Ashkenazi Jewish kitchen of Eastern Europe
Kreplach soup
Jewish chicken soup served with kreplach, triangular dumplings of dough filled with ground meat or chicken, a custom of the eve of Yom Kippur, Hoshana Rabbah and Purim.
Origin and history
Kreplach are the dumplings of the Ashkenazi kitchen, known by the Yiddish name kreplach (singular krepel). They are filled triangles of dough that are boiled and served in chicken soup, or fried. Tradition ties them to three days of judgment and atonement, Yom Kippur eve, Hoshana Rabbah and Purim. The sources consulted do not give their origin.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 6 servings
- Total time
- 1 h 45 min
- Hands-on
- 1 h
Ingredients
- 220 g1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
- 2 eggs
- 3 tbsp neutral oil
- 1/2 tsp salt, for the dough
- 1-2 tbsp cold water, only if the dough is dry
- 200 g1 cup cooked ground beef or chicken, chicken for the meal before a fast if you avoid red meat
- 1 small onion, finely chopped and sautéed in 1 tbsp oil or schmaltz until soft (Chabad grates it raw; the St. Louis recipe sautés it)
- 1 tsp salt, for the filling
- 1/4 tsp black pepper, to taste; our addition, not in the Chabad recipe
- 2 l2 quarts hot, clear Jewish chicken soup, the parent recipe's broth, strained
- 1 tbsp salt, for the boiling water
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh dill or parsley, to serve
Method
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1. Mix the flour, eggs, oil and salt in a large bowl and knead for 5 minutes into a smooth, firm dough, adding a spoonful of water only if it will not come together.
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2. Wrap the dough in a damp cloth and leave it to rest for 1 hour; this makes it easier to roll thin.
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3. Meanwhile mix the cooked meat with the sautéed onion, salt and pepper into a moist, spoonable filling.
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4. Roll the dough out as thin as you can on a floured board and cut it into 3-inch (8 cm) squares.
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5. Put a heaped teaspoon of filling in the centre of each square, dampen the edges with a wet fingertip, fold the square diagonally into a triangle and press the edges shut.
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6. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the kreplach for about 20 minutes, until they float and the dough is tender.
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7. Lift them out with a slotted spoon. Meanwhile heat the chicken soup until it is steaming.
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8. Put 3 kreplach in each bowl, ladle the hot soup over and sprinkle with dill or parsley.
Notes
- The parent recipe is the clear chicken soup with noodles; this variant serves the same broth with kreplach, small dumplings of thin egg dough folded into triangles around ground meat or chicken. Cook the kreplach in water, not in the soup, so the broth stays clear.
- The proportions follow Chabad's basic kreplach (1 3/4 cups flour, 2 eggs, 3 tbsp oil, 1 cup of cooked ground meat and an onion, about 18 kreplach). A St. Louis Jewish Light recipe from two home cooks makes about 36 from 3 cups of flour and 3 eggs, with sautéed onion, parsley and leftover cooked chicken and beef; it boils them 10 to 20 minutes.
- They freeze well after boiling and cooling on an oiled tray. Leftover boiled kreplach can be fried in oil until golden and eaten on their own.
- Custom: kreplach are traditionally eaten on three days: the meal before Yom Kippur, Hoshana Rabbah and Purim. Chabad adds a Kabbalistic reading: the meat stands for strength and severity (judgment) and the dough for kindness, so meat covered in dough means judgment softened by mercy. Chabad also notes that some avoid red meat before the Yom Kippur fast and use chicken.
- Fillings in other households include beef, kasha, chicken liver and cheese (the Jewish Food Archives, cited by a Jewish weekly, lists 13 recipes); a cheese filling would turn this into a dairy dish and cannot be served in meat soup on a kosher table.
Adapted from Chabad.org: Basic Kreplach, Chabad.org: What Are Kreplach?, and St. Louis Jewish Light: Ann and Margi's Kreplach.
At the festivals
No festival we list has printed it on a menu yet.