Individual Onion Kugels

Submitted by Glo

"While this isn't exactly diet food, this is my considerably lightened version of a dish that appeared recently at epicurious.com. The original recipe called for the onions to be cooked in an appalling amount of butter (a full stick!). I've found that a quarter of that still results in richly browned, flavorful onions; take your time and keep the heat on the low side initially while cooking them, and you'll be rewarded. I've also substituted reduced fat versions of both the cottage cheese and sour cream and have detected no loss of flavor or texture. Because my family is suspicious of anything containing cottage cheese, I processed the sour cream, cottage cheese, eggs, salt and pepper in my food processor until velvety before mixing with the noodles, onions and parsley. Using muffin tins for this classic Jewish comfort food helps with portion control, and the bonus is lots of scrumptious crusty edges. Letting the kugels cool in the pan before attempting to remove them is important for the presentation -- if you try to extract them while they're fresh from the oven, they'll just fall apart. These are so delicious! Although these individual kugels would be a natural as a side dish, I serve them as a vegetarian entree with a simple green salad. The serving size is based on using jumbo muffin tins to serve as a main course. Regular muffin tins would produce 12 side-dish sized servings."

 

• Ready In: 1hr
• Ingredients: 10
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 6 ounces uncooked medium egg noodles (1 3/4 cups)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 cups diced onions (2 large)
• 1 1⁄4 cups low-fat sour cream
• 1 1⁄4 cups low fat cottage cheese
• 2 teaspoons dried parsley
• 4 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon black pepper
• melted butter or cooking spray, to coat muffin tins

directions

1. Preheat oven to 425°F Grease jumbo muffin tins with melted butter or cooking spray.
2. Melt the 2 Tbsp butter in a large heavy skillet over medium-low heat.
3. Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and translucent, about 15 minutes.
4. Increase heat to medium-high and cook until onions are well browned, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes more.
5. Meanwhile, cook noodles in a 6- to 8-qt pot of boiling salted water until al dente, about 5 minutes.
6. Drain well in a colander and transfer to a large bowl.
7. Add browned onions to noodles in bowl.
8. Stir in sour cream, cottage cheese, and parsley.
9. In a separate bowl, beat eggs with salt and pepper, then stir into noodle mixture until well combined.
10. Divide mixture among muffin cups and bake until puffed and golden, 25 to 30 minutes.
11. Loosen edges of kugels with a thin knife and let cool in pan 5-10 minutes to set before serving.