Cooking with Aldi: Pork Schnitzel with Mushroom Spaetzle and Green Peas

Last week, Aldi had German week with a lot of Deutsche Kueche items on sale. I have already blogged about the Prosciutto and today I will blog about two other items that at some point were on sale at Aldi during German week. One item is the Pork Schnitzel that was actually on sale the same week as the Prosciutto. This is a thin piece of pork, covered in a saltine coating, frozen, and can be used individually, although not packaged individually.

I opened the carton and the pork schnitzel are all in one bag. Not my favorite way to freeze meat since the closure on the bag will not work well enough to prevent freezer burn. So if you buy a package of the Pork Schnitzel, plan on using them up fairly quickly. The schnitzel themselves are good size and certainly feed one adult. I followed the instructions on the box.You add some oil to a skillet, let it heat up and then add the meat, ensuring that it is golden brown on one side before flipping it over and letting it cook for a few minutes on the other side. During the second round, I added canned green peas from a recent sale at Harris-Teeter.

While the meat was cooking, I had started the mushroom spaetzle. The spaetzle come in a dried form with little bits of mushroom in the package and a powder that will eventually form a creamy sauce. I am not too fond of having my spaetzle with sauce, so I usually add a lot of more liquid than then recommended two cups to the mix and to ensure that the sauce is thin enough to drain out when I get my spaetzle. Overall, the prep for this side-dish is very easy. Add mix to the cold water, stir and bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes. After the noodles were nice and soft, I used a slotted spoon to remove the noodles from the pot and serve them right on the plate.

copyright Durhamonthecheap - Schnitzel and Spaetzle!

The final outcome was a typical German dish with all ingredients coming from the USA and this made it very budget friendly. The total price of the dish was less than $3 a person - a real bargain! The schnitzel tasted very authentic and preparation was so much easier than doing the coating of the meat yourself. The spaetzle had a nice texture and the added mushrooms gave them a little bit extra flavor. The peas were just peas, but I love peas and was happy! So the next time Aldi has German week, try the pork schnitzel and the Spaetzle (and if you want, a German beer), play some Oktoberfest music and pretend you are on vacation in Germany.