This savory No Yolk Noodle Kugel is made with brown butter, caraway seed, honey, sour cream, and ‘no yolk’ egg noodles for some SERIOUS pantry comfort 101.

No Yolk Savory Noodle Kugel

I am a lover AND a seeker of easy recipes. Why?

I am a food blogger. By the end of most of my days, I simply DO NOT WANT TO COOK yet another recipe, and especially not after I’ve been cooking and shooting recipe campaigns all day long.

If your job, or just generally your long and busy days, leave you anything like me, don’t bother reading this post. Instead, just jump directly to the recipe card below and hit ‘print.’

Waltz straight into your cucina, grab a large bowl, a sharp knife, and start chopping a big old onion. This is about to become one of your favorite noodle dishes and one of your favorite recipes.

Do You Have What You Need to Bake This No Yolk Savory Noodle Kugel? Check the List!

• a garlic bulb
• olive oil
• a single large onion
• unsalted butter
• Kosher salt
• black pepper
• fresh nutmeg
• whole caraway seed
• cooked no yolks noodles
• honey, raw if you are able to source it
• Dijon mustard
• full fat sour cream
• apple cider vinegar
• paprika, Hungarian sweet or hot or a combination of both

How This Recipe Came About…

As far as no yolks egg noodles recipes go, this takes first place. Pinky swear.

I’ve talked about my Ukranian grandmother many times on this website. Her name was Rozalia and she influenced my life very much despite my not knowing her.

Her daughter, my mother’s mom, cooked like Rozalia; cooked like she had been born in Galacia as Rozalia had. As a result, my knowledge and affinity for traditional Eastern European foods is very, very strong, having been passed down to me and learned through preparation, through stories, and through eating.

Kugel is a traditional Ashkenazi Jewish dish, often served on Shabbat and Jewish holidays. The first kugels were savory rather than sweet and made with lokshen noodles, or Jewish egg noodles commonly used in a variety of Jewish dishes including chicken soup, kugel, kasha varnishkes, lokshen mit kaese, and as a side dish to Jewish brisket, sweet and sour meat balls, apricot chicken, and many other dishes.

The addition of cottage cheese and milk create a custard-like consistency common in today’s dessert kugels. Yes, there are even dessert kugels and they’re drool-worthy!

Though my family are not Ashkenazi and not even Jewish, most of the dishes I’ve referenced above are recipes I grew up with and can cook without the use of a recipe. They were prevelent and widely cooked through Galacia.

And when I recently discovered a sweet kugel dessert option on a local menu here in Charleston, South Carolina, I was reminded that today’s world though big, is actually really quite small.

Where Do I Find Egg Noodles Without Egg Yolks?

So, I’d never take for granted that you may have your own pasta machine sitting around. I, however, do not.

Instead, traverse to your local foreign foods’ grocery (or just your regular grocery’s foreign foods isle!) and zero in on the display of German and Amish egg noodles. There you will likely find egg noodles without yolks (whites only) and in either a pencil-thin flat noodle, broad noodles, and extra broad noodles.

How to Brown Butter?

• Begin by cutting unsalted butter into small pieces and place it in a light-colored pot or pan. Light-colored cookware ensures you can see how dark the butter gets as it cooks, while small pieces enable it to melt and cook evenly.
• Turn on the heat to medium and let the butter melt. This step requires constant monitoring as the butter will go from liquid to brown in mere minutes. High heat will brown the butter very quickly, but if you don’t keep a close eye on it, the milk solids could sink to the bottom of the pan and burn. So, no stepping away, and maintain medium heat versus high heat.
• Stir you can take the pan off the burner because the butter will continue cooking even after you off the heat. The butter should be an acorn brown color and smell slightly nutty. Pour the brown butter into a bowl to end the cooking process. Now it is ready to use atop vegetables, stirred into dishes, or combined with some Bourbon and marshmallows for a colossal homemade Rice Crispy treat!

What Special Ingredients Will I Need for A No Yolk Kugel?

It’s probably easier for me to tell you what IS NOT in this recipe. No mozzarella cheese, no cream of chicken soup, not even chicken broth unless you want to boil your noodles in it for added richness.

The most unique pantry item that I can think of that might be considered unusual is caraway seed. And before you ask, yes you need it.

Caraway seed may be added to this dish whole or pulverized. If you do not own an herb grinder, just toss the seeds into a plastic bag and gently smash with the flat side of a meat mallet.

What Special Equipment Will I Need for A No Yolk Kugel?

None. Have at the ready a small saucepan, a medium sauté pan, a large mixing bowl, and a pretty casserole dish, round or other.

