Quinoa and Carrot Kugel

Not only did I make for a potluck this recipe I'd never tried before, but I didn't even follow it. Cooked carrots separately, sauteed first to lightly caramelize them, then cook in 1.5 c veggie broth. Used carrot water to cook the onions and quinoa. Added fresh thyme and a couple of pinches of cumin seed to carrots as I pureed them. No caraway. Did everything else as written, adjusting seasoning before putting in oven. Great! Next time, sweet or za'atar or ???

This was amazing - my husband cooked it as an experiment for our vege Xgiving dish, and I forced him to put it in muffin tins in case it came out so good that we wanted to bring the first batch (I figured we couldn't bring a half-eaten kugel to a party). The muffins were fantastic, much flavor and very moist. We added raisins and pecans, and we cooked the quinoa in a rice cooker with veg broth. We served it with mildy-spicy red pepper jelly that we bought from the store.

No need to go to the effort to make matchsticks since the carrots are going to be puréed. I cut up some that way to put on top as shown in the picture.

Bland. Maybe add chilis or chili powder and garlic powder

It is definitely better to cook the carrots separately from the quinoa, so you don't have to pick them out of the quinoa.

As others have noted, the carrots do not need to be finely cut up since they will be pureed. However a few carrots should be cut up and then added to the top--to match the picture.

I enjoyed this kugel and would make it again. However, I recommend that you don't cook the carrots and quinoa in the same pot. It's a waste of time fishing out all the carrot sticks and then brushing the quinoa off and back into the pot. Carrots really got buried and there was more than 1/4 cup quinoa stuck to it. I'd follow the 2 tips after the recipe. You wouldn't have to fiddle with 3 inch sticks of carrot either. The food processor makes easy work of this recipe.

I added some cinnamon (1/2 tsp), ground ginger (1/4 tsp) & nutmeg (pinch) as well as taking the note someone else left to add pecans and raisins. I soaked he nuts and grapes before adding.

Great recipe— easy, healthy—BUT it would be a lot tastier if one added some, say, Moroccan spices. It’s very bland as is.

Thanks for all of the tips. I cooked my carrots separately. Added two fingers of ginger and cayenne pepper. Substituted goat cheese for cottage cheese. So good! Great use of the adorable carrots that we buy at the farmers market.

Not having cottage cheese on hand, I substituted plain yogurt as it was all being puréed anyway. It worked well and was delicious.

I wish the pictures would look more like the recipes. Twice now, the dishes in the pictures have had something done differently. Here. the carrots are supposed to be pureed and put in the kugel. It doesn't say anywhere that some are to be left out and put on top although that is clearly what has been done in the picture. This would change the amount of carrots pureed. This dish looks wonderful but I wish the pictures would match!

This is one of the most disappointing dishes from Martha Shulman We do not like caraway seeds so I did not add them. The dish was certainly easy to prepare but my family felt it had no taste. I added salt after it was baked but still totally tasteless and a big disappointment

Why does the picture shoe carrot sticks and the recipie call foe them to be puréed?

Used goat cheese instead of cottage, and fennel seed instead of caraway. Turned out satisfactory but was quite bland, and I am not sure my substitutions are responsible. Hot sauce solved.

Note in article but not recipe: "The julienne carrots you see atop the dish in the photo are optional."

I used shallot instead of onion, added ~1/2 tsp lemon zest, and dry roasted the caraway to perk it up. Also added ~1/4 c. minced carrot tops (greens) to the quinoa while it was steaming - they give a lovely herbal note. But now 3 house rabbits are giving me the cold shoulder; they love those greens!