Savory Noodle Kugel
While my family does do the traditional Thanksgiving foods (turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, etc), we also always make a noodle kugel. The word “kugel” is Yiddish and kind of translates to “pudding”. Kugels are a traditional Jewish dish dating back 800 years!
There are two kinds of noodle kugel. There’s a sweet kind and a savory kind. You can get the sweet kind at places like Zaftigs and Rubin’s Kosher Deli in Brookline. I am partial to the savory kind.
My dad has made the kugel in recent years, however, this is the first year that I haven’t spent with my immediate family. So this put a little pressure on me to make a truly awesome kugel.
Yesterday we had a “Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner”…so I made the kugel for the first time, as a test run. I racked my brain out googling kugel, but all the recipies were for sweet noodle kugel. My dad is a great chef and can throw things together without even measuring. I’m a novice chef and a kugel-cook neophyte, so I couldn’t trust myself to use my dad’s method. He was of some assitance to me, giving me round figures of what I should put in.
So, I made the kugel. And it was a HIT! I was so relieved, because I need to make another one for my family in Long Island tomorrow. Now I know I am not a noodle kugel failure!
And now I’m going to share my recipe for SAVORY noodle kugel (aka noodle pudding). It goes great with Thanksgiving food, and is a great side dish whenever you want!
-One and a half packages of broad egg noodles. (I like Mueller’s and I really do think the extra wide egg noodles work the best)
-6 eggs
-two sticks of butter (if you’re a butter lover, 3 sticks are OK too ;-))
-one cup of half & half (you can substitute half & half with sour cream, too!)
-8 oz. of cottage cheese (cream cheese is also acceptable — the effect is almost identical)
1) Boil noodles like you normally would
2) Melt butter (but only slightly) and mix in with half & half, eggs, and cottage cheese
3) After noodles are ready, mix in butter/half&half/eggs/cottage cheese batter
4) Pour into casserole dish
5) Cook for roughly 50 minutes. You can tell when it’s done because the top will be crispy like in the above photo.
For a sweet kugel, you can add vanilla, raisins, cinnamon, etc. Noodle kugel also reheats very well, so enjoy the leftovers! :-)
Next time ask me about my rosemary walnut stuffing! Mmmm!
HAPPY TURKEY DAY, FOLKS!!!!
17 Responses to “Savory Noodle Kugel”
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yummy! when you come out here for christmas you can make it for the fam!!
Holy crap, three sticks of butter?!?? It must be FANTASTIC! I would recommend a nice butter sauce for topping.
Ooh, that looks really good. Thanks for the recipe; I’ll definitely have to try my hand at making it!
I heart noodle kugel! I like to make it savory, like you, but then I usually top it with a fine layer of cinnamon and sometimes a tiny sprinkle of sugar, just to make it nice and caramelized on top. There’s just a suggestion of sweetness, but NO RAISINS. EVER. I’ve made a true sweet kugel before, with sugar, vanilla & cinnamon, but I grew up with the savory version and prefer it that way. Happy Jewish Thanksgiving!
Cograts on the kugel. Maybe when you come on Xmas we can do a Kugel cook-off. My sister used to throw in some sour-cream too!
You can also subsitute cream cheese for cottage cheese if the butter fat isn’t quite high enough!
Holy crap that sounds GOOD!!! I hope you make some for us when you’re out here next time ;) (or I could follow your recipe, but that would cut into my lazy time). Happy Thanksgiving!
[...] “Savory noodle kugel” is by far the most common, as well as variations of it. (noodle kugel, savory noodle pudding, etc). I make kugel for Thanksgiving and I posted the recipie back in November. I hope people have tried that recipie and enjoyed it. It’s been passed down multiple generations. [...]
I’m putting together a menu for our book club tommorrow. The book we read was “Night” by Elie Weisel, so I wanted to prepare some jewish comfort foods. None of us are jewish so I wanted to incorporate traditional dishes with a ‘twist’. I am sticking to the traditional dishes of Matzo ball soup, latkes, & sourcream coffee cake. The twist is smoked slamon/goat cheese pizza as well as a savory kugle ”Wild mushroom & wild leel farfel kugel”. My problem is finding farfel and if there is an subsitute. CAn I use egg noodles/matzo carckers, etc? Please help!!! My book club is tommorrow night!
Recipe sounds great- but would like a few details- what size pan to cook in, what temperature to bake at and what size box of noodles to use???
Thanks,
Debby
(also how many does it feed in case I need to double recipe?)
I bake for 375. I usually use a 13×9 inch pan and a 12 of noodles. Honestly, I do a lot of eyeballing for the recipe and not exact measurements, so sometimes I end up with extra…if that’s the case I just use a small casserole dish to make a mini-kugel.
I’m not sure if I can answer the question about how many it feeds, because we usually make it as part of our Thanksgiving dinner so it ends up being one of many sides (along with the mashed potatoes, stuffing, etc)
However, I’d say go ahead and double the recipe if you want because kugel works quite well as a leftover…reheats well.
I tryed your Kugel recipe out and lets just say it is one of the best one I have ever tryed. I have been looking for one just like this for a while it is sooo hard to find a good recipe for it. Now when I do make it I have to make extra for leftovers it is always a thing I am asked to bring to party now and I have made a sweet one too using your basic recipes with apples and currents added in. Also at Chrismas time (Ok I know it is a Jewish recipe;o) ) I have made it for a friends house with dryed cranberries and maple added to it with a smige of home made whip cream on top. Talk about a nice way to end the night. Thank you so much for posting your recipe.
Hi Mary! I am so glad you like the kugel recipe. Noodle kugel is always a party hit!
Thank you - Thank you. I loved your recipe and am looking forward to taking it to a book club theme dinner this evening. We read the book, Those Who Save Us, about a woman growing up in Germany during World War II. The book was good, I thought, but making the Kugel was even better because it took me back to my German grandmother whose father was Jewish. I plan to serve it at our hodgepodge Thanksgiving dinner this year.
Glad you liked it. It really goes well with Thanksgiving food. AND it reheats well, so it’s great to have as a midnight snack :-)
The picture of this kugel recipe looks amazing! I will have to try it. We just posted a spinach kugel recipe on our site that might make a good variation. Check it out at http://www.koshergiftgiving.com/read/two-quick–easy-kosher-recipes.
It has long been looking for this information, Thank you for your work.
Love the advice. Thank you.