Homemade Gluten-Free Matzoh Balls

Check out our recipe for homemade gluten-free matzoh balls so you too can enjoy this traditional dish with your family this Passover.

These homemade gluten-free matzoh balls are almost identical to regular matzoh balls. Matzoh balls are usually served in soup and are a staple dish on the Jewish holiday of Passover.

The traditional recipe calls for matzoh meal, which is an unleavened bread made out of whole-grain or refined grain flour, from one of five grains: wheat, spelt, barley, rye, or oat.

For those of you that have gluten intolerance and crave the comforting taste of a homemade matzoh ball soup, this is a recipe you will love. There are several gluten-free options that you can use to substitute the matzoh meal in your dumplings that will still give them their specific fluffy and dense texture.

While we can’t guarantee they’re kosher for Passover, they are as close to the real deal as you’ll get.

Matzoh Meal Gluten-Free Substitutes

Chickpea Flour

Chickpea flour, or garbanzo flour, gram flour, and besan is made by grinding dried chickpeas. This flour is gluten-free and used in many Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi dishes.  While you can buy

You can buy readily-made chickpea flour, or you can make your own from dried chickpeas. You just take your chickpeas and blend them with a food processor or coffee blender for around 10 minutes.

Potato Starch

Potatoes are gluten-free and an easy ingredient that you can find at any store. In starch form, they can easily be incorporated into any recipe, binding the rest of the ingredients of your matzoh balls and giving them a wonderful texture.

Blanched Almond Flour

Almond flour has a very faint hint of sweetness that can easily be masked by your other ingredients. It will give your matzoh balls a nice fluffy texture. What’s more, almond flour is kosher – no gluten or chametz in these homemade gluten-free matzoh balls.

 

Homemade Gluten-Free Matzoh Balls

What You’ll Need:

  • 1 1/2 cups chickpea flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • pepper
  • 3 large eggs
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil or schmaltz
  • 6 cups chicken stock or vegetable broth

Ingredients:

  • Add your flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper to taste in a large bowl and mix together.
  • Separately, whisk your eggs and oil lightly.
  • Pour in the egg mixture in the centre of your flour mixture. Stir everything together until you have a thick and sticky batter.
  • Cover the bowl and let the batter in the fridge for 3 hours.
  • Take a pot with a lid and fill it up with water until it is 3/4 full.
  • Let the water boil and then lower the beat to bring to a simmer.
  • In another large pot, boil the stock and then let it simmer at low heat with the lid on.
  • Take the matzoh ball batter out of the fridge.
  • Wet your hands and take 2 teaspoons’ worth of batter and start rolling them between your hands to make small balls. While the balls will look small at this point, they will grow after they will be boiled.
  • Bring the simmering water to a boil. Use a spoon to slowly drop half of the matzoh balls into the water. Add in the hot water only 4-5 matzoh balls at a time; add any more than that and they will stick together and disintegrate in the pot.
  • The balls will at first fall to the bottom, but when they will rise to the surface, turn the heat down low and cover the pot with the lid.
  • Let them boil for 20 to 22 minutes. Using a fork, check the centre of the balls; if it is hard and dark, leave them for 3 or 5 minutes more until the centre is cooked and light.
  • Carefully remove the matzoh balls carefully from your pot to your warm broth pot and do the same for the rest of the matzoh balls.
  • Let the matzoh balls in the broth simmer.
  • Turn down the heat and put in a bowl a few of your homemade gluten-free matzoh balls with a ladle of broth.

 

For the Potato Version

What You’ll Need:

  • 2 lbs large red potatoes
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/4 cup potato starch
  • 1 1/2-2 cups blanched almond flour
  • Salt
  • Pepper

Instructions:

  • Fill up a large pot with water, add the salt and leave it on the stove to boil.
  • Clean your unpeeled potatoes by scrubbing them vigorously.
  • Let them boil for about 45 minutes until they are tender on the inside.
  • Drain the water and let the potatoes cool to room temperature.
  • Peel the potatoes and chop them into large cubes.
  • Leave them in the fridge for at least 2 hours. The potato dough works best when it’s completely cold.
  • Fill up another pot of salted water and leave it to boil.
  • Take your potatoes out of the fridge and pat them dry to remove any moisture.
  • Ina large bowl, mash them with a potato masher or blend them with a mixer.
  • Add in your egg, potato starch, almond flour, 1 ¼ tsp salt and a pinch of white pepper.
  • Start stirring the ingredients to form a sticky dough. For a denser dumpling, add more almond flour.
  • Turn down the heat of your stove to let the water simmer.
  • Use your wet hands to form small balls out of your potato dough.
  • Gently dump your matzoh balls in the pot.
  • The dumplings will slowly rise as they cook, just like with the chickpea matzoh balls.
  • Let your dumplings cook in the water for 10-15 minutes, then remove them with a large spoon.
  • Serve in a bowl of chicken soup broth soup.

 

For the Almond Flour Version

What You’ll Need:

  • 4 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 2 cups sifted blanched almond flour
  • 6 cups chicken broth

Instructions

  • Whisk your eggs, (1 teaspoon) salt and pepper for 2 minutes in a large bowl.
  • Slowly add in your almond flour.
  • Leave the batter in the fridge for 2-4 hours.
  • Take the batter out from the refrigerator.
  • Leave a large pot of salted water (1 teaspoon salt) on the stove at high at wait for it to boil.
  • Take your dough and roll them into small balls using your hands.
  • Drop them in the boiling water.
  • Take the heat down to low, cover the pot with a lid and let the dough and water simmer for 20 minutes.
  • In a separate pot, heat your chicken broth.
  • Using a slotted spoon, remove your homemade gluten-free matzoh balls from the simmering water and add them to the chicken stock.
  • In separate bowls, place 2 to 3 matzoh balls with a few ladles of soup.
  • Enjoy!

Whether you are Jewish or not, these homemade gluten-free matzoh balls will definitely warm your soul!

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