Delightful Doughless Knishes are filled with quinoa, and the bun is made of mashed potatoes. NO Wheat and NO eggs! Gluten-free, vegan and Passover friendly.
A Knish is a type of bun which is traditionally made from wheat and stuffed with beef, or Kasha (buckwheat groats), or cheese, or a vegetable.
A knish is an American Jewsih Ashkenazi staple comfort food, meaning that they were brought to the USA by Jews of Central and Eastern Europe.
Ingredients and Substitutes
- The bun:
- Hand mashed potatoes
- potato starch. Sub with gluten-free flour mix.
- The filling:
- cooked quinoa
- freshly chopped parsley leaves – Sub parsley with cilantro.
- optional walnuts. Sub quinoa with fried chopped onions with sliced mushrooms.
There are no eggs in these knishes.
Difficulty: Medium –
This is an easy recipe, but if you’ve never prepared a stuffed dish with a frail dough (that contains no gluten and no eggs), the part where you roll up the knishes without the quinoa spilling out, might be tricky.
A quick, yet calm and gentle appraoch to flattening, filling and rolling up the knishes is golden advice.
Instructions
- Cook, discard of any excess water, then hand-mash potatoes.
- Mix in potato starch to create the doughless dough.
- Cook quinoa, then mix with parsley and walnuts (optional).
- Flatten a 2-inch peice of dough on your palm to create a 3-inch circle.
- Place some quinoa in the center of the circle.
- Wet hands, roll up into a ball, seal with fingers, then flatten a bit to form the shape of a latke (disc).
- Shallow-fry for a few minutes, fliping a couple of times.
Kitchen Tools for Potato Knishes with Quinoa
- large bowl
- pot for cooking the potatoes
- small pot for cooking the quinoa
- strainer
- thick, non-stick skillet
- spatula and spoon to flip knishes
- cutting board
- parch paper
- cooling rack
Tips
- Tip 1: Hand-mash the cooked potatoes. Do not use a blender or food processor. The puree will be too thin to work with.
- Tip 2: Please do not use corn starch as a substitute. It’s granules absorb less water. You’ll need 2 to 3 times as much corn starch to suit the amount of water in the recipe, which would compromise the texture and flavor.
- Tip 3: Do not sub the potato starch with potato flour. Potato Starch and potato flour are NOT one and the same.
- Tip 4: Go easy on the potato starch as it could lead to a hard Knish bun.
- Tip 5: Please don’t substitute dry parsley leaves (powder or flakes) instead of fresh leaves. No cool aroma. No cool flavor. Not cool!
Nutritional Benefits
Side note:
One helath benefit is that these Knishes are not deep-fried, but rather shallow-fried.
Whether you follow a vegan or gluten-free diet, or if you or your guests simply love quinoa, then you might consider these nutrition bombs a real treat!
Quinoa
1 cup of quinoa contains around 200 Calories that are packed with 8 grams (Wow!) of protein, at least 5 grams (a fifth of an ounce) of fibers and a nice amount of Magnesium. Definately a staple ingredient of a vegan and vegetarian diet.
- Contributes to gut health.
- May contribute to dieting, as it’s a complete protein (a complete protein contains all 9 essential amino acids) and has high fiber contents, it gets digested more slowly. This helps control hunger whilst dieting.
- May contribute to preventing type 2 diabetes, thanks to its high Magnesium contents.
Source 1: Cleveland Clinic on Quinoa
Parsley
Flat leaf fresh Parsley (versus curly leaf), as Fresh Cilantro, is a major factor in a Mediterranean diet. Its health benefits are endless. It has no cholesterol, no fat, and is rich in antioxidants, nutrients, minerals and dietary fibers.
Here are a few benefits that parsley may help with:
- fighting or preventing cancer;
- kidney cleansing;
- gut health;
- the protection of our bones;
- eye health.
Source 2: International Journal of Physiology, Nutrition and Physical Education, 2019
Source 3: WebMD
on a personal note:
(If you don’t like personal notes, you can scroll to the recipe below.)
