One of the first spring herbs in Germany has become familiar to us this year. Bärlauch is a strong garlicky-tasting leaf that’s been all over the markets and on menus since February when it made its first debut.
Bärlauch is not for the faint of heart. Think of chives but so strong it can hold its own when cooked. We’ve seen it in bratwurst, as an early spring replacement for basil in pesto, and on its own as bärlauch soup.
This long flat leaf grows natively in shady meadows across Europe and has been enjoying somewhat of a revival in recent years. Perhaps, that’s because Germans are beginning to feel comfortable reveling in all things German, including traditional ingredients to the German kitchen.
It’s history dates back to the Early Stone Age, according to German Wikipedia. It still has a kind of pagan reputation with nicknames like Witches’ Onion, Gypsy Garlic and Forest Army. Folk medicine prescribed it for all kinds of maladies: indigestion, high blood pressure, an antibiotic, and even as a tonic going into battle.
We can kind of believe the last one. We came to realize that eating bärlauch must be a communal activity because bärlauch-breath should not be forced on others.
We appreciate it’s power in dishes like omelettes and as a pesto for spätzle with bacon (recipe bellow). Tony’s even tried it in an Asian stir-fry. We can imagine it as well mixed with sour cream on a baked potato.
It’s such a nice spark to early spring when, as every cook knows, the options are very limited. It’ll be hard to say good-bye to bärlauch when we come home … but maybe we’ll smuggle back some seeds and find a shady patch of garden for our Witches Onions.
Bärlauch Spätzle
Here’s the recipe for the Bärlauch dish shown above. In Germany you can buy spätzle premade in most supermarkets. While not as good as homemade we like to keep it onhand for a quick evening meal as an alternative to regular pasta. To make Bärlauch pesto follow any recipe for pesto substituting bärlauch for the basil and leaving out or going easy on the garlic.
Edit: After doing a little further digging I’ve discovered that Bärlauch is more commonly known as “ramp” in the US.
1 lb. Spätzle
1/4 cup Bärlauch Pesto
5 slices Thick Bacon
2 Tbl. Butter
1 Handful Arugula
Black Pepper
(1) Cut the bacon into bite-sized pieces (not too small) and fry until crispy. Drain the fat and set aside the bacon pieces.
(2) Fry the Spätzle in butter and black pepper until browned. I like to add quite a bit of black pepper.
(3) Add the bärlauch pesto, arugula and bacon pieces. Continue cooking until the arugula wilts.
Serve with beer or a German white wine such as Riesling.
Great post – “bear’s garlic” really deserves the publicity.
The recipe looks suppurb. I have also made Bärlauch scrambled eggs, Bärlauch strudel and, best of all, Bärlauch potato soup. Besides replacing basil and garlic, Bärlauch can also be mixed with or replace fresh spinach to give favorite recipes a new twist.
If you are looking for more recipes in English, search for ramsons, buckrams or wild garlic.
Btw Germans like to describe Bärlauch as “it tastes like garlic, but doesn’t leave a smell on your breath”.
Is this what we ate in Bonn at the Christmas Market? It was in a bratwurst and we could not quite place the flavor?
Probably – but i don’t remember this particular bratwurst. I have seen it listed as a bratwurst ingredient several times though.