Aldi Mushroom Schupfnudeln (Deutsche Küche) Review
Tasty finger noodles.
I studied German as a foreign language for four years, and I still have trouble pronouncing “Schupfnudeln.” Sheesh.
Anyway. Wikipedia says Schupfnudeln are thick German potato noodles or dumplings. They’re also called “finger noodles” or Fingernudel. This bag says “gnocchi,” probably because more people know what gnocchi is. I bought this frozen Mushroom Schupfnudeln during Aldi’s famous German Week event, not knowing whether it would be delicious or disastrous. Fortunately, it is the former.
The bagged meal consists of the potato noodles, mushrooms, and frozen pellets of the cream sauce. My picture shows the entire contents of one bag.
I am impressed by how “fresh” the frozen pieces are — nothing is freezer burnt or caked with crusty ice. This is possibly the freshest frozen meal I have seen in a hot minute. Or even a cold minute.
The sauce pellets are kind of genius. They melt as you cook the meal and turn into the creamy-cheesy goodness. The herbs suspended in the frozen lumps disperse evenly throughout the sauce. It’s a surprisingly homemade-tasting cream sauce when finished — especially for how little effort is involved.
Likewise, the mushrooms are not what I expected for frozen mushrooms — they’re super thick and big and crisp and flavorful. These are much higher quality ‘shrooms than I anticipated from a bargain frozen dinner kit.
The schupfnudeln are as big as my fingers — which isn’t saying much, because I have small fingers. But still. I guess this is where they got the name “finger noodles.”
If you think about that too much, it gets weird. So, don’t think about it.
(Ha ha. You’re still thinking about it!)
I cooked mine in a large stainless steel skillet. It took about 10 minutes for the sauce to fully melt and become bubbly. After cooking, the mushrooms soak up the flavorful herbed cream sauce. The parsley flakes remain a bright green color, as if I had just harvested them from my garden. What sorcery is this.
The meal thickens quickly after cooking, so the cream sauce becomes goopier and less liquid. The heating instructions recommend letting it sit a couple minutes after cooking, — apparently the thicker sauce is intended. If you don’t like this, you can thin it out with some additional water or milk.
What’s it taste like? Well, the schupfnudeln are spongey and have a sort of dense, yet fluffy texture. They’re tender, yet firm. Am I contradicting myself? Gah! I liked these finger-noodles a lot. The smooth, creamy sauce has a hint of cheesiness and a whiff of garlic. To me, the mushrooms are the star of this show — they’re about as close to crisp, freshly cooked mushrooms as you could ever get in a frozen meal.
Slight bummer: this isn’t a ton of food. In fact, I measured the entire contents of the skillet after cooking to see exactly how much it was, by volume. It was just over 2 cups. I find this puzzling, because the bag says there are 5 servings of 1 cup each. So there should be 5 cups total. Maybe five cups is the frozen volume, rather than the cooked volume. IDK. Anyway, you’re getting a little more than 2 cups, after cooking.
Regardless, this is a filling meal! The gnocchi are surprisingly satisfying. I couldn’t eat as many finger-noodles as I expected. I did end up getting at least 4 servings from the bag.
Heating Instructions for Aldi Mushroom Schupfnudeln
The label provides two cooking methods — microwave, or skillet. The microwave method is only 2 minutes faster, so I opted for the skillet method. Either way, the meal should be ready in 9-14 minutes, including the “sitting” time after cooking. There’s nothing you have to do, other than dump everything in a container and stir it a bit. Convenient.
Price and Servings
Personally, I think this works better as a side dish. A 1-cup serving has 7 grams of fat and only 5 grams of protein. If you eat two servings, you’d still only be getting 10 grams of protein. You could add some meat to round out the nutrition and make it more of a meal. I added sardines to my leftovers, which was… a little odd, but I ate it. I probably won’t do that again. I think some chicken meatballs would be nice with the cream sauce.
This is made in France. Perhaps a bit traitorous, since this is a German product. But whatever, I’m not the finger-noodle police. I paid $4.99 for the 20 ounce bag, so that’s about $1 per serving. Assuming you actually get 5 servings from the bag, as recommended.
Ingredients in Deutsche Küche Mushroom Schupfnudeln
Here are the ingredients:
- Alsatian gnocchi (mashed potatoes [water, potato flake, turmeric], wheat flour, potato starch, eggs, skimmed milk powder, salt, thickeners: locust bean gum & guar gum)
- Mushrooms
- Cream
- Water
- Semi-skimmed milk
- Hard cheese (milk, rennet, lactic starter, salt)
- Onions
- Sunflower oil
- Rice flour
- White wine
- Parsley
- Salt
- Garlic
- White pepper
I don’t love that the mashed potatoes in the noodles are made from potato flakes, instead of freshly mashed potatoes, and skimmed milk powder is not as awesome as fresh milk, but those are my only complaints. These are pretty clean and wholesome ingredients, overall. For a $5 frozen bagged meal, that’s impressive. I’ll probably buy this again.
More Reviews of Aldi Products You Might Like (or Hate)
Check out these other reviews of Aldi frozen stuff I’ve recently written:
- Aldi Fruits of the Forest Strudel (Deutsche Küche)
- Aldi Bienenstich Indulgent Cakes (Deutsche Küche)
- Aldi Donauwelle Indulgent Cakes (Deutsche Küche)
Author’s note: I have no affiliation with Aldi, and I wasn’t compensated in any way for this review.
