VIDEO: Twelve popular Ashkenazi dishes, made gluten-free

Chicken soup with gluten-free matzo balls Courtesy of the Forward

By Rukhl Schaechter September 15, 2025

As many of you know, the Forverts (the Forward’s Yiddish section) has produced dozens of cooking demos featuring Eastern European Jewish recipes over the years, beginning in 2010. The video clips are in Yiddish, with English subtitles, so that viewers can feel like they’re in Bubbe’s kitchen.

Last week, we published an article about the late Yiddish activist Bella Bryks Klein, who was a classic bubbe herself. She loved those old world Ashkenazi recipes. But because she had celiac disease, she could only eat those made without gluten.

So in her memory, I’ve compiled all the clips on gluten-free dishes we’ve ever produced. Whether you yourself follow a gluten-free diet, or your dinner guests do, here is a chance to learn how to make traditional Jewish delicacies without the gluten.

Chicken soup with gluten-free matzo balls

Although we shot this episode as a Passover-themed clip, this is a dish you can enjoy all year round.

Gluten-free kasha varnishkes (buckwheat groats with noodles)

The Nobel prize-winning author Isaac Bashevis’ Singer often said that this was his favorite dish. Kasha is naturally gluten-free and now you can enjoy it with noodles that don’t have gluten either.

Tzimmes

This sweet dish is most often prepared for Rosh Hashanah in order to wish us all a sweet new year.

P’tcha (calves’ foot jelly)

This dish was prepared by our guest cooks, Irene Pletka and Ruth Sher Friede, in Melbourne!

Russian potato salad

A favorite side dish among Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union, it was the lovely combination of potatoes, beets, peas and pickles that sold me!

Beets, Jewish style

Beets were a common ingredient among the Jews of Poland and Ukraine because, as hardy root vegetables, they can be grown in cold climates, are highly nutritious and can be stored in cellars throughout the winter.

Sauerkraut

Who knew making sauerkraut yourself was so easy?

Potato kugel and eggplant salad (part 1)

These dishes were prepared at the annual Yiddish immersion retreat Yiddish Vokh in 2012, at the Pearlstone Retreat Center in Reisterstown, Maryland.

Potato kugel and eggplant salad (part 2)

Bubbe’s remedy for the common cold, gogl-mogl

Who needs Sudafed, when you can treat your sniffles with this old-world remedy?

Pecan macaroons

Although we prepared this for Passover, it makes it a perfect gluten-free dessert all year round.

Brewing tea the Yiddish way

And after finishing the meal, enjoy tea the way our great-grandparents did!