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Papua New GuineaFlavors · Dakota do Norte
Creamy chicken-and-potato soup with knoephla—soft dumplings made from flour and egg. Brought by Germans from Russia, it’s the soup most associated with North Dakota, especially in winter.
Traditional dish from Dakota do Norte
Also known as: knoephla, knephla, knoepfla, knefla
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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Knoephla soup — Dakota do Norte, the United States
Knoephla is the name of the dumplings: small pieces of dough made from flour, egg, and milk, cut or pinched directly into the pot, which become soft and slightly elastic. In North Dakota the best-known way to eat them is in knoephla soup, a thick chicken-broth soup with potato, onion, celery, and carrot, thickened with cream or milk.
The recipe comes from the Germans from Russia, ethnic German colonists who lived for generations along the Volga and the Black Sea and immigrated to the Great Plains in the late 19th century. Many settled in central-south and southwest North Dakota, a region known for small towns with German heritage. The name derives from the German dialect word knöpfle, meaning little button.
The soup appears at roadside diners, family restaurants, and town daily specials across the state, and it’s the go-to dish for winter evenings. In the same tradition are cheese buttons, dumplings filled with cheese, and kuchen, a sweet cake.
Every family has its own recipe, and the spelling varies as much as the preparation: knoephla, knephla, knoepfla, or knefla appear in church cookbooks from the region.
Dumplings of flour, egg, and milk; chicken broth, potato, onion, celery, carrot, butter, and cream or milk.
Very hot, in a deep bowl, sometimes served with bread or saltine crackers.
Year-round; especially in autumn and winter.
Your questions
It’s a creamy chicken-and-potato soup with soft dough dumplings, typical of North Dakota.
From the Germans from Russia, ethnic German immigrants who settled in North Dakota in the late 19th century.
The name comes from a German dialect word and each family and community adopted its own spelling: knoephla, knephla, knoepfla, or knefla.
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