Vegan Jägerschnitzel with chanterelles & Spätzle
Hunter's schnitzel with chanterelles and spaetzle is, for me, true comfort food. Whether you're sitting in a beer garden on a beautiful, sunny day or it's gray, rainy, and cold all day long: this dish is perfect for any season!
- For the vegan Jägerschnitzel:
- 80 g wheat gluten
- 10 g yeast flakes
- 15 g chickpea flour
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 110 ml water
- soy sauce
- Salt
- neutral vegetable oil for frying
- For the chanterelle sauce:
- 250 g chanterelles
- 1 onion
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 50 ml vegan white wine
- 100 ml vegetable broth
- 100 ml vegan cooking cream
- 0.25 lemon (juice)
- soy sauce
- Salt
- Pfeffer
- For the breading:
- 50 g flour
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 TL Nutmeg
- 60 g breadcrumbs
- 1 tsp sweet paprika powder
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 6 tablespoons of water
- 3 EL Senf
- Salt
- Pfeffer
- To serve:
- 300g vegan spaetzle
- 1 lemon
- Parsley
- In a large bowl, thoroughly mix wheat gluten, nutritional yeast, chickpea flour, garlic powder, and onion powder. Add water and stir with a wooden spoon, then knead for about 5 minutes. Divide the mixture in half and roll or stretch each half into a very thin schnitzel.
- Bring water to a boil in a large pot. Add soy sauce and salt, then simmer the schnitzel in the boiling water for about 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, clean the chanterelle mushrooms. Peel and finely dice the onion, then sauté it in a large pan with a little vegetable oil for about 5 minutes. Add the chanterelles, increase the heat slightly, and sauté for another 5 minutes. Next, add the tomato paste, then deglaze with soy sauce, white wine, vegetable broth, and vegan cream. Cover the pan and simmer the sauce over medium heat for 10–15 minutes. Season to taste with lemon juice, salt, and pepper. If the sauce becomes too thick, add a little more vegetable broth or vegan cream.
- Prepare three shallow bowls for the breading. On the first bowl, mix flour with onion powder, garlic powder, and nutmeg. On the next bowl, mix breadcrumbs with paprika powder, salt, and pepper, and on the third bowl, stir together cornstarch and water.
- Remove the schnitzels from the boiling water and squeeze out the excess water. Coat them thoroughly with mustard on both sides. Then, dip them first in the flour mixture, ensuring they are completely coated. Next, dip them in the thick starch mixture and finally coat them in the breadcrumb mixture until all parts are covered.
- Pour a generous amount of vegetable oil into a pan to cover the bottom. Once the oil is hot, add a vegan schnitzel and fry for 3-4 minutes on each side until golden brown. Then drain on paper towels and fry the second vegan schnitzel.
- While the Jägerschnitzel are frying, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the Spätzle according to the package instructions.
- Serve the vegan schnitzel with spaetzle and chanterelle sauce, sprinkle with chopped parsley and add a few lemon slices or wedges.
Let's start with what is perhaps the most difficult part of the dish: the vegan schnitzel. For our first attempt, we used a seitan mix. Unfortunately, the mixture became quite tough and was difficult to stretch or pound thin. Even after cooking, the consistency didn't improve. So we tried it with wheat gluten. Correct, a seitan mix also only contains wheat gluten, but strangely enough, it made a huge difference. Perhaps it was the quality of the wheat gluten? We're baffled. The second version, however, stretched beautifully, and in the end, we had fantastic, paper-thin vegan schnitzels. Even our meat-eating friends were pleasantly surprised by the texture and taste. Since seitan and wheat gluten don't have a flavor of their own, seasoning is absolutely crucial. So don't be stingy and season generously.
If you happen to have a meat tenderizer lying around at home and are already jumping up to grab it: as nice as the idea sounds, it unfortunately didn't work in reality (but it felt great). We used regular breadcrumbs for the coating. Alternatively, you could use panko. However, since panko is significantly coarser, we recommend crumbling it into smaller pieces beforehand.
For this recipe, we opted for the quick version using store-bought spaetzle. However, if you have plenty of time and are feeling adventurous, you can of course make them yourself. We already have a recipe for that on the blog. Alternatively, you can also buy ready-made vegan spaetzle, for example, at organic markets. Just make sure they are egg-free.
Besides this recipe, we have many other classic home-style recipes. If you've already cooked too many Spätzle with this recipe, we also offer vegan Swabian lentils with Spätzle. Or how about vegan cabbage rolls, vegan meatballs with cream sauce, or vegan potato dumplings with mushroom goulash and red cabbage?
