Zwiebelkuchen, which literally means onion cake in the German language, is either a one-crust pie made of steamed onions, diced bacon, cream, and caraway seed on a yeast dough or a leavened dough that is particularly popular in the German winegrowing regions

Vegans have more fun with animal-free bacon & eggs! Here’s a recipie from Tomas, served at People’s kitchen on Feb 25th, 2012 together with Becky’s borschtsch (Beetroot Soup) and served with mixed salads including foraged leaves – the first wild food of the year!

Zwiebelkuchen – Onion cake
recipe for 4-6 people

For the base: make a yeasty dough with

  • 500g flour (strong white is best)
  • 5g/ 1 sachet dry yeast
  • 1 tsp salt
  • Mix them up and add 300ml water

Mix and knead until the dough has an earlobe like fell to it.

Leave in a warm place to double in volume

Meanwhile, chop

  • 2-3 onions
  • 12-15 mushrooms (thin slices)
  • add spinach (or nettles) and parsley if you like

Then make a white sauce:

  • fry some whit eflour in oil,
  • add milk of your choice
  • add mustard and caraway seed,
  • mix with the chopped ingredients

When ready, pre-heat the oven to gas mark 5k
Knock down the dough and spread it on a baking tray
Add the topping mix
Bake the lot for 25-30 minutes, or until it smells delicious.

For more people, just do the maths

Tomas xx