Noodle Kugel with Apples Recipe. Gluten-Free Friendly
Noodle Kugel
This is one huge favorite in Eastern European Jewish Cooking. This Moroccan Cook has adopted it wholeheartedly.
Alas, it can often err on the rich and eggy side, and so we tend to recoil from it except for a splurge. I have tinkered with the ingredients, and love to make mine with apples. I end up with a lean, easy eggless (suitable for our vegan friends) and delicious apple noodle kugel. This kugel is very reasonably sweetened. The yogurt is creamy enough to lightly bind the whole batter, so no need to add eggs. The yogurt’s tanginess cuts very nicely through the sweet seasonings. Perfect flavor balance.
Delicious enough even to be dessert, and not too sweet to be a side dish!
Gluten-Free Noodle Kugel
The noodles used here can be gluten-free! If you started with long noodles, cut them short with scissors. This apple noodle kugel is delicious done either the dairy or pareve way.
Individual Servings
If you get a drop more ambitious, these minis are so cute. You will get a fun presentation and no cutting hassle. Especially if you intend to serve it for dessert, you’re in for a more dramatic presentation. You can then take it a little step further and serve it warm, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or sorbet, and a sprinkling of chopped toasted nuts.
Pour the apple noodle kugel batter into greased muffin molds, and bake about 40 minutes.
Ingredients
- 1½ cups plain yogurt (dairy-free: soy or coconut plain yogurt are perfect)
- 1 pound very thin short noodles, boiled until barely tender and thoroughly drained (rice noodles OK too)
- 4 Granny Smith (green) apples, unpeeled, grated or sliced very thin (use the food processor)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- ½ cup raisins or currants, a little more if you like it sweeter
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1-2 tablespoons cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Combine all the ingredients thoroughly in a bowl, making sure not to squeeze and extract moisture from the apples as you go.
Pour the batter into a greased 9-by-13-inch baking pan, or a little larger, and bake for about 1 hour (or 40 minutes in muffin molds) Serve hot. Room Temperature OK too.
About how many servings in a 9 x 13 or muffins does this recipe yield?
Joy It will make a good dozen servings.
I tried this with coconut milk-based yogurt, and it didn’t stick together as a kugel at all! I guess I’ll serve it as a noodle casserole. It tastes amazing, but I’m disappointed it didn’t work as a kugel.
Rachel Coconut yogurt should have worked. Wondering what else was changed in your recipe. In my recipe, tried and true as always, it is in fact a kugel.
Hi, in the photograph the apples look sliced , but it is written use 4 Granny Smith (green) apples, unpeeled, grated (use the food processor )
could you explain what I see , please, thanks
Hi Carroll, Good catch! the apples can be grated or very thinly sliced, all with a food processor. Just made the correction, thanks so much!
If I want to use this for Pesach pareve, can I substitute the maple syrup with sugar and ot use any soy or yogurt. Will this affect the taste or texture?
thank you
Tova Hmmm I don’t know. What will you use for good texture? Oh yeah and what noodles will you use? My honest feeling is, to make good Passover recipes properly, don’t work too hard on adapting recipes that are decidedly Hametz. You will work hard, and for a small fraction of the results. Why not just make this delicious dish any other time of the year? No shortage of fabulous Passover dishes around. Just look in my Cookbook or on my blog!
Hi Levana, this looks fabulous! I’ve been craving a good kugel since I went vegan a few years ago. Only thing is, I don’t eat any oil. Does this really need the oil? Could I substitute something instead like prune paste or applesauce?
Thanks!
Wendy
Wendy you can try. May I ask why you don’t use oil? I might be better able to help you if I know the answer.
Could you substitute sugar for the maple syrup?
Tenley, yes,I think so, no problem. The idea was to make it as wholesome as possible, but I don’t think using sugar will affect the taste or texture a lot.
You know, I make the same apple-noodle kugel recipe over and over again – the recipe from one of my mom’s best friends, the kugel I grew up eating – I loved it so much Mrs. Rosenberg (of the apple-noodle kugel fame) baked me an entire sheet pan of kugel for a Bat Mitzvah gift! All for me! But I have never made one with dairy anything in it and yours with yogurt intrigues. As does grating the apple – I always chunk the apples. I should try this recipe!
Jamie, the dairy yogurt will work great. Grating the apples as opposed to dicing them, in this recipe, distributes the moisture evenly, which is why I don’t need the eggs. I do make it with dairy-free yogurt, just because I am known as the Dairy-Free Queen, having written a book about it. When I have more time, just a few more minutes, I pour the batter into muffin molds, there are some real nice parchment ones