The past two weeks I tried two new soup recipes I was planning to post and although they were OK, they weren’t absolutely delicious and I feel they need an extra twist before I publish them. I think is not fair to post recipes that are just OK, after all I blog to share with all the foodies of the world dishes that I am passionate about, otherwise what would be the point of it all?

For reasons that have nothing to do with cooking I was in very black mood when I cooked them and that invariably reflects on the result, does it happen to you too?

Luckily I have a few recipes in reserve; today’s is the traditional Maultaschen German Soup. Maultaschen are big rectangular dumplings filled with a mix of meats, spinach and spices that are usually eaten in a clear broth or sauté and served with some sauce. They are original from the region of Swabia (Bavaria) in Southwestern Germany. If you look on the internet you’ll find plenty of recipes to prepare the dumplings from scratch, but in this case I used bought ones to a quick version that is a great resource to an easy but complete meal. I’ve been wanting to cook a German recipe for a while and when I saw the Maultaschen at my local supermarket I didn’t doubt it for a second. I added some vegetables to the sotck in this version for a one course supper, here it goes!

Servings: 2

Preparation and cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 litre beef stock
• 1 spring onion, chopped
• 1 leek, sliced
• 1 celery stalk, sliced
• 1 carrot, sliced
• 4 Maultaschen

• Black pepper to taste

For the garnish (carmelised onion)

• a dash of olive oil
• 1 white onion, chopped
• a pinch of salt
• Fresh chopped parsley

Preparation

In a cooking pot bring the stock to a boil, add the vegetables and simmer while you prepare the caramelised onion: heat the oil in a frying pan, add the chopped onion, lower the heat to a minimum, add a pinch of salt, stir, cover and let it brown.

Once the vegetables of the soup have soften, add the Maultaschen and cook around 12 minutes until the dumplings are done (follow the package instructions). Serve, garnish with the caramelised onion and fresh parsley and enjoy!