German Vegetarian Food???

[ready2please]

I have to bring something to a potluck at work and it has to have a German theme.  I normally bake, and just don't feel like baking something entirely new on a weeknight, but I have a brand new crockpot

Comments

[shibusa]

I am of German heritage. :) Unfortunately most German foods do tend to be heavy on the meat, but we never used bacon in potato salad when I was growing up. Our recipe was something like this:

1 chopped red or yellow onion
chopped green onions
4 lbs new potatoes
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons white sugar
salt, fresh dill, and ground black pepper to taste

Boil the potatoes until tender (about 15 minute), drain, and add onions.

Whisk together the remaining ingredients, then stir in onion and potato. You can also add hard boiled egg for more richness.

It's very basic, but I think most German potato recipes will work just fine if you substitute mayonnaise for the bacon fat and omit chopped meats. To me, what makes it taste "German" is fresh dill and mayonnaise. Here's a mayonnaise recipe that would work well in potato salad.

Another idea would be to make a potato/cheese/ale soup using a German beer.

[ready2please]

So, do you cube or slice the potatoes before you boil them? Is this one that you chill after combining everything or is this served warm?

Great suggestion. Do you think that sour cream would be an okay substitution for mayonaisse? I don't really like eggs or mayo. Otherwise this sounds GREAT.

[shibusa]

I usually slice before boiling, and after assembling, chill for at least one hour before serving.

I'm not sure about sour cream - it'd be an interesting thing to try, for sure. Plain yoghurt might also work (and would be more German). Usually potato salads without mayonnaise are much lighter and use a vinaigrette, rather than trying to fake the creamy mayo texture. They can still be delicious though. I did a quick search and found this recipe. It says "French," but I ate something just like this in Flanders once, and I bet you can do a convincing German version if you just used fresh dill and parsley.

[ready2please]

Sounds good. Thanks for the link too. I may have to give this a try for the potluck, or just in general.

[piggelin]

All I can think of is if you substitute out meat/animal fats in some of the dishes like bratkartoffeln. You could always do a big batch of sauerkraut with caraway seeds and take that. Gulasch and spätzle is always a good one, so you could always make a spicy tomato soup to replace the Gulasch.

To be honest, so long as any savoury food tastes like dill and parsley with a generous helping of yoghurt (that würzig touch) you'll have pretty authentic German food.

It's a shame you don't feel like baking because German food is all about delicious cakes!

[ready2please]

That is good advice. I may be starting to lean toward baking since it is my strength and pretty easy to manage and other than washing a platter or two the cleanup is a breeze. I am thinking of figuring out some type of German Chocolate Cookies. I've been looking at pics and it seems like if the cookies have chocolate, coconut and pecans I have a case for calling them German....

[piggelin]

If you're baking, you MUST bake streusselschnecken. I havev no idea what they are in English but they are this amazing butter cake/biscuit thing with streussel and icing and pretty much formed my whole diet when I was in Germany. If you don't speak German and can't find a recipe in English, I can always translate one for you. They are *that* good.

[in_excelsis_dea]

There's also spätzele (pretty sure I spelled that wrong). It's sort of like egg dough noodles.

Also, egg pancakes are good. Or Germans eat a lot of dark breads (but stiffer, harder breads), with toppings -- butter, meats, cheeses, etc. If you could find some pumpernickel bread or something, that might work.

[spunkymonkey]

Spätzle... I second this if you eat cheese and eggs.

[ready2please]

I will check those out and see if any are easy for potlucking. If not, they might work for a regular night at home.

[fabulousfrock]

I like a nice pot of German red cabbage. Yum. If I'm cooking for vegetarians I make mine by sauteeing some onions in butter, then adding red wine to scrape up the browned bits, then red cabbage, a sliced apple, a little apple cider vinegar, salt and sugar, maybe caraway seeds, and cooking for a long time. The butter and red wine make it taste very full-bodied even without the traditional pork product.

[ready2please]

That sounds really good. I will definitely try it. Yum.

[monkeedreamer]

I'm guessing you've already had your potluck by now, but I'm really surprised no one mentioned it - mushroom stroganoff!! It's actually the *one* vegetarian-friendly item that was on a menu of this old traditional German restaurant when I was in Nürnberg. If you ever need a German item again... haha.

[ready2please]

Yes, we have had the German themed day, but mushroom stroganoff sounds really good. I may have to Google for some recipes and give that a go.