Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Käsknöpfle
Soft little dumplings tossed with melting mountain cheese and crowned with sweet fried onions.
Liechtenstein · medium · serves 4
prep 25 min · cook 25 min
~926 cal · 45g protein · 70g carbs · 51g fat · 3g fiber · 6g sugars · 31g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Kasknopfle is the national comfort dish of tiny Liechtenstein, a close alpine cousin of the Swabian and Swiss kasspatzle. Rustic little egg-dough dumplings, knopfle, are boiled, then layered while hot with plenty of aromatic mountain cheese until it melts into long, stringy threads, and the whole thing is crowned with a heap of onions fried slow and golden.
It comes from the same alpine dairy world as its neighbours' versions, where strong mountain cheese and simple flour-and-egg dumplings were what the highlands reliably provided. Rich and unfussy, it is the kind of dish that says you are being properly fed.
It is usually served with applesauce alongside, whose sweet-tartness cuts the richness of the cheese, a pairing alpine cooks consider essential. Molten, savoury, and deeply comforting, kasknopfle is the Alps distilled into a single bowl, and a small nation's favourite thing to eat.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
2.5 cups flour
3 eggs
2 cups mountain cheese (Alpkäse or Gruyère), grated
2 large onions, sliced and fried
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp salt
a scrape nutmeg
Instructions
1
Whisk the flour, eggs (or chickpea slurry), milk, salt, and nutmeg into a thick, sticky batter and rest 15 minutes.
2
Press the batter through a spätzle grater or colander into boiling salted water; the dumplings are done when they float.
3
Fry the onions slowly in butter until deeply golden and sweet.
4
Toss the hot drained dumplings with the grated cheese in layers until stringy and melted.
5
Pile into bowls and crown with the fried onions.
Vaduz tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Vaduz. Kasknopfle is closest to a spaetzle: soft dough dumplings scraped into boiling water, drained, then layered up with melted mountain cheese and covered with onions fried dark. The apple sauce alongside is not optional, and it is the part outsiders usually leave off.
🗺️
Liechtenstein. Liechtenstein's tiny Alpine cuisine mirrors its Swiss and Austrian neighbors, cheese-laden käsknöpfle dumplings, hearty soups, and rich dairy. Simple, mountain-shaped comfort food defines the table.
🌍
Europe. Europe has written a great deal of its food into law. A regulation of 1992 created the protected designation of origin and the protected geographical indication, tying a name to a place and a method, and an EU evaluation published in 2021 counted more than three thousand registered names across those schemes, from cheeses and hams down to particular shapes of bread.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Liechtenstein
Bircher MüesliOats soaked overnight in milk and yogurt with grated apple, nuts, and a squeeze of lemon.
HafalaabCornmeal-and-flour dumplings simmered in broth with ham and cabbage, a rustic national dish of Liechtenstein.
ApfelchüechliBattered apple rings fried golden and dusted with cinnamon sugar, a warm Alpine treat of Liechtenstein.
Browse all Liechtenstein recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Whisk.
Storing it: Uncooked parcels freeze well and cook from frozen. Cooked ones keep 2 to 3 days refrigerated and steam or pan-warm to serve.
Make it a Liechtenstein meal
ApfelchüechliDessert
HafalaabLunch
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Käsknöpfle?
Soft little dumplings tossed with melting mountain cheese and crowned with sweet fried onions.
Where does Käsknöpfle come from?
Käsknöpfle is a Liechtenstein dish from Vaduz, Liechtenstein.
Can Käsknöpfle be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Käsknöpfle recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Käsknöpfle safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Käsknöpfle take to make?
About 50 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 25 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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