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Hungarian Potato Pasta, called krumplis tészta, is a quick, delicious and budget-friendly main dish. It requires only a few simple ingredients and about half an hour to make. The recipe is super easy to prepare, so perfect for beginners too. It is just the perfect, filling, vegan comfort food.
Hungarian Potato Pasta is simplicity at its best. Seriously, this recipe couldn’t get any easier. Pasta, onion, garlic, potato, and paprika powder. That’s all you need for this satiating meal.
And yet, this recipe is seriously good! Hungarian Potato Pasta is:
- Full of flavor
- Comforting
- Savory and hearty
- Totally customizable
- Quick and easy
- Cheap to make
What you need for Hungarian Potato Pasta
This dish is traditionally made with flat square noodles, but it works great with any kind of short pasta too. Use GF, whole-wheat or legume pasta if you like.
Lots of onion and garlic gives extra flavor to this pasta dish, so feel free to use as much as you are not afraid to.
For the potatoes it’s best to use a floury type. However, don’t stress too much on this, any potato will work. In general it is a great recipe to use up old and miscellaneous potatoes as well.
You can peel or scrub the potatoes, or keep them unpeeled, as I do usually.
I cook with a good quality sweet Hungarian paprika powder (straight from my grandparents’ garden 😍), but you can substitute that with any other type you have at home. Smoked paprika or a spicy paprika powder are really lovely here too.
The only must is some pickles and a lots of black pepper to serve it. Don’t even make this dish if you don’t have a big jar of pickles ate home!
How to make Hungarian Potato Pasta
You start with sautéing the onion and garlic. Do it with a little bit oil, or in a non-stick pan without any oil, using a little water or vegetable broth.
Once onion turns translucent, you add potatoes and paprika powder, and stir for a few seconds, until paprika starts to smell amazing. Be careful, paprika powder can burn and turn bitter very quickly. So be quick and make sure you don’t overcook it.
Now that everything is fragrant and smells amazing, you cover potatoes with water or vegetable broth, and let simmer until potatoes are soft.
While potatoes are cooking, prepare your pasta according to package instructions.
When potatoes are cooked, grab a fork or a potato masher, and mash your cooked potatoes roughly. You definitely want some texture there left, so don’t go for mashed potatoes. Leave a few small pieces here and there.
Mix together cooked pasta and potato mixture. I like my potato pasta on the ‘drier’ side, but if you want it more saucy, make sure you add a little extra water (or oil) at the end. Also, it’s time to taste, and adjust seasoning if needed. You can add a little hot sauce here too, if you like things spicy.
That was it. Super easy, right?
Now serve pasta with vegan sour cream and chopped parsley on top. And as I said, with lots of black pepper on top too! Plus pickles on the side. Yum!
Try some of my other Hungarian recipes!
- Vegan Mushroom Paprikash
- Layered Potato Casserole
- Potato Noodles with Cabbage & Tofu
- Savoy Cabbage Soup
- Bread Dumplings with Root Veggie Sauce & Roasted Mushrooms
- Hungarian Stuffed Cabbage
- Paprika Potato Stew
- Cheese Spread in Bread Bowl
- Hungarian Bean Soup
Hungarian Potato Pasta
- Total Time: 30 mins
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- 1–2 tbsp vegetable oil (optional)
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp sweet paprika powder
- 4 medium potatoes
- 10 oz/300 g pasta of your choice
- salt, pepper
To serve:
- pickles
- chopped parsley
- vegan sour cream
Instructions
- Heat up oil in a pot over medium heat. Once hot, add onion and garlic. Sauté for about 10 minutes, or until translucent. If making oil free, use a few spoons water or vegetable broth.
- Cut potatoes into small cubes and add to the sautéed onion. Sprinkle with paprika powder.
- Stir for about 30 seconds, then pour water into the pot, enough to cover potatoes. Season with salt and pepper.
- Bring to a boil, then cook for 15-20 minutes, or until potatoes are completely soft.
- Meanwhile prepare your pasta according to package instructions. Drain and set aside.
- Once potatoes are cooked through and the water is almost completely evaporated, mash potatoes roughly with a fork or potato masher. Adjust seasoning with salt and a pepper, if needed.
- Mix together pasta and potatoes. Serve warm topped with vegan sour cream, sprinkled with parsley, and with pickles on the side. Enjoy!
Notes
- Traditionally this recipe uses 4-8 tablespoons of oil. You can try that version too, but I prefer the oil-free or low fat versions.
- I make the potatoes relatively dry, but some like the dish with more water (or oil). So adjust the consistency with more water or oil, if needed.
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Category: Main
I LIVE for smoked pap! And this is all the carbs! Potatoes + Pasta <3 Or we can call this the Triple P! Potato, Pasta, Paprika!!!
I love the triple P idea! ♥︎
Thanks Evi,
Highly successful dinner 🙂
PS tried to give five stars but something went wrong.
So happy to hear that 🙂
Do you use dill or sweet pickles? Also, what is the green garnish on top in the picture? Basil maybe? Thank you, looking forward to trying this!
Traditionally you eat the dish with dill pickles, but I personally prefer those tiny sweet gherkins as on the pictures.
