"One Pot Meal," Dairy Vegetable Kugel

Notice that I used a different, for me, shaped pan, so the frozen kugel will be easy to recognize in the freezer, without having to uncover them.

Since my husband and I found ourselves eating alone on the Shavuot holiday, when it's traditional to eat dairy meals, I tried to come up with practical foods.

I used this Dairy Vegetable Kugel as a side dish, but with the addition of a fresh salad, it (certainly the leftovers) makes a perfect and tasty "One Pot Meal." An additional advantage is that you can make more than one at a time and freeze them.

Ingredients:
1 package broad noodles, (you may use any pasta)
1 package cottage cheese
6 eggs
3 fresh mushrooms
1 large onion
1 squash
2 tomatoes
seasonings to taste
You can vary/change the vegetables to your liking and what you have in stock.

Instructions:

1. boil the broad noodles
2. while they're cooking cut of the vegetables
3. Put the vegetables, cottage cheese, eggs and cooking/rinsed noodles and a large bowl and mix. Add whatever seasonings you wish.
4. Pour the mixture in baking pans. Optional to line with baking paper.
5. Bake in moderate oven 160c or 320f until firm and "bubbly" on sides. 
6. that's it
7. serve with salad if you wish

I used to make a sweet version of it, adding fruit, apples, raisins rather than vegetables, seasoned with cinnamon and sugar.

Yummy Cauliflower Casserole/Kugel

Last week at our Book Bliss/Book Club meeting, one of my friends brought a totally irresistible Cauliflower Casserole/Kugel for our potluck dinner. I asked her for the recipe. She told me that she makes two versions, one dairy and the other parve, which is lactose free and good for vegetarians who eat eggs. The photos here are of the parve (lactose free) version, which she made a couple of days later.

She very kindly sent me her recipe. It is like many of mine; you don't have to be exact over every quantity.

Parve Cauliflower Casserole

1 800 gram bag frozen cauliflower, defrosted or lightly steamed, (I would use fresh)

1 medium onion, chopped

2 Tbl. flour

2 Tbl. oil

1/2 Tbl. salt

some pepper

1/2 cup mayonaise

3-4 eggs

Mix all together. Place in baking pan. Can sprinkle garlic powder or granules on top. Bake at 180 degrees C for around 45 minutes.

FOR DAIRY VERSION:

Double amount of flour and oil, use between 500 to 750 grams cottage cheese instead of mayonnaise. Can add a handful of grated yellow cheese to filling and sprinkled on top.

Anytime Vegetable Kugel

I first developed this recipe for Passover. It began as a Potato Kugel, a classic Ashkenaz Jewish food. But recipes and cooking evolve, even more quickly than languages. As I tried to reduce the carbohydrates, it finally transformed into this Vegetable Kugel, without a single potato.

1 onion, 1 squash, 1 celery root, 1 sweet potato and 3 medium carrots

Since our hostess for the Israeli Independence Day bash asked, davka, for a Vegetable Kugel, that's what I made. I shredded all of the vegetables in the food processor and put them in a large bowl adding 5 eggs and a bit of salt and pepper.

I mixed it all well and then added some matzah meal and olive oil. And then it all went into the baking pans. Sorry, but I can't give exact measurements. I just wanted the eggs and matzah meal to hold it all together. Before putting the pans in the oven I poured a bit more olive oil  on top of each kugel, so they'd be crispy. I baked them in a medium oven, like you'd bake a cake.

And they came out looking gorgeous. They taste great too. It's always a good idea to make more than you need, since they freeze well.

Easy to Make Vegetable Kugel by Pictures

This vegetable kugel has evolved from classic raw potato kugel.  I now use mostly low starch/carbohydrate veggies, because neither my husband nor myself eat a lot of potatoes.  I pretty much cut them out entirely.

Here are the vegetables I used in this year's kugel, an onion, a couple of potatoes, squash and carrots. 

I pre-cut the vegetables for the blender.

The onion, a couple of potatoes, squash and carrots were blended up with a few eggs in my Passover blender.  If you're using a blender, like it did, use as many eggs as needed so that all of the veggties will be pulverized.  If you're using a food processor or hand grating, then add about two or three large eggs, or more smaller ones to the grated vegetables.

Then add your salt, pepper and any other spices or herbs you like.  Mix well, then add matzah meal, so it won't be watery.  You need the matzah meal, or the final product will be mushy.

Pour the mixture into baking dishes and add some olive oil, or whatever cooking oil you use, on top of each.  Lightly mix the oil into the top of the kugel.

I always bake my kugels in disposable pans so I can freeze and then reheat them.  Yes, I make more than I need.  They freeze very well.  This quantity, about half my usual, filled three long loaf pans.

I baked in medium plus heat (hotter than a cake) and lowered the heat a bit after the top looked ready.

Don't obsess over quantities and timing.  To check if it's ready, cut into it to make sure it's really baked.  If the top is crispy and the inside mushy, lower the heat and cook longer.

A couple of recipes

I'm just trying to catch up on things, and one of the things concerns food. I photographed food I cooked and planned on posting the recipes. Luckily I found them. Now I'm pretty sure I didn't post this yet, though I may have alluded to them.

First of all, before Passover, I had a lot of food to finish, and I didn't want to deal with pots and pans. There's some sort of saying about "desperation" being the seed for inventions or something like that.

1- Well, the situation was that I had kasha, buckwheat, and I wanted to finish the package. I cut up some mushrooms and onions, put them with the dry, hard kasha in an aluminum pan. Then I added some water and a bit of oil. I wrapped it all very well with foil and baked. How long? Exact proportions? Sorry, but I don't measure, but I must tell you that it was the best kasha I had ever eaten!

2- Vegetable Kugel (cake/casserole)

I did this in the blender for Passover. Like all good holiday food, it tastes great all year long.

As you can see, I made a quantity and froze what we didn't need immediately.

Basically, it's done by blending a carrot, squash, onion and potato with an egg or two. (Double, triple, etc the quantity and play with proportions.) Mix the mush, add some salt, pepper (and chopped or dehydrated greens, like parsley or dill if you want.) Add a couple of spoons of oil, then matzah meal (or bread crumbs or flour) to soak up the liquid a bit.

Pour into baking pans, dribble some more oil on top, and bake! They're yummy!