Gluten-free Kugel Recipes Among These 9 Fabulous Kugel Options (2024)

FAQs

Why do Jews eat kugel? ›

As Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz once said, “Jews eat lots of lokshen on Shabbat because noodles are symbolic of the unity of the people of Israel: They are so tangled that they can never be separated.” Noodle kugel may not actually be eaten by all Jews, but it has clearly reached far beyond mere Ashkenazi cuisine.

Kugel (Yiddish: קוגל kugl, pronounced [ˈkʊɡl̩]) is a baked casserole, most commonly made from lokshen (לאָקשן קוגל lokshen kugel) or potato. It is a traditional Ashkenazi Jewish dish, often served on Shabbos and Jewish holidays. American Jews also serve it for Thanksgiving dinner.

And then I read in The Jewish Kitchen: Recipes and Stories from Around the World of a Hasidic rabbi, Pinchas of Koretz (in Galicia), who claimed that lokshen kugel itself symbolizes Jewish unity, since the noodles are all tangled together and are really inseparable, just like the unified Jewish people.

Pretzels – this bread twisted into a knot hails from Germany's Jewish population. These can be eaten as snacks and come in hard and soft variants as well as in different flavours – salted pretzels, cheese pretzels, chocolate-covered pretzels, etc. are a few.

Kugel is traditionally served as a side dish alongside something meaty like brisket or roast chicken. In this case it would normally be served warm, but it can also be refrigerated and eaten cold the next day. Sweeter versions can also be eaten hot or cold, and taste great with fresh cream or vanilla ice cream.

We use the term for all types of baked casseroles, like potato kugel, noodle kugel, broccoli kugel, and even sweet dishes like cranberry crunch kugel and apple kugel!

Make Sure to Cool Your Kugel

Once it's baked, a kugel needs to cool, otherwise it will fall apart when slicing. Give it at least an hour to cool and set up, then slice and serve it warm or at room temperature.

The best side dishes to serve with kugel are Jewish brisket, cholent, shakshuka, Caesar salad, chicken soup, gefilte fish, zucchini fritters, applesauce, cucumber salad, pickled beets, tzatziki sauce, potato latkes, roast vegetables, matzo ball soup, coleslaw.

The kugel is the earliest form of German glass Christmas decoration, its predecessor being the “witch ball”, an unsilvered glass sphere hung from windows to ward off evil spirits (supposedly repulsed by round shapes).

It commonly makes an appearance on the dinner table during Shavuot (along with bourekas), when it's traditional to consume dairy foods, and Shabbat because it's said that kugel resembles the manna that fell from heaven. It's the perfect side dish for a Hanukkah latke party, adding some richness to the meal.

Can you eat kugel on Passover? ›

"Farfel kugel is a Jewish pudding typically eaten at the Passover table but can be enjoyed any time of year," says recipe creator CRW. "This kugel is a savory one that is a wonderful accompaniment to any meat dish with gravy to help soak up the gravy."

Thanksgiving and Rosh Hashanah simply are not the holidays without homemade kugel. Ever since I was young, kugel has been one of my all time favorite dishes. Even though it's usually considered a meal for holiday occasions, I love to have it all year round.

Rice kugels were invented in the 16th century thanks to Ottoman influences, and the popular Polish potato kugel showed up in the nineteenth century. Since the kugel was born out of need for a warm dish on Shabbat, when cooking is forbidden, it was prepared overnight in a communal oven.

There are many kinds that you can make kosher for passover. As long as they do not contain flour, or other chametz. You can make potato kugel, other vegetable kugels, apple kugel and matzah kugel that are ok for Passover.

The kugel was born in Eastern Europe as a leftover bread pastry with fat and eggs and only eight centuries ago evolved into the lokshen (noodle) kugel we know today. Rice kugels were invented in the 16th century thanks to Ottoman influences, and the popular Polish potato kugel showed up in the nineteenth century.

Jewish. Among religiously observant Jews, gefilte fish has become a traditional Shabbat food to avoid borer, which is one of the 39 activities prohibited on Shabbat outlined in the Shulchan Aruch.

Noodle (aka lokshen or frimsel) kugel has been around since the 1500s when Jews traveling from Italy to the France-Germany region brought noodles with them. But, around 200 years later, the Tatars (a Turkish-speaking people from West-Central Russia) brought noodles from Asia to Slovakia in Eastern Europe.