Delicious and Simple Passover Chicken Soup and Meal

This chicken soup with kneidlach, matzah balls, was the most delicious and super easy to make soup.

Before the Passover Seder, my main cooking contribution was to bring two types of kneidlach, regular and vegan kneidlach. This time when I boiled the kneidlach I used Chicken Broth.

First I prepared the kneidlach mixture, since it's supposed to sit in the fridge for a couple of hours. Click Kneidlach.

Chicken broth is also, so simple to prepare. All I had to do was to boil the cleaned chicken until just cooked, not until crumbling and disintegrating in the liquid. Then I removed the chicken and refrigerated it.

When you're ready to make the kneidlach, boil the chicken stock and either roll the kneidel mush into balls, or just get two spoons ready to "drop" ball like pieces into the broth/stock.

While the broth/stock is boiling carefully drop/add the kneidlach. When all the "mush" is in the broth/stock, cover and lower the flame, so that it just simmers for about 40 minutes.

After they cool a bit, remove the kneidlach and refrigerate or freeze if you won't be using them for more than a few days. Or you can make a large quantity and just freeze some.

I brought them all to my daughter's for our family seder, but afterwards she gave me leftovers to take home. When serving at the seder, those who wanted kneidlach got them added to the soup she had made.

Yesterday I made a wonderful meal with the chicken and the stock and the kneidlach, plus my all time favorite oven-roasted vegetables.

To turn the stock/broth into a delicious chicken soup, I cut an onion, a couple of carrots,a parsley root and parsley leaves. I put them plus the kneidlach in the pot, added the stock and covered it. After the soup began to boil, I lowered the flame to simmer for about 40 minutes.

I carved the chicken and took two pieces, added some diced onion, seasoning and olive oil to another pot, covered and cooked on a low flame.

We had an amazingly delicious lunch. It was very easy to make. The soup was rich and didn't have a drop of salt.

Vegan (Eggless) Kneidlach, Matzah Balls, A Great Success

Our family now includes a vegan, that's someone who doesn't eat any animal products at all-- including eggs! We want her to feel very welcome, so I decided to try to make her Kneidlach for the Passover Seder, since I was making the regular kneidlach for the rest of the family, at least those members who are willing to eat the classic Ashkenaz delicacy. My daughter had made her a whole variety of Chanukah "Latkes" for that holiday get-together. Since that daughter was our Passover Seder host, I took on the challenge to make Vegan Kneidlach.

I based it on a recipe I found on the internet, the Edgy Veg,  Vegan Matzah Balls. But of course I tweaked it quite a bit. I also cooked them in simple, but rich Vegetable Soup.

Here's the official recipe copy/pasted, but I've crossed out and substituted what I had changed:

Ingredients

• 2 just over 1 1/2 cup matzo meal, unsalted
• 1 cup seltzer water
• 4 tbsp coconut oil olive oil
• ½ 3/4 cup potato starch + 6-12 tbsp water to make a starchy goop
• 1 tsp pinch salt + to taste
• ½-1 tsp a bit pepper
• 1 tsp dried dill
• 1 tsp dried parsley

Instructions

1. In medium size bowl combine the matzo, salt, pepper and herbs with a whisk spoon until combined. Set aside.
2. In another bowl, mix the potato starch and water together until you get a thick, starchy goop.
3. To this potato starch goop add coconut olive oil and seltzer and gently mix until combined.
4. Add the matzo meal and seasonings and mix until it all comes together.
5. This mixture should not be sticky. If its too dry, add a spritz more of seltzer, and if it’s too wet, add a little more matzo meal. You should be able to mix it you’re your hands without having it stick to all your fingers.
6. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for an hour.
7. After an hour, form the dough into balls and add them to your boiling soup broth.
8. Lower the heat to a simmer, and cook the balls for 25-30 minutes.
9. After your matzah balls are cooked, you can serve them with broth right away 3-4 per bowl of soup.
10. If you are serving the soup later, remove the balls from the soup to prevent sogginess, and store them in a Tupperware storage container.*
11. When you are ready to serve the soup flash boil the balls in broth and serve.

* We were pleasantly surprised to discover that the Kneidlach I had missed in my attempt to remove them all from the hot soup were perfectly formed and had survived well in the soup. My daughter just added the Matzah Balls to the soup bowl when serving soup. She did the same with the classic ones made with eggs for the Chicken Soup, since some of the family does not enjoy Ashkenaz foods.

Here are the photos:

The mix was very firm 

They were easy to form into balls

The matzah balls looked lovely in the soup, but they don't expand and get all "fluffy" like egg-based kneidlach.

Here they are in their storage container. 

After mixing, I put it in the refrigerator and made the Vegetable Soup. And that soup will be another blog post.

Our vegan said that they were delicious and took the leftovers home with her!

Easy TNT Never-Fail Knaidlach, Matzah Balls

I discovered this super easy, never failed me yet, TNT tried and true  Matzah Ball recipe when I was newly married a gazillion years ago. I use olive oil when making it on Passover and vegetable/soy oil during the year. It's best cooking it up in the soup, chicken or even vegetable soup, but when I bring them to my daughter, I just cook them up in lightly salted water. This time the water also had a pinch of pepper.

Way back when, every good housewife had a little Recipe Box of handwritten index cards, I wrote this one:

3 eggs
1T water
2 Ts oil
1 tsp salt
dash pepper
1/2 c מצה meal

mix thoroughly
-in fridge several hours
shape into balls
drop into boiling soup or water

Here are pictures from this year when I quadrupled the recipe:

I'm just bringing the Matzah Balls, since my daughter is hosting and making the Chicken Soup.

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This, how to double-spoon drop for making Kneidlach, is from last year, when I was cooking on gas, which gives a more powerful flame than the electric stove I'm using this year. Gd willing, next year I'll be back to cooking on gas, or at  least a more powerful stovetop.

Food, Family and...

Yes, I'm back blogging. The sinks, both meat and dairy, are over-flowing with dishes, pots etc. My son is, G-d willing, on his way back to Jerusalem and work. My daughter's trying to pack, and hers are a bissel over-tired.

Last night's Passover Seder went well; I think.

I was in charge of the food and I didn't hear any complaints. They wouldn't dare complain after all the work I did!

I made lots of chicken soup with "kneidelach," and after serving it at the seder and again today for lunch, it's almost gone. I made it in stages.

• First I boiled up the chicken in a large pot.
• Then I took out the chicken and cooled both separately in the fridge.
• The next day I took out the soup, skimmed off the fat, which had hardened.
• Then I added lots of vegetables, such as: onions, carrots, parsley roots and leaves and celery leaves.
• Since I was afraid that there wouldn't be enough room in the pot, I cooked up the kneidlach separately.
• I added just a drop of salt and pepper.

While we're talking food and family, meander to Carnival of the Recipes and Carnival of Family Life.

Enjoy!