Jen­nifer Robins is the voice being the pop­u­lar food blog Pre­dom­i­nant­ly Paleo and, togeth­er with Simone Miller, co-author of The New Yid­dish Kitchen: Gluten-Free and Paleo Kosher Recipes for the Hol­i­days and Every Day. Jen­nifer and Simone are guest blog­ging here all week as part of the Vis­it­ing Scribe series on The ProsenPeo­ple.

Floaters or sinkers, we can all agree that a good mat­zo ball is one of the keys to hap­pi­ness. Every­one has a favorite recipe, whether it’s their great-grandmother’s recipe or a per­fect­ly con­coct­ed hybrid of past and present. So why rein­vent the wheel with so many love­able variations?

Well, if you can’t tol­er­ate grain like many of us, then the tra­di­tion­al wheat-based mat­zo balls just aren’t happening. 

Simone Miller and I wrote our cook­book The New Yid­dish Kitchen because we were forced to give up grain-based foods, regard­less of how much we loved them, or how many of them were part of recipes which had been passed down gen­er­a­tions. We want­ed to recre­ate some of these tra­di­tion­al Jew­ish foods, like mat­zo balls, to pay homage to both our taste buds and our family’s legacy. 

Writ­ing these recipes has been a way to recon­nect with our Jew­ish his­to­ry, filled with mem­o­ries of learn­ing to cook in our bubbes’ kitchens. And con­se­quent­ly, we’ve been able to bring back foods like choco­late bab­ka, mat­zo, and even bagels, all made free of grain, gluten, and dairy. Our hope is that peo­ple who have had to sac­ri­fice their favorite tra­di­tion­al Jew­ish foods will once again be able to rein­tro­duce them to their tables — and, more impor­tant­ly, enjoy them!

These mat­zo balls are made from a sweet pota­to base, per­fect for any­one sen­si­tive to night­shades and entire­ly gluten- and grain-free. Feel free to dress them up with extra dill, salt, pep­per, or what­ev­er your favorite mat­zo ball gar­nish hap­pens to be. We’ve includ­ed three dif­fer­ent mat­zo ball recipes in The New Yid­dish Kitchen, so that there is one to suit every diet (and taste). And of course you’ll have to check out the grain-free bagels, but that’s anoth­er recipe for anoth­er time! Enjoy! L’chaim!

Recipe: Sweet Pota­to Mat­zo Balls

Makes 6 Serv­ings
Prep Time: 30 min­utes
Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingre­di­ents:
36 oz (1,080 ml) home­made or high qual­i­ty store-bought chick­en broth
Chopped car­rots, cel­ery and pre­ferred herbs/​seasonings (option­al)
2 lbs (900 g) or 2 large Japan­ese sweet pota­toes, cooked and mashed
½ tsp sea salt
½ tsp onion pow­der
½ tsp gar­lic pow­der
2 eggs
⅓ cup (60 g) pota­to starch
¼ cup (30 g) tapi­o­ca starch
3 tbsp (20 g) coconut oil
3 tbsp (45 ml) olive oil, schmaltz, or avo­ca­do oil

Direc­tions:
Bring the chick­en broth to a boil in a stock­pot over high heat. If you choose to add veg­gies and sea­son­ings, place them in the broth at this time. 

Next, com­bine the mashed pota­toes, salt, onion pow­der, gar­lic pow­der, eggs, pota­to starch, tapi­o­ca starch, coconut our and olive oil in a mix­ing bowl. Using your hands, com­bine all the ingre­di­ents until you have a smooth dough. 

Take a table­spoon (15 g) or two — depend­ing on your pref­er­ence — of the mix­ture and roll it into a ball. Drop it into the boil­ing broth and repeat until all of your mat­zo ball mix is used up. 

Cov­er the stock­pot and allow to cook on medium/​high heat for 20 – 30 min­utes, or until you are sat­is­fied with your mat­zo balls’ tex­ture. Serve hot! 

After being diag­nosed with sev­er­al autoim­mune con­di­tions and chron­ic infec­tions, includ­ing Lyme dis­ease, Jen­nifer Robins turned to food for heal­ing, remov­ing grain, dairy and refined sug­ars. As a wife and moth­er of three, Jen­nifer hopes to instill healthy habits in her chil­dren now in hopes of cre­at­ing well­ness for a lifetime.