Mushroom Stew with Spaetzle

Nervous about the other ratings...added a touch more of all the spices plus fresh thyme. Whole family loved it!

This recipe, as is, just did not cut it. I took the advise of some of the others who found it lacking in flavor and added a TBLS of finely chopped fresh sage and a tsp. each of finely chopped fresh rosemary and thyme. I think it brought it up to a four. The spaetzle is easy to make, but it requires too many utensils and a lot of cleanup from a flour mixture. Next time, I will use boxed.

I was testing this recipe for some vegan friends of ours, and for the most part, it was ok. I ended up adding more salt(!) and doubled the balsalmic. I also added carrots and extra onions. I also cubed up and panfried some beef to throw on the top, for us meat eaters. Bottom line, if this were made with beef broth and throw in some cubed, pan fried beef and some extra herbs, this could be great. As it was, it was just ok for me, but hubby liked it. Still debating if I will make it for our vegan friends.

My colander didn't have big enough holes so I used the top part of a small broiler pan. A little awkward to handle but the spaetzle turned out nicely. I made a mistake & used smoked paprika by accident but it seemed to enhance the woodsiness of the porcini mushrooms.

We thought it was very flavorful. The spaetzle did require a bit of extra work - but fresh pasta is always great. We didn't have vegetable broth, so used a mix of (already open) beef and chicken. Am forwarding the recipe to a vegetarian friend.

This was a lot of work for a very tasteless stew. First off, the colander method for the spaetzle did not work for me. I ended up dropping spoonfuls of the dough. Second, the stew itself was not flavorful at all. It was hearty, but tasted like a good base for a better stew. If I felt like putting the time in for this again, I'd add thyme, rosemary, maybe some potatoes, and some cubed lamb. That would basically make it into a lamb stew, which would be much more tasty than this. Fortunately, it did not make much, so I only have to sit through one leftover meal (I hate throwing out food).

Spaetzle were interesting, but the rest of recipe was flat. Definitely needs some spices to pick it up. Not worth the time and effort. Wish they would bring back Mary Culpepper to run the magazine--her recipes were well tested and fail proof!

Loved this! We followed the bones of the recipe, but substituted local wild mushrooms for the buttons and criminis. Great flavor, very hearty, and the spaetzle was easy to make. We will make this one again and again.