, but I made this recipe my self, didn’t get it from her.
I Love Leberknödelsuppe!! I will try the recipe. Thanks for posting it. This way I don’t have to wait until going back to Munich 🙂
Lived in Wiesbaden in the 1980s frequented a Bierstube owned by a bavarian. My fav menu item was gegrillte leberknodel mit bratkartoffeln ( fried potatoes ) & saurkraut. After boiling the leberknodel he’d throw them on the grill for a minute or two.