Leberknodel Suppe – Liver Dumpling Soup Recipe
Leberknodel suppe is a traditional German and Austrian soup. Like its name says, it is a liver dumpling soup made of beef liver, bread, eggs, and parsley cooked in a simple beef broth. In my recipe, a third of the meat is ground beef. This helps to cut just a little bit of the liver taste.
I have fond memories of enjoying this soup when I would spend my summers in Bavaria. My family and I would drive about 1-1/2 hours away to this amazing farm run by a husband and wife. The farm had a restaurant attached which served the most amazing meals. Talk about farm to table, this place had it! Anyways, every time we would visit, I always had the Leberknodel Suppe. So unbelievably fresh.
Some tips on make liver dumplings.
This soup can be a little tricky to put together. There are some things you need to keep in mind. First, the meat mixture will be loose, unlike your typical American meatball mixture. If it is too wet to form a ball shape, then add another bread roll or some bread crumbs.
Secondly, you can’t boil the dumplings. A hard rolling boil with large bubbles will break up the dumplings, and you will get a mess. Keep the broth to a low simmer at all time. You can’t rush this soup. Trust me the dumplings will cook through. I have an electric stove and keep the eye temperature just under medium heat.
Also, try to keep from stirring the soup. The less you touch the dumplings, the more intact they will stay. The dumplings will drop to the bottom of the stockpot when you first put them in. After a little while, they will come to the surface and float. Leave the dumplings in the broth to simmer and then scoop out with a slotted spoon into a bowl and ladle the broth over the dumplings.
Cost to make this recipe.
As soups go, this one is on the expensive side. I calculated the liver dumpling soup to cost around $17.37 for six servings or twelve liver dumplings. That comes out to about $2.90 per serving size or two dumplings per serving plus beef broth.
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Leberknodel Suppe – German Liver Dumpling Soup
Ingredients
- 1 lbs calves liver, …[$7.39]
- 2 large bread rolls, stale…[$0.33]
- ½ cups milk, …[$0.12]
- ½ lb. ground beef, …[$2.00]
- 1 tbsp. butter, …[$0.25]
- 1 large onion, minced…[$1.00]
- ½ cup fresh parsley, chopped and divided…{$0.50]
- 1 large eggs, …[$0.23]
- 1 tsp. salt, …[$0.07]
- 6 cups beef broth, …[$5.28]
- ¼ cup fresh chives, …[$0.20]
Instructions
- In a large bowl, pour the milk over bread rolls and soak for 10 minutes.
- Sauté the onion and half of parsley in butter until onions are translucent.
- Grind the liver and ground beef through a meat grinder and add it to the soaked rolls, onion mixture, eggs, and seasonings.
- Shape dumplings into balls in your hand. Make them about the size of your palm. If your mixture is too wet or loose then add another bread roll.
- Bring the broth, chives, and rest of parsley to a simmer in a large stockpot. Heat should be about medium or just a little lower. Don’t put into boiling water because it will make them fall apart.
- Add dumplings one by one and let simmer. Don’t over crowd pot with too many.
- Dumplings will fall to the bottom of the pot and then float. Simmer for another 30 minutes once dumplings float to top.
- Be sure to not stir pot, it will break up the dumplings.
- Serve dumplings hot in bowl with broth.