Pumpkin Capuns – a Swiss classic made vegetarian

Hey there!

 

I once again have to start my post with a story from my childhood.

So, my family never travelled lots, at least not outside Switzerland. My parents were convinced that it was absolutely pointless to go on big city trips with eight or nine year olds, which I can now completely agree with. At this stage however I wasn’t always all too happy when I found out that the annual autumn break would be spent in the most eastern valley of Switzerland, again.

When I am thinking of if right now I highly appreciate the times we had in the beautiful Val Müstair. I am actually at the point where I would love to return there.

Hiking on the Pass dal Fuorn, swimming in the Lai da rims, eating Engadiner Nusstorte ( a really sweet nut pastry) and obviously enjoying some delicious homemade Capuns at the Restaurant Crush Alba in the centre of the town we stayed at. I enjoyed the stunning scenery and I have to admit I even discovered the fun side about hiking, when my sister and I realised that it was made a hundred per cent more enjoyable when singing while walking for hours and hours.

 

A hat, a stick, an umbrella and forwards, backwards, sideways march and one and two… That was all you would hear from us, all day long.

 

So the point is after hours of walking, the thing I enjoyed most was the delicious local specialities. After a long day hiking there was nothing better than a slice of Engadiner Nusstorte and later on a plate of freshly prepared Capuns. If you aren’t familiar with Swiss cuisine you are probably really confused by now, what on earth are Capuns, that’s probably your thoughts exactly.

 

So Capuns are something similar to Spätzle, though the batter gets rolled into a chard leave, then boiled or fried and after that baked in the oven with some cheese on top. The batter is usually enhanced with typical meats from the area, which include Salsiz (a smoked or air dried sausage made from various meats) and Bündnerfleisch (dried beef).

 

Although I was having this strange craving for Capuns I was facing two problems. Firstly I don’t eat meat, secondly I am not in the Val Müstair and since unfortunately I am no longer on holiday there’s no chance for me to get there in the near future. So there was only one way out of my dilemma. I had to create my own Capuns recipe.

 

Not surprisingly I managed to sneak in some of my all time favourite fall vegetable. Which is? Exactly, pumpkin. I just love pumpkin, I’m sorry guys you’ll just have to accept that fact about me.

 

The addition of pumpkin was basically the only change I made to the dish, otherwise I was going pretty traditional on the flavours. No cumin or feta, mint or saffron. I left it pretty basic today. I personally love this dish as is, I just wanted to make it a little more exciting for all those vegetarians out there. I mean obviously you could just omit the meat and then follow a traditional Capuns recipe, but that would be rather dull, wouldn’t it?

 

 

Hence Fanny, the foodie had to give it a little twist, which by the way everybody approved of. I was cooking for some friends of the family and all of them loved it, at least that’s what they told me…

 

But I’d say they’re a pretty honest bunch of people so there you have it these vegetarian pumpkin Capuns, were indeed absolutely delightful and perfect to have on cold autumn night.

 

So after you now know my Capuns story and how they got to grow on me I’ll give you a chance to make the same thing happen to you. So there you go the recipe for this traditional Swiss dish with a Fanny, the foodie twist.

 

 

 

Ingredients

 

• 1 pumpkin (about 2 kg, I think I used a blue kuri, I’m not quite sure though)
• 2 eggs
• 300g whole wheat flour
• 10 sage leaves
• 3.5dl milk
• 1.5dl water
• 50g parmesan + some additional
• 1 onion
• 1 big clove of garlic
• approx. 2 kg of Swiss chard
• salt
• olive oil

 

1. Peel your pumpkin, cut it into big chunks and cook it in a saucepan with a little water added over low heat. This will take about 40 minutes and I recommend doing this, the day or the morning before you are intending to serve this meal.
2. When your pumpkin is soft and cooled continue with preparing the Swiss chard leaves. Wash them and cut the really big ones in half. Then boil some water and blanch them for about 40 seconds, so you’ll be able to roll them later on. Put them aside.
3. Take 300g of your boiled pumpkin. Puree 100g until smooth, cut the other 200g into small chunks. Mash the rest of the pumpkin with about 2dl of milk and some salt. Put it all aside for later.
4. Also chop up an onion, a clove of garlic and the sage leaves.
5. Heat up some olive oil in a frying pan; add onion, garlic and sage. Fry until the onion has softened and developed some colour. Then add the small pumpkin cubes and fry for another three to four minutes. Also add some salt. When your mixture is done put it aside for later.
6. Grate 50g of Parmesan.
7. Finally you can start with throwing together your ingredients. Mix your flour, about 1tsp of salt, your 100g of pumpkin puree, your eggs as well as 1.5dl of milk and 1.5dl of water until you end up with a smooth but not too runny batter. I recommend not adding all the liquid at once, so your batter doesn’t end up being too liquidly.
8. Fold the pumpkin onion mixture as well as the Parmesan under the batter.
9. So now the challenging part of the recipe has arrived. Rolling the Capuns. It seems like all Swiss recipes are hiding a little challenge. Last time it was flipping the Rösti, this time rolling Capuns, I wonder what it will be next time…
10. When you are rolling your Capuns. Take a Swiss chard leave and remove the stem in the middle. If the leaves are too big you can also cut them in half or even in quarters. You are looking for leaves about 10cm wide. Put about one to two tablespoons of your batter on a leave, fold in the edges and roll it up. If you aren’t quite sure how I’m doing this, I’d say it works exactly the same as rolling spring rolls.
11. When you rolled all your Capuns, spread the mashed pumpkin you made earlier into a casserole dish.
12. Heat up some olive oil and fry the Capuns on each side until browned slightly over medium high heat. Then place them on top of the pumpkin puree.
13. When your capuns are evenly distributed over the pumpkin puree, grate some more parmesan on top and bake for about 30 minutes at 200°C.

14.Plate them up on a plate! If you feel like it you might also make a sauce to go with it.

Voila, delicious homemade and vegetarian Capuns, what a delight. I absolutely love Capuns and I personally think these are the perfect alternative for people who don’t eat meat or just feel like trying something new. By adding the pumpkin it kind of transformed it into something very special and not so ordinary at all, this way even meat lovers will absolutely enjoy this dish.

Bisous

Fanny, the foodie