The best way to use up old & stale bread.

By popular demand (a.k.a. a couple of people on my Instagram), here’s a quick recipe for a Slovenian classic that will ensure you never throw out old bread again. As you probably know by now, I hate wasting food and I am always looking for creative ways to use all the leftovers (some of my older tips for zero waste cooking here), so my partner and I freeze all of our stale bread bits and use them to make a large batch of bread dumplings once we have enough saved up.

Not only are the bread dumplings delicious, but they are also extremely versatile, as you can adapt the flavour to suit whatever you want to serve them with. You can find them in Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary and probably elsewhere as well – they are typically served as a side to pot roasts, goulash, stews, roast beef or pork with thick sauces or sautéed vegetables. You can easily freeze the prepared bread dumplings for later use and cook them fresh when needed, so they’re one of the best way to always have a simple side dish available for your meal prep if you are regularly taking lunch to work.

Bread dumplings recipe

Unfortunately this is one of those grandma-style recipes that works by adding “just enough” of each ingredient, so I’ve tried to write down the guidelines that work best for me, but you will need to adjust based on your situation. The easiest way is to weigh your bread and use that as a starting point to adjust the amount of other ingredients, which is how this recipe is structured.

Ingredients

The base:

• 150 g old, dry bread
• 120 ml (0.5 cup) milk (regular or plant milk)
• 1 egg
• salt & pepper to taste
• 30 g flour (any kind)

Optional additions (choose your own combination):

• 1 tablespoon pork cracklings or finely chopped bacon
• 1 roasted finely chopped small onion
• 1 tablespoon seeds (flax, pumpkin, sunflower, sesame)
• 1 teaspoon herbs (parsley, marjoram, thyme, celery leaves)
• 0.5 teaspoon spices (nutmeg, cumin, paprika, garlic powder)

Makes 2 -3 medium sized dumplings (for 2 servings as a side dish)

Prep time: 10 minutes + 20 minutes waiting time

Cooking time: 10 – 15 minutes

Instructions

Chop the stale bread into small cubes – the size of the cubes will determine how smooth or chunky the dumplings will be (I prefer them a bit chunky). The bread needs to be hard and dry, otherwise this doesn’t work. Beat the eggs until fluffy and pour onto the bread, then add milk, salt and pepper and your chosen additions. Mix it all together and leave to soak for 20 minutes.

Afterwards, add flour and shape the dumplings with your hands – if it’s too sticky, add more flour, if it’s too dry, add more milk. You can either make a large loaf and cut it into flat, circular pieces or form balls of desired size (the dumplings in the photos below are made from the quantity that is given in the recipe). Cook for 10 – 15 minutes in simmering salted water until the bread dumplings are cooked through the middle (avoid bubbling boiling water so that they don’t fall apart). Serve as a side and enjoy!

Notes

The classic combination is to use regular cow milk with white all-purpose flour and add parsley and finely chopped onions, roasted on a bit of oil. Adding pork cracklings or finely chopped bacon would be considered the deluxe version, but most Slovenians won’t add much beyond that.

However, over the years I have experimented quite a lot and can tell you that seeds are great for some extra fibre and texture, particularly if your leftover bread had some seeds to begin with, and a pinch of nutmeg is almost always a very welcome addition. If you are using plant milk, almond, soy and oat milk work very well and you can add a bit of paprika, garlic powder and a wider variety of herbs to enhance the earthy flavour that isn’t present with regular cow milk. In that case I would go with chickpea flour, but whole wheat, buckwheat flour or even finely ground oats also work really well – basically anything you would put into a loaf of bread will work well here.

Try to think ahead and plan what you will serve the bread dumplings with. If you want to keep your options open and are making a large batch, I would go for a neutral, more classic version, but if you already know you will be serving the bread dumplings with less traditional meals, then adjust the spices to match. I’ve eaten them with pretty much anything except fish – from roast meat with vegetables to veal or lentil stews or even in a creamy vegetable soup.

It’s very difficult to go wrong, although personally I would not use coconut milk or more aggressive spices like turmeric, curry powder, garam masala and fresh herbs like oregano, mint, basil, rosemary or cilantro. It’s all a matter of personal preference, so feel free to experiment and let me know how it went in the comments below. 🙂

Download printable PDF here