Chef Klaus
Allgäuer Krautkrapfen
The Allgäu pan dish that makes a meal from noodle dough, winter kraut, onion, and fat: brown the cut sides first, then cook gently so the rolls hold.
Culinary Explorer
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Leipziger Allerlei
Created by
A Saxon spring dish that fails when the vegetables are treated as one pot. Cook each one to its own tenderness, then bring them together in butter.
Main Dishes
German
Weeknight
Comfort Food
Make Ahead
35 min
Active Time
35 min cook•1 hr 10 min total
Yield4 servings
Leipziger Allerlei belongs to Leipzig and to spring, when asparagus, young carrots, peas, kohlrabi, and cauliflower can all meet in the same pan without pretending it is winter. I cook it as a main dish with potatoes or as the quiet centre of a Sunday table, bright and pale and green, not brown gravy. The old Leipzig version had morels and crayfish tails too; the weekday version can stand without the crayfish, but it still needs care.
Everywhere else in Germany the name gets abused. In many kitchens it became mixed vegetables from the freezer, boiled together until everything tastes of nothing. Nicht aus dem Glas, and not from the packet either. In Saxony the point is the spring basket, each vegetable kept itself. Im Norden anders, im Süden anders: the north has its fish and asparagus, the south its buttery vegetable plates, but Leipzig owns this name.
The technique is simple and strict: cook the vegetables separately or in stages, because a pea and a carrot do not have the same clock. Boil them together and the asparagus collapses before the carrot is sweet, or the peas go dull before the cauliflower is tender. Then finish everything in a light butter sauce loosened with vegetable cooking liquor. Weggeworfen wird nichts, that liquor carries the flavour you just paid for.
Watch the colour. The peas should stay green, the asparagus pale gold, the carrots bright, the sauce glossy enough to coat a spoon but not bury the garden. Schön ist, was schmeckt.
Leipziger Allerlei is tied to 19th-century bourgeois cooking in Leipzig, when the city was wealthy from trade, publishing, and fairs, and spring vegetables could be shown off with morels and crayfish from local waters. A popular legend says Leipzig households served a plain vegetable dish after the Napoleonic wars to look poorer to tax collectors, but the classic version with crayfish tails and morels tells a richer story than that. By the 20th century the name had spread across Germany and often shrank into a generic mixed-vegetable side dish, which is exactly how a regional dish loses its spine.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
white asparagus
Quantity
500g
peeled and cut into 4cm pieces
young carrots
Quantity
250g
peeled and cut into batons or coins
kohlrabi
Quantity
250g
peeled and cut into batons
cauliflower florets
Quantity
250g
cut small
fresh or frozen peas
Quantity
200g
dried morels (optional)
Quantity
20g
rinsed well, soaked, and chopped
fresh morels (optional)
Quantity
150g
cleaned
unsalted butter
Quantity
60g
shallot
Quantity
1 small
finely diced
plain flour
Quantity
1 tablespoon
reserved vegetable cooking liquor
Quantity
250ml
cream
Quantity
100ml
lemon juice
Quantity
1 teaspoon
sugar
Quantity
1 small pinch
salt and freshly ground white pepper
Quantity
to taste
flat-leaf parsley
Quantity
2 tablespoons
chopped
boiled new potatoes
Quantity
800g
to serve
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| white asparaguspeeled and cut into 4cm pieces | 500g |
| young carrotspeeled and cut into batons or coins | 250g |
| kohlrabipeeled and cut into batons | 250g |
| cauliflower floretscut small | 250g |
| fresh or frozen peas | 200g |
| dried morels (optional)rinsed well, soaked, and chopped | 20g |
| fresh morels (optional)cleaned | 150g |
| unsalted butter | 60g |
| shallotfinely diced | 1 small |
| plain flour | 1 tablespoon |
| reserved vegetable cooking liquor | 250ml |
| cream | 100ml |
| lemon juice | 1 teaspoon |
| sugar | 1 small pinch |
| salt and freshly ground white pepper | to taste |
| flat-leaf parsleychopped | 2 tablespoons |
| boiled new potatoesto serve | 800g |
Equipment Needed
- •Wide saucepan or saute pan
- •Fine sieve or coffee filter for morel liquor
- •Slotted spoon
- •Shallow serving bowl
Instructions
- 1
Prepare the morels
Rinse dried morels under cold water, then soak them in 250ml warm water for 25 minutes until they soften. Lift them out, chop them, and strain the soaking liquor through a fine sieve lined with paper, because morels carry grit and grit in a butter sauce is a punishment. If using fresh morels, split them and wash only as much as needed, then dry them well so they fry instead of weep.
