When I was little and was with my family celebrating any Jewish holiday I would basically eat all the matzoh balls. I didn’t care about anything else that was being served or even dessert. All I cared about was those delicious fluffy balls of matzoh and eating of them as much as humanly possible. After I ate about twenty of them I would go under the table for the remainder of the meal and pretend I was a cat. Maybe it was because I was at a table full of Katz’s or maybe I was delusional from having so much matzoh in my intestines.
As an adult I still have that desire to eat all the matzoh balls in the entire universe, but the problem is that I’m not allowed to have gluten and a matzoh ball is basically a ball of gluten. I remembered my friend Erica made a GF version so this year when passover was approaching I googled the crap out of gluten free matzoh ball recipes and I found one. And then I made it. And then I ate all the matzoh balls again. This year instead of going under the table and pretending I was a cat, I sang this song with my husband from our newest vinyl, Fiddler on the Roof’s Greatest Hits.
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Here is the recipe that I found from Tamara Duker Freuman
Stuff Needed to Make the Magic:
Makes 10-12 quinoa balls
1 cup quinoa flakes (often found in the breakfast cereal aisle
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
2 large eggs
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp salt (Himalayan if possible)
A sprinkle of ground black pepper
How to Make the Magic:
Measure out quinoa flakes and xanthan gum and combine in a small bowl.
In a separate bowl, beat the two eggs. Add oil, salt and pepper and beat again until combined.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mix well until combined. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. (You don’t want the matzoh balls to be crowded).
Remove batter from refrigerator and wet hands. With wet hands, fashion a SMALL amount of batter into a smooth ball shape and drop into the boiling water. (For reference, the batter should be enough to make 10-12 matzoh balls, so portion each one accordingly. Each uncooked ball should be no larger than the size of a ping-pong ball… they will expand when cooking, and if they’re too big, the middle may not cook through sufficiently.)
Cover pot and cook the quinoa balls, maintaining a rolling boil. For denser balls, cook for 25-30 minutes. For fluffier balls, cook 35 minutes.
Remove the balls from boiling water with a slotted spoon and let sit to cool for a few minutes. Then, refrigerate the balls until ready to serve.
Before serving, place quinoa balls in pot of soup to warm them through.
Enjoy!
The awesome in me sees and bows to the awesome in you,