Sweet Potato and Kale Kugel
This is pretty far down the list of Things That Make Me a Bad Jew, but it’s on there somewhere: I don’t really like kugel.
Sweet kugel, that is. Made with either sour cream, cream cheese, cottage cheese, or ricotta - usually a combination of at least two of them - and raisins, it’s a quintessential Ashkenazi baked noodle dish studded with raisins and seasoned with sugar and cinnamon. (Here’s a classic recipe and here’s another topped with Frosted Flakes.)
Savory kugel, though? Sign me up! It’s basically a Jewish variation on mac and cheese with fall/winter vegetables, the way I make it. It’s perfect comfort food for cooler weather and can be made in stages if you’re not able to devote more than 30 minutes or so to cooking before putting dinner on the table. It also transports really well, if you need to bring a dish to a potluck!
I usually just wing the recipe as I go along but I wanted to record it here, so I used two other recipes as a foundation: Smitten Kitchen’s Winter Squash and Spinach Pasta Bake and Saveur’s Savory Lokshen Kugel. With those as jumping off points, here’s what I made for dinner tonight:
Sweet Potato and Kale Kugel
serves 6
20 minutes to prep; 40 minutes to bake
10oz pasta
6oz baby kale
1 onion, diced
4 tbs minced garlic
1 sweet potato, sliced thin
1/2 tbs Italian seasoning
salt and red pepper flakes to taste
1 egg
1c ricotta
1 package of Garlic & Herb Boursin
Preheat oven to 350º. Cook the pasta until al dente, adding the kale to the pot to wilt in the last minute or two of the pasta’s cooking. Drain the pasta and kale and set aside.
While the pasta cooks, dice the onion and slice the sweet potato. Melt butter in a cast iron-skillet and sauté the onion on medium-high heat for 5-6 minutes until softened, then add the minced garlic and cook for another 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the sliced sweet potato, mix with the onion and garlic mixture, and cook for another 5-6 minutes until the sweet potato has softened. Sprinkle over the Italian seasoning, salt, and red pepper flakes and cook for another minute or two. Then remove from heat.
Mix the egg, ricotta, and Boursin in a large bowl until well combined. Add the pasta and kale and the vegetable mixture and combine well.
Coat the cast-iron skillet in oil. Pour in the pasta mixture and bake for 20 minutes. Then sprinkle shredded parmesean on top and bake for another 15 minutes. Finish it off with 2 minutes under the broiler on high.
Serve, eat, and enjoy!
