🥙 LUNCH
Linsen mit Spätzle und Saitenwürstle (Swabian Lentils, Spätzle and Sausages)
Sweet-sour stewed brown lentils with smoked bacon and a splash of vinegar, spooned over fresh hand-scraped spätzle with thin Swabian sausages, the everyday lunch Swabians call their national meal.
German (Swabian) · medium · serves 4
prep 25 min · cook 55 min
~1152 cal · 50g protein · 124g carbs · 49g fat · 12g fiber · 7g sugars · 19g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Linsen mit Spätzle is the dish many Swabians name when asked for their national meal. It began as food for the poor: lentils were cheap, nourishing and kept through the winter, meat was dear, and home-made spätzle turned a little flour and a few eggs into a filling plate.
The lentils are stewed with smoked bacon, onion and carrot in a light , then sharpened with vinegar and rounded with a pinch of sugar until they taste gently sweet and sour. On the Swabian Jura the lentil of choice is the Alb-Leisa, a small local lentil revived by farmers there, but any small brown lentil works. Alongside come thin Saitenwürstle, the Swabian name for a pair of long Vienna-style sausages, warmed through in the lentils.
It is still on the menu of every traditional Swabian inn, works canteen and university Mensa, usually on a weekday at lunchtime, with the vinegar bottle on the table so everyone can make it as sour as they like.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally nut-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
- 300 g small brown lentils (Alb-Leisa or similar), rinsed
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 whole cloves
- 1.5 litres water (to cook the lentils)
- 100 g smoked streaky bacon, diced
- 1 large onion, finely diced
- 1 carrot, finely diced
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tbsp plain flour (for the )
- 3 to 4 tbsp mild white wine vinegar, plus more at the table
- 1 tsp sugar
- 350 g plain flour (for the spätzle)
- 4 eggs (for the spätzle)
- 120 ml cold water (for the spätzle)
- to taste salt
- 8 (about 400 g) Saitenwürstle (thin Vienna-style sausages)
Instructions
- 1Put the lentils in a pot with the bay leaves, cloves and water, bring to a boil, then simmer 25 to 30 minutes until just tender. Drain, keeping the cooking liquid, and fish out the cloves.
- 2Meanwhile make the spätzle batter: beat the flour, eggs, 1 tsp salt and cold water with a wooden spoon until thick, smooth and full of bubbles. Let it rest 10 minutes.✎ Chef’s noteBeat until the batter blisters and tears slowly off the spoon; that is what makes spätzle springy rather than stodgy.
- 3Melt the butter in a wide pot and fry the bacon, onion and carrot for 6 to 8 minutes until the onion is golden. Stir in the tomato paste, dust over the flour and cook, stirring, until it smells nutty and turns light brown.
- 4Whisk in about 1 litre of the lentil cooking liquid, simmer 15 minutes until lightly thickened, then add the lentils. Season with vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper until the lentils taste gently sweet and sour.
- 5Lay the sausages in the lentils, cover and leave on the lowest heat for 10 minutes to warm through without boiling.✎ Chef’s noteDo not let the pot bubble once the sausages are in, or their skins split.
- 6Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Scrape the batter off a wet board (or press it through a spätzle press) into the water in batches, lifting the spätzle out as soon as they float.
- 7Pile the spätzle on warm plates, ladle the lentils over, and lay two sausages on each. Put the vinegar bottle on the table.
Swabian home, inn and canteen tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Swabia. Both signature dishes hold protected EU names. Schwabische Spatzle and Schwabische Maultaschen were registered in 2012 and 2009, and the specification treats the hand-scraping of the batter from a wooden board as the quality marker rather than a picturesque detail. The tradition is documented back to at least 1725.
🗺️
Germany. The German bread register lists more than three thousand two hundred distinct varieties, which is less a boast than a consequence of rye, spelt and mixed grains being taken as seriously as wheat and of every region having kept its own. The country's bread culture is recognised as national intangible heritage in its own right.
🌍
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.
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Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan, Whisk.
Storing it: Best fresh. Leftovers keep 2 days refrigerated; loosen with a splash of water or oil as you reheat so they do not clump.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Linsen mit Spätzle und Saitenwürstle (Swabian Lentils, Spätzle and Sausages)?
Sweet-sour stewed brown lentils with smoked bacon and a splash of vinegar, spooned over fresh hand-scraped spätzle with thin Swabian sausages, the everyday lunch Swabians call their national meal.
Where does Linsen mit Spätzle und Saitenwürstle (Swabian Lentils, Spätzle and Sausages) come from?
Linsen mit Spätzle und Saitenwürstle (Swabian Lentils, Spätzle and Sausages) is a German (Swabian) dish from Swabia, Germany.
Can Linsen mit Spätzle und Saitenwürstle (Swabian Lentils, Spätzle and Sausages) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Linsen mit Spätzle und Saitenwürstle (Swabian Lentils, Spätzle and Sausages) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Linsen mit Spätzle und Saitenwürstle (Swabian Lentils, Spätzle and Sausages) 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 still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), 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 Linsen mit Spätzle und Saitenwürstle (Swabian Lentils, Spätzle and Sausages) take to make?
About 80 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 55 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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