Families have said that Homemade Matzo Ball Soup cures everything that ails you for generations. Boy did that make me feel like a failure when I was diagnosed with celiac disease and couldn’t make a gluten free matzo ball to cure anything! The Jewish mom guilt went on for years. I had a sense of pride when my friends and family fell in love with my doctored up version of Streit’s gluten free Matzo Ball Mix. Mom’s Best Matzo Ball Soup graced our gluten free table for countless holidays and events with rave reviews for over a decade. A sense of failure and defeat stuck with me though.
Then it happened. Rosh Hashannah was around the corner and everyone was sold out of Streit’s gluten free matzo ball soup. I couldn’t even order it online! Backed against a wall, I figured that I had two choices. I could skip the soup. Not a chance, that’s not the solution. Or I could figure out how to make really good gluten free matzo balls in a really short amount of time. So that is what I did.
Fortunately I had a lot of examples of what doesn’t work to limit my options. I also had a very solid flavorful soup base. It was the matzo balls I had to focus on getting right. In the end, I broke the recipe down to the ratio of eggs, oil, and leaveners. In a traditional matzo ball recipe, the final key ingredient is matzo meal or finely crushed matzo crackers. This option was on my long list of failures, so I had to start elsewhere. After trying varying combinations of flours with varying levels of failure, I settled on the humble potato flake.
Potato Flakes
Not potato starch or flour, that is too fine. Think of instant mashed potato flakes. However, if you buy them from the grocery store branded that way, they are likely to have a bunch of other ingredients. For this recipe, look for plain, 100% potato flakes like this one from Bob’s Red Mill. The trick is that the flakes need a quick wiz in a high speed blender or food processor to break them down a bit. You don’t want a powder, just very small flakes. Why? The larger flakes leave larger pockets of air in between each other so the matzo balls fall apart when boiled.
Mix, Rest & Roll
Combine the dry ingredients together in a small mixing bowl. The garlic, salt and onion powder add much needed flavor, the baking powder reacts to the heat, the baking soda reacts to the acidic environment, doubling up on the leavening power. This results in light and fluffy matzo balls, not solid rocks.
Of course, we triple the leavening with egg and it also acts to bind all of the ingredients together. The olive oil adds much needed moisture and flavor to plump up the dumplings. Fresh dill isn’t mandatory, but it definitely adds flavor and brightens up the soup over all. If your family prefers flat leaf parsley, that would be a great substitute for the dill.
The wet ingredients and herbs are mixed together in a medium mixing bowl. Then the dry ingredients are added in and mixed together. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill for a minimum of 30 minutes. Then roll the mixture 1 tablespoon at a time into matzo balls. They will at least double in size when cooked, so don’t worry if they look small!
Make the Homemade Matzo Ball Soup
Have no doubt, the soup needs to be as good as the matzo balls. Begin by heating a large stock pot to medium high and then cook the diced onion and carrots in the olive oil until slightly softened. Then add the garlic and allow it to heat through and become fragrant. The veggies will continue cooking in the broth, so you don’t need to cook them for long. The goal is to heat them up to bring out their flavor.
Then add the chicken stock to the pot. It is perfectly acceptable to use a store-bought stock, just make sure that you like the taste of it! If it isn’t great quality and doesn’t have wonderful flavor, then your soup won’t either. You can always add a little salt, chicken bouillon, herbs or other seasonings to improve the flavor if needed.
Boil the Balls!
Bring the soup base up to a low boil and turn the heat down to a simmer. If the soup is boiling too aggressively there is a greater chance the matzo balls could break apart. Transfer the matzo balls to the stock pot and let them cook until they are puffed and cooked through, about 20-30 minutes.
Serving the Homemade Matzo Ball Soup
When you are ready to eat, add fresh dill and shredded cooked chicken to the stock pot. Stir and ladle into bowls while it is piping hot. I usually plan for 2 matzo balls per person. The shredded chicken is optional. When I make the soup for holidays, I make it without chicken. If I make it any other time of the year, I like to add the chicken to make it heartier.
More Gluten Free Soup for You!
- Vegan Creamy Butternut Squash
- Italian Wedding Soup
- Thai Chicken Noodle Soup
- Easy Blender Gazpacho
- Greg’s Killer Kale Soup
Homemade Matzo Ball Soup
Ingredients
- 2 ounces 100% dried potato flakes no added ingredients
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp fine sea salt
- 2 large eggs
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp fresh dill finely chopped & divided
For the Soup:
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium sweet onion diced
- 3 large carrots peeled & diced
- 2 large cloves fresh garlic finely minced
- 2 quarts chicken stock
- 1 cup shredded cooked chicken optional
Instructions
For the Homemade Matzo Balls:
- Grind the potato flakes in a high speed blender, smoothie maker or food processor to break them down a bit. You don’t want a powder, just very small flakes.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the ground potato flakes with the baking soda, baking powder, garlic powder, onion powder and salt.
- In a small bowl, beat the eggs, oil and 1 tablespoon of the chopped fresh dill together with a fork.
- Pour the egg mixture into the potato flake mixture and stir until combined well and there are no pockets of dry ingredients. Cover and let chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. The mixture will thicken as it chills.
- In portions of approximately 2 teaspoons, roll the mixture into matzo balls. Set aside covered in the fridge until ready to cook.
For the Soup:
- While the matzo ball mixture is chilling, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large stock pot over medium high heat. Add the onion and carrots. Stir from time to time until the onions are almost translucent. Then add the garlic and let that heat through and become fragrant.
- Add the chicken stock to the pot and bring it to a boil over high heat.
- Turn the heat back down to a low simmer and gently add matzo balls to the soup and let simmer for 20-30 minutes or until puffed and cooked through.
- Add the cooked shredded chicken to the soup (optional) to heat it through just before serving. Sprinkle the soup with the remaining chopped dill when you are ready to serve.