- 2
Cook by clocks
Bring a wide pot of salted water to a steady simmer with a pinch of sugar. Cook the carrots for 5 to 6 minutes, kohlrabi for 5 minutes, cauliflower for 4 minutes, asparagus for 4 to 6 minutes depending on thickness, and peas for only 1 to 2 minutes. Lift each vegetable out as it is just tender and spread it on a tray. They finish in the sauce, so stop early; if you boil them to softness now, the pan will finish them into mush.
Keep 250ml of the cooking liquor. It is already seasoned and tastes of asparagus, carrot, and kohlrabi, which is why water from the tap makes a thinner sauce in every sense. - 3
Start the sauce
Melt 40g of the butter in a wide pan and soften the shallot for 2 minutes without browning it. Stir in the flour and cook it for 1 minute, because raw flour tastes dusty and will not disappear just because cream arrives later. Whisk in the reserved vegetable liquor a little at a time, then add the cream and simmer until the sauce coats the back of a spoon.
- 4
Add the morels
Fry the chopped morels in the remaining 20g butter in a small pan until their edges darken and their mushroom smell turns deep and nutty. Add them to the sauce with 2 tablespoons of their strained soaking liquor if using dried morels. Morel liquor is strong, so add it like seasoning, not soup.
- 5
Fold and finish
Slide the cooked vegetables into the sauce and fold gently with a broad spoon over low heat until everything is glossy and warmed through. Do not boil it now; cream tightens, peas dull, and asparagus breaks if you bully the pan. Finish with lemon juice, white pepper, and salt. Würzen, Fett, Salz zum Schluss, because the sauce tells you what it needs only after the vegetables are in it.
- 6
Serve with potatoes
Spoon the Allerlei into a warm shallow bowl and scatter parsley over it. Serve with boiled new potatoes, which take the butter sauce properly and make the dish a meal. If you want the old Leipzig plate and you eat fish, add warmed crayfish tails at the very end; for this vegetarian table, leave them out and let the vegetables do the work.
Chef Tips
- •Use white asparagus in season, roughly April to June. When the season is shut, don't fake the dish with tired spears; cook carrots, kohlrabi, and stored roots in a winter butter sauce and call it what it is.
- •Frozen peas are acceptable because they are frozen close to harvest. Frozen mixed vegetables are not the same thing; the pieces are cut for factory timing, not for your pan.
- •Morels are traditional but sandy. Rinse, soak, strain, and taste one before it goes in. A single gritty morel can ruin a careful sauce.
- •The sauce should be light enough to show the vegetables. If it sits like paste, loosen it with a spoon of cooking liquor. Leipziger Allerlei is dressed, not buried.
- •For a stricter old-style version, crayfish tails belong at the end and only at the end. Boil them in the sauce and they turn rubbery. Das braucht seine Zeit, but not that kind of time.
Advance Preparation
- •The vegetables can be trimmed and cut up to one day ahead, kept covered and cold. Keep asparagus wrapped in a damp towel so it does not dry at the cut ends.
- •The vegetables can be blanched up to 6 hours ahead and spread on a tray, then chilled. Finish them gently in the sauce just before serving so the colour stays alive.
- •The sauce can be made 1 day ahead without the vegetables. Reheat it over low heat and loosen it with reserved cooking liquor before folding the vegetables through.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 700g)
Calories
520 calories
Total Fat
22 g
Saturated Fat
14 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
8 g
Cholesterol
60 mg
Sodium
700 mg
Total Carbohydrates
72 g
Dietary Fiber
16 g
Sugars
14 g
Protein
15 g
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