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Kugel is a common Ashkenazi Jewish side dish and usually refers to a baked pudding or casserole, most commonly made with egg noodles or potatoes. The noodle kugel I make most often is sweet and cheesy, but when I was young my mom used to make a noodle kugel with schmaltz (chicken fat) and eggs. Truth be told, I always choose savory dishes over sweet, unless you are talking about chocolate!
This cauliflower “kugel” is more of a frittata type dish. It caught my eye because it doesn’t contain any milk, butter or eggs. I love cauliflower in every form and I love lots of oniony flavor as well, so I decided to try to create a baked cauliflower dish.
I tweaked the number of eggs, and I had to reduce the amount of olive oil since the first run through seemed a bit too greasy.
What I ended up with here suits me just fine. It is good hot, cold out of the fridge and it reheats well for a few days after making it.
Cauliflower Onion Kugel
Serves 8
Ingredients
- 2 cups peeled and diced white onion, finely chopped
- 1 medium cauliflower (approximately 1.5-2 lbs)
- 5 large eggs
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 ½ tsp sea salt
- ½ tsp smoked paprika
- ½ cup olive oil
- 2 Tbsp olive oil to drizzle on top
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees with the oven rack in the center.
Remove the outer leaves from the cauliflower and discard. Cut off the tough, round stem at the bottom of the cauliflower and discard. Wash the cauliflower well so no dirt remains, and dry it well.
Slice the entire cauliflower very thinly (approx. ¼ inch). Most of it will crumble into small pieces, but there should be a few slices for the top of the kugel. Save the more intact pieces of cauliflower, then run a knife through the rest to make the pieces a little smaller.
Combine the onion and crumbled cauliflower in a large mixing bowl. Mix the eggs and ½ cup olive oil along with the black pepper, sea salt, and paprika in another small mixing bowl. Pour the egg mixture over the cauliflower mixture and combine well, so the cauliflower mixture is thoroughly coated in the egg/oil/spice mix.
Transfer to an 8 x 10″ oven safe casserole dish. Place the reserved thin slices of cauliflower on top. Drizzle with the remaining 2 Tbsp olive oil.
Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees or until golden. Then cover the dish tightly with aluminum foil and lower the temperature to 325 degrees.
When I think of kugel, I think of apples. I’ve led a sheltered life. This looks good, but where would I get smoked paprika?
Smoked paprika is available in every grocery store here, but if you can’t find it the kugel would still taste great. Even using some plain paprika would add a little oomph, not the same but there is so little of it in the recipe it will still be good.
So, what am I doing after lowering the temperature to 325°?
Cook another 20 minutes or until it is set. Let it rest 10 minutes before slicing.
Thank you for the answer. I really wanted to make it so I did something like what you suggested and I made this dish. We enjoyed it but felt it was a bit bland and used some parm cheese. Because of that, I will make it again.
Can this be made with frozen cauliflower of riced cauliflower ?
I think riced cauliflower or frozen would work as long as it is very very dry before you add it. The riced cauliflower would make the texture different but the flavor should be good. Let me know f you try it!
How much riced cauliflower would be comparable to one medium head?
I am not sure how much, maybe 4 cups but you can ask Mr. Google!