Gluten Free Vegan Cholent (pareve)

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I modified my black bean cholent to make a GF (gluten-free) version! It was a hit among those guests who needed a vegetarian, gluten free option, and all the others here were happy to eat it as well! So now, it's easy to serve a vegetarian, gluten free cholent to all!

Here's the way I make it - feel free to play around with the recipe!

Gluten Free Vegan Cholent 
(I use a slow cooker with approx. 6L capacity, a.k.a. "crock pot")

2 large onions, chopped coarsely
6 cloves garlic, chopped finely
4-6 medium sized potatoes, cut into chunks
500g raw (green) buckwheat, soaked in cold water for a couple of hours, drained, and rinsed
1-1/5 cups dry black beans,  soaked (overnight), drained, and rinsed (can also use a can of cooked black beans, drained and rinsed)
spices: salt or smoked sea salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, smoked paprika if you don't have smoked sea salt - be generous with the seasonings!
water to fill the pot

Place everything in the slow cooker and let the pot do its magic! I fill my slow cooker about 2-3 hours before Shabbat, and we eat the cholent at lunch in the late morning.

If you want, just before Shabbat starts, add frozen vegan kishke to the pot. You'll have to modify the recipe by substituting the oat bran with a GF mix of something like corn meal and rice flour, or quinoa flour. This is the perfect Shabbat morning cholent accompaniment! 

Note the "slow cooker" links in this post take you to a 220V version. If you are in the USA and want a 110V version, click here!

Vegan Kishke

This kishke recipe was inspired by a facebook post by my friend Devra. I don't remember her recipe anymore, but she posted about making some vegetarian kishke for her cholent. I decided it needed to be healthified, and needed some garlic too, and after a few different attempts, my family decided this one worked well!

So here's my recipe for Vegan Kishke (not only vegan, but also nut-free and can be made wheat free - that's how I do it) - you'll stop buying store bought kishke once you see how easy it is!



1 onion
10 garlic cloves
6 carrots 
1/2 cup corn meal
1/2 cup oat bran or wheat bran
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
small amount of water, if needed 

Place onion, garlic, and carrots in food processor (fitted with the bottom blade) and pulse till chopped.
Add the rest of the ingredients and process for a few minutes until well combined, adding water if needed to get a smooth consistency.

Spoon 1/3 of the mixture onto a piece of aluminum foil and wrap tightly. Repeat until you've wrapped 3 kishke  packages, using up all the mixture. 

Place in freezer, and keep frozen until you're ready to use it.

To cook, add the frozen (do not defrost) kishke to your cholent pot right before Shabbat starts (I made a vegan cholent - find the recipe here). It will cook and be perfect by the time you serve your cholent for kiddush or lunch! I use one per week, unless we have a lot of guests. If you eat a lot of kishke, you'll want more than one, I assume.

Enjoy! Let me know if you try it out!

Black Bean Cholent (vegan)

A lot of you have asked how I make my black bean cholent.

I hope not to disappoint you, in case this wasn't clear to you, this is a vegetarian/vegan cholent.

It's quite tasty, but if you were hoping for beef, you won't find it here. I think the last time I ate beef I was about 20 or 21 years old (nope, not saying what year that was, use your imagination)!

If you're looking for a Gluten Free Vegan Cholent, click here!


Here's what I do:

1-2 large onions, chopped coarsely
6 cloves garlic, chopped finely
2 medium sized potatoes, cut into chunks
500g whole grain barley (not pearl barley), soaked in cold water overnight
2 cups black beans, already soaked (overnight) and drained, can also use 2 cups cooked black beans
spices: salt (1 tablespoon or so), black pepper (1/2 tsp or more), cayenne pepper (a pinch or 2), smoked paprika (2 tablespoons) - be generous with the seasonings! If cayenne is too hot for you - you can safely leave it out.
water to fill the pot

Place everything in the crock pot and let the pot do its magic!

Just before Shabbat starts, I add frozen vegan kishke to the pot. This is the perfect Shabbat morning cholent accompaniment! 

Barley and Black Beans waiting on my pantry shelf

Shabbat Menu Planning

We are having guests over. Picky guests. The mother says she can't find any food her kids will eat.

On the one hand, this reality is making me a little stressed. I pride myself on making simple, but good food. My kids are picky too, but I always find SOMETHING they'll eat! So I'm feeling like I need to make some healthy, good foods that these children will eat... and who knows how they will take to whole wheat flaxseed challah? Don't get me wrong, my whole wheat flaxseed challah is delicious! But children who only eat white bread may not take to it so easily... :-(

On the other hand, my friend already warned me that her kids are extremely picky and hardly eat anything. So there is actually very little pressure to make food they will eat! So maybe I just shouldn't stress about it at all...


Here's the plan:

Whole wheat and flaxseed Challot, and rolls

Chicken in Apricot-Ginger sauce

Potato Kugel (potatoes and onions are 1.99/kg at Mega right now. I'll be buying some Friday morning, don't forget about the extra 10% off!)

Yerushalmi Kugel (the last couple of times I used this version)

Steamed Kishuim (summer squash)

Make-your-own-salad (hopefully I'll find some affordable salad veggies)

Black bean cholent (for lunch) (Did you know that my cholent comes out completely WRONG when I forget to soak the barley? I figured it wasn't a big deal, but it really was. And I know, I said no cholent in August, but my hubby was so sad about that, I will make a cholent, especially with guests!)

Chocolate Cake (I'm running low on cocoa though, so I will use less cocoa. It will be less intense, but still delish!)

Raisin-Bran Cake

Also making chummus, potato salad, and pasta salad for seudah shlishit

Fresh fruit for snacks


Ok, off to start the cooking marathon!

What are you making?

Shabbat Menu again! (and vegetarian cholent recipe)

MY SHABBAT GUESTS JUST CANCELLED!

So, I guess it's a good thing I forgot to defrost the chicken, now I'll defrost less than I had originally planned...

Here's my plan:


Split pea soup (Fri. nite) with lots of carrots (carrots are cheap right now, have I mentioned that?)

Cholent (for lunch - and now I am being pressured to replicate last week's cholent. Wish me luck! It had lots of onions, potato chunks, black beans, diced garlic, sweet potatoes - although those may get replaced with butternut squash, barley, and water and spices - the most crucial one is the smoked paprika. Cayenne Pepper is pretty important too...)


Chicken in BBQ marinade (easy, and delish!)

Potato Kugel (already done! actually I made 2, so now we'll have extra. They don't freeze so well. maybe I should stick one in the cholent, the way that Helen (my father's cousin, who took on the role of my grandmother in Israel) used to do?)

Rice (already done!)

Maple Roasted Butternut Squash (already done!)


Vegetarian Mock Deli Roll (I'll let you know how to make it after I try it out - if it's good!) - I already defrosted the puff pastry, so I'll make it even though this was an extra because of guests!)

Make your own salad (we have avocado, tomato, carrots, pickles, and purple cabbage, will that work?)

Dessert - Blondies, I think!

Shabbat Shalom!