Kugel is a strange but tasty beast. Half dessert. Half side dish. All decadence. This one is truer to tradition than my sourdough kugels (I don’t often post those… they’re a savory and acquired taste…). That said, it’s not as sweet as most recipes kicking around and a fair bit heavier on the carrots, which alongside raisin are plenty sweet on their own. It is a moist and cakey kugel, yet completely gluten-free thanks to oat and buckwheat flour! While it does contain added oil, if you do the oil-free thing, you can replace the oil called for with applesauce or applesauce and nut butter blended instead. And if you do like your kugel super-sweet, then add a couple of tablespoons of coconut sugar to the batter.
Yield: an 8”x8” pan
What you need:
- 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats, ground up to a flour in a food processor or spice grinder
- 1/2 cup plain buckwheat groats (NOT kasha, you want the untoasted stuff), ground up to a flour in a food processor or spice grinder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
- 1/4 teaspoon (or a bit less) freshly grated nutmeg
- zest of 1 organic lemon
- juice of the zested lemon (about 3 tablespoons)
- 1/4 cup apple juice
- 1/3 cup sunflower or melted coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon Bob’s Red Mill egg replacer mixed with 2 tablespoons water (it’s actually not as scrappy as it sounds: basically it’s gluten-free starches with some psyllium husk that acts as a goopy thickener since I prefer not to use flax in heated cooking applications. You could also use a flax or chia egg if you prefer)
- 3 cups finely grated carrot (fine grating hole of the food processor is helpful here; about 4 medium carrots)
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1/4 cup coarsely chopped almonds
What you do:
- Preheat the oven to 350F and have an 8”x8” glass or ceramic baking dish ready.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the oat flour, buckwheat flour, salt, soda, baking powder, ginger, nutmeg and lemon zest.
- In a large measuring cup, whisk together the apple juice, lemon juice, oil and egg replacer until frothy. They won’t actually coalesce, but it will look pretty even and foamy.
- Pour the wet stuff into the dry stuff and mix well.
- Fold in the carrots, raisins and chopped almonds.
- Press the mixture evenly into the 8”x8” baking dish.
- Bake 40 to 45 minutes.
- Let cool 10 minutes or so, to set the interior a bit. Serve hot or room temperature. Leftovers store well in the fridge for a few days in an airtight container. You can also freeze the squares for up to 3 months (airtight container again).
Variation:
- Instead of just using carrots, use 1 cup each carrot, parsnip and sweet potato