The green garnish is basil here and I like to use parsley as well.
Let me know if you liked the recipe! 🙂
This sounds like gnocchi, only it’s Hungarian and in a different shape. I can’t wait to try this, Evi. It looks delicious.
Thanks, Linda!
Actually it really has a gnocchi-y taste 😉
I love national cuisines, but I’m not really familiar with Hungarian one (except goulash). I’ve got to fix that! This pasta sounds and looks really good even though I’m a bit sceptical about mixing pasta and potatoes:)
Hahaha, I know what you mean. I made this dish to many of my friends here, in Germany and everybody was totally sceptical about mixing these things in one dish. But everybody loved it at the end 😉
Oh, I love Hungarian kitchen, but then I am not a vegetarian. There are lots of Hungarian inspired dishes that my family in Romania (Transylvania) cooks, as there are many Hungarians ethnics living there. I didn’t know this one though, but it sounds like something I would love, not to mention my kids, pasta and potatoes in one, it can hardly get any better. 🙂
Oh, yes. If you eat meat Hungarian kitchen must be so nice. I never liked meat, which means I actually haven’t tried most Hungarian dishes 😀
What a lovely pasta, Evi. Never heard of a potato pasta before, but it sounds delicious. I definitely think you should share more Hungarian dishes 🙂 I always love learning about other cuisines and honestly I have no idea what Hungarian cuisine is like. All I can think of is goulash and chicken paprika… Never tried either but they seem synonymous with the culture.
Hahaha, I can also only think of goulash and chicken paprika, that’s why I never cook Hungarian things. But then sometimes my mom reminds me there are actually some nice vegan dishes and I start to crave them 😉
Very delicious. thank you for the recipe.
I am so happy you liked it 🙂
I grew up eating my grandmother’s home cooking – she was a Hungarian immigrant. There was a huge pot of stuffed cabbage and chicken soup with homemade noodles/dumplings every Sunday. It smelled so good walking in her house! Now that I’ve gone vegan, I really miss the stuffed cabbage (which was a recipe I worked on for many years to make it taste like she used to make). Thank you so much for posting this recipe. I can’t wait to try it.
I really hope you will like it, Jeannie!
Funny, that you mention stuffed cabbage, I used to hate it as a child, but I totally love it nowadays! Unfortunately it’s so hard to get those big cabbage leaves here…but once I find some I will definitely post a vegan recipe for that too 🙂
My mom would make this very often ..especially when she had left over rotini or elbow macaroni…the only thing she added was some homemade croutons which she made just before serving…I loved the soft and crunchy texture! Tku for sharing.
That’s such a great idea! I make this pasta quite often, next time I’ll definitely try your mom’s version too, croutons make everything better 😉
My father was Ukrainian and my mother from Jugoslavia and I was blessed to have such a diverse East European culinary upbringing in England. This Hungarian dish we called it Papitha – have no idea why .
My mother would make it quite often, cheap, quick and most of all unbelievably tasty and not to mention very affordable.
I still regularly make this dish however wanting it a little more as a complete meal I now cut up a chicken breast into strips and pan fry with the onions. My favourite accompaniment – pickled beetroot.
Hi Mike!
That’s so cool, I’ve never heard the name Papitha before, but I absolutely love it! I might start to call this dish like that too from now on 😉
And yes, it’s quick and cheap indeed, just like most Eastern European food! I love your addition of pickled beetroots here, I have to try it that way too. BTW next time you could try adding some fried, smoked tofu cubes to this dish, it’s so good with the pasta and makes it a very bomb dinner!
Me and my partner just arrived to our cabin in the mountains in Italy, unfortunately without groceries cause it’s already night time and markets are closed… I was literally staring at the four ingredients I was able to find in the cabin’s kitchen: potatoes, pasta, _hungarian paprika powder_ and garlic and asking myself “what am I supposed to do with these?”. So imagine when I found your recipe and thought THIS WAS MEANT TO BE DONE. And yes it’s so easy and good and vegan! 🙂
Hahaha, that’s exactly how I make this recipe normally – when there’s nothing at home other than pasta and potatoes 😀
But I’m very happy you liked the recipe, and I hope you have a great holiday 😉
What tempurature do you cook the onions and potatoes at?
For me medium heat is best, but you can also do it on high, just make sure you keep an eye on them, and stir occasionally, so they don’t burn 😉
Just came across your blog while looking for this recipe.
I had a boyfriend, in the mid 1980s, who’s step dad was Hungarian so got to know of this recipe. We would add some grated cheese to the mix. It was delicious!
Hahaha, how funny you got to know this recipe through an ex-boyfriend’s Hungarian step dad. I’m really glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Cook Langos evi show them something amazing
Oh yes!!! I totally forgot I wanted to post a langos recipe. This baby is in my drafts for almost 3 years 🤦♀️
Followed this recipe exactly and it’s perfect. My mom used to make this all the time but this was my first attempt. The whole family loves it especially my dad Thank you so much for posting this – it brings back a lot of memories. Vive la Hungary
I’m so glad to hear this, Christine 🙂