Wow! I was so excited when I concocted this. It involved a lot of trial and error and was very time consuming; and time is something I don’t have enough of when I’m busy preparing an entire Passover meal. It went on until I had the right consistency that didn’t/doesn’t fall apart. I am extra-careful with the doughless dough, as I transfer it up and back between both hands. The dough doesn’t have a very stable consistency that you can roll it into a ball and then create a hole inside, fill it up and then seal it. The effort is really worth it.
I dip my hands in water frequently so the dough doesn’t stick to them. I want to create a video of this. This is another video on my ‘To-Do’ list.
Non-vegan Knishes:
Knish Gluten-free, Kosher for Passover – with chicken filling.
Doughless mashed potato with meat – with beef
I’d love for you the share your thought in the comments section below.
You might also love:
Enjoy!
Potato Knishes with Quinoa
Gluten-free, Vegan Passover mashed potato bun knishes with quinoa and fresh parsley filling
Ingredients
VEGAN FILLING
- Cooked quinoa: ¾ cup white dry quinoa - Cook according to instructions in Note section below or with a recipe you prefer.
- ¾ cup chopped rinsed parsley leaves
- ¼ teaspoon Kosher salt, or to taste
POTATO DOUGH
- 2 mashed medium Russet (thin white-skinned) potatoes - 14 oz. (400 grams)
- 1½ cups potato starch - Start by adding a bit at a time.
- ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
OIL FOR SHALLOW-FRYING OF KNISHES in a non-stick thick skillet
- Neutral oil for frying (a few tablespoons with each batch)
Instructions
Filling
- Combine cooked quinoa with chopped parsley leaves and salt in a large bowl. Add walnuts (optional). Not suitable for children under 5 years at least.
Prepare Parchment Paper Oiled Squares
- Cut 5-inch parch paper squares, then spray or smear with oil, and set aside (one next to the other).
Dough of Bun
- Combine mashed potatoes, potato starch and Kosher salt to form a dough.
Stuffing Knishes - One Example:
- Wet hands, then tear off 2-inch pieces of potato “dough”. Flatten on your palm with your finger pads of your other hand (the fleshy underside of the fingertips) to form a 3-inch circle.
- Place a spoonful of quinoa mixture in the center.
- Wet hands again, cup your hand holding the dough. Pinch the top together with finger tips of your other hand to seal it.
- Wet hands again and mold it into a ball. If the knish seems frail, then instead of rolling it up, just plop it back and forth between your hands a few times until it's as close to the shape of a ball as possible.
- Now, wet both hands again and gently press on the ball to end up with the shape of a puffy latke/fritter.
- Place on a pre-oiled parchment paper square.
Shallow-Fry
- Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a non-stick (thick) skillet for 2 minutes. Lift the parch squares with the knishes on them. Flip each knish to release it from the parch paper into oil.
- Shallow-fry for a few minutes on each side. Flip over at least twice, until they are golden.
- Remove from skillet and cool on a rack, or plate.
Notes
If you're not using a non-stick skillet, you might need some more oil for frying.
Here's a recipe for pre-cooking of Quinoa:
- Pour 3/4 cup dry quinoa into a small non-stick pot with room-temp water that reaches 4 times the level of the quinoa.
- Simmer for 10 minutes.
- Drain and transfer to a mixing bowl.
Cooking Potatoes
- Cook 2 potatoes with skins in water. Cool a bit, peel, then hand-mash.
Nutrition Information
Yield
6Serving Size
3Amount Per Serving Calories 273Total Fat 4gSaturated Fat 0gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 3gCholesterol 0mgSodium 189mgCarbohydrates 54gFiber 5gSugar 2gProtein 7g
Nutrition values are estimated.
Noni
Thursday 2nd of May 2024
Looks delicious! Can I bake these instead of frying? Thanks!
Suzanna
Tuesday 7th of May 2024
Thank you Noni. You probably can, but you might like to try one first and then adjust the heat for the rest. Please do note that the knishes are shallow- fried (as long as they are fried in a non-stick skillet) and even if you choose to bake them, you might choose to place them on greased parch paper, to get non-dry results. In which case, you'd be using oil anyway. I'd love for you to share the results if you bake them, or even if you fry them. If you have any more questions, feel free to reach out in the Comments section. Enjoy!