I do use a pastry brush to butter my casserole dish, but that’s as ‘exotic’ as my list of equipment gets. Let me reiterate, family favorite side dishes don’t get any easier than this no yolk noodles kugel recipe.

How to Make a No Yolk Noodle Kugel?

Roasting the Garlic

About 1 hour before you plan to begin the kugel, you must first get a head start and roast some garlic. In total, you will need 3/4 cups of well-roasted garlic cloves with is equal to a large head of garlic.

Preheat your oven to 375°F. Use a sharp kitchen knife to carefully chop the head of garlic in half.

Double up a sheet of aluminum foil and place the bottom of the head right in the middle. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, replace the top, and wrap the garlic in the foil tightly.

Place on an oven-safe baking sheet and roast center position for 35 minutes. Turn off the heat but do not remove from the oven for 15 minutes more.

Once removed, carefully unwrap the garlic and separate the halves to allow them to cool. Squeeze the bulbs into a small bowl and set aside until you reach the step in the recipe card instructing you to incorporate them.

Weighing the Noodles

This recipe requires measuring COOKED egg noodles but measuring or weighing out cooked noodles is near next to impossible. Noodles, rice, lentils, and dry beans weigh more after cooking because they have absorbed the water, broth, or other liquid they were cooked in.

2 ounces weighed of dry egg noodles (or 1/2 cup US measured dry noodles, whichever way you prefer to measure) is equal to 8 ounces weighed of cooked egg noodles (or 1 cup US measured cooked egg noodles, again, whichever way you prefer to measure). To end up with 6 servings as a side, weight out 8 ounces on a kitchen scale or US dry measure 2 cups uncooked noodles and set aside.

ProTip: This recipe is EASILY doubled which is what I have done here. If you are new to Not Entirely Average, simply use your mouse to hover over the number of servings in the recipe card. Use the scale to adjust for the number of servings you are looking to make.

Brown the Butter

In a small saucepan, brown 6 tablespoons of the butter. As always, take your time with this step; it can be lengthy, but it MAKES OR BREAKS the recipe.

If you have never browned butter, refer to my step-by-step instructions just above. Brown butter elevates the simplest of dishes and is a seriously classy addition to almost every vegetable and shellfish.

Once the butter is perfectly golden and smells nutty, remove it from the heat. Use a tablespoon measure to immediately reserve 3 tablespoons of the brown butter to a small bowl, 2 tablespoons set aside in a separate small bowl with the paprika(s), and the remaining tablespoon brushed over the bottom and sides of small round casserole dish.

ProTip: I waste nothing, and that especially goes for brown butter. Use a rubber spatula to scrape whatever butter remains in the saucepan into the small bowl containing the 3 tablespoons. The flavor is so intense that to leave any behind is to lose out on the finished dish.

Cook the Egg Noodles

Add equal parts olive oil and salt (about a teaspoon-ish each) to a large pot and fill it with enough water to cook the pasta submerged. Bring to a boil and cook the dry noodles you have measured out according to package directions.

Drain and empty into a large mixing bowl and set aside. If you have turned your oven off from when you roasted the garlic, once again preheat to 375°F.

Sauté the Onion with the Aromatics

Place the remaining tablespoon of butter in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add some chopped onion and gently sauté until translucent, about 5 to 8 minutes.

As the onions begin to break down, add Kosher salt, black pepper, some freshly ground nutmeg, and some caraway seed either whole or crushed. Reduce the heat if the onions appear to be browning, as you merely want them translucent to lightly golden at most.

Remove the sauté pan from the heat. Add into the onion mixture, the 3 tablespoons of reserved brown butter and stir well.

Assemble to Kugel

To the bowl with the cooked egg noodles, add the onion mixture along with some honey, roasted garlic cloves, Dijon, cider vinegar, and sour cream. Stir well to combine before scraping into the prepared baking dish.

Whisk the reserved 2 tablespoons of brown butter with sweet, hot, or a combination of both paprikas and drizzle back and forth atop the kugel. I also like to sift the tiniest additional bit of paprika over the top at this point, however it is not required.

Bake the Kugel

Bake the kugel in center position for 35 to 40 minutes. 35 minutes should yield an incredibly aromatic dish, with creamy noodles underneath a lightly crunchy top layer. Do not go beyond the 35 to 40 minutes or you risk the kugel drying out.

Remove from the oven and serve immediately as the perfect side dish your entire family will literally flip for.

What to Serve with No Yolk Savory Noodle Kugel?

Honestly, this side completes so many main dishes beautifully, from roasted chicken to pork tenderloin, to grilled sausages and beef. I am partial to offering this up alongside a big juicy pork chop.