The secret ingredient in frankfurters/wieners (they’re more or less the same thing – the Austrians call them Frankfurter Würstel, the Germans call them Wiener Würstchen) is ridiculous amounts of nitrate salt, which means that a) they need very little cooking, and indeed grilling, frying or boiling them will make them explode and b) they impart a unique gunpowderish flavour to food. Traditionally, the sausages are eaten with lentils in Linsen mit Spätzle – this is a soupy variation which cuts out the Spätzle (chunky noodles made with savoury pancake batter) since they are revolting. This is cheap, easy, and makes about 50 tonnes of soup per serving. What more could you want?
Lentil and Frankfurter Soup (Linsen-Wiener-Würstchen-Suppe)
Serves 2-4 (Für 2-4 Portionen)
- 1 onion, finely chopped (1 Zwiebel, feingehackte)
- 500 g lentils (500 g Linsen)
- 2 large carrots, finely chopped (2 gehackte Karotten)
- 8 frankfurters/weiners, dry rather than canned if possible, chopped into ~2 cm pieces (8 Frankfurter/Wiener Würstchen in 2 cm lange Stücken schneiden)
- Currywurst sause – something like Heinz Hot Ketchup or Hot HP Sauce is a pretty close UK equivalent (Currywurst-Soße)
- 1 tablespoon of butter (1 EL Butter)
Melt the butter in a large pan, add the onions and carrots and soften for 5 minutes. (Die Butter in einem großen Topf schmelzen, die Karotten und die Zwiebel hinzugeben und 5 Minuten erweichen.)
Add 1.5 litre of water, then add the lentils and sausages. (1.5 l Wasser dazugeben, und dann die Linsen und die Würstchenstücken geben.)
Simmer for 30 minutes. Make sure the sausage pieces don’t burst. (30 Minuten leicht köcheln lassen. Sicherstellen, dass die Würstchenstücke nicht platzen.)
Enjoy! (Guten Appetit!)