Hanukkah is just around the corner. To celebrate the Jewish heritage of my late grandmother, I will be uploading veganized versions of Hanukkah-inspired recipes each week for the next 4 weeks. Below, you find a recipe for vegan sweet potato and red onion knish. Knish is a traditional Jewish Ashkenazi comfort food. Specifically, it is a flakey dough concoction filled with either a savory or sweet filling that is baked or deep-fried. The dough is easy to make and very user-friendly as it contains oil and not butter. My recipe was inspired by a YouTube video that I recently found in which the late Ethel Bailkin makes traditional potato and onion knish. Knish can be filled with various fillings, including cream cheese and blueberry compote or an apple-strudel mixture.

Fun Fact: One of the most well-known knish bakeries is Yonah Schimmel’s Knish bakery in New York City. They have been making kosher knish since 1910. A few years back, my sister and I had the pleasure of trying their knish, and they tasted absolutely phenomenal. Definitely worth a visit!

Instructions

Ingredients for roughly 10-12 Knishes

Ingredients

For the dough:

Dry ingredients
2 3/4 cups spelt flour
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp cane sugar

Wet ingredients
1 vegan egg, i.e., Mix 3 tbsp of chickpea flour + 3 tbsp of water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup warm water

For the filling:
3-4 medium-sized sweet potatoes, peeled, quartered, and boiled in salted water until tender
1/2 cup melted vegan butter
1 large diced yellow onion
1 minced garlic clove
Salt and pepper to taste

1. To make the dough, add all the dry ingredients to a medium-sized bowl and then whish the ingredients until well-combined.
2. Add the wet ingredients to the dry mixture and then knead the dough with your hands for 4-5 minutes until a smooth and soft ball of dough is formed.
3. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and chill it in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
4. Start filling by peeling, quartering, and boiling the sweet potatoes in salt water until tender.
5. Mash the sweet potatoes in a medium-sized bowl using a fork or potato masher.
6. Melt the butter in a medium-sized frying pan over medium heat. Add the diced onions and stir until they have become nicely caramelized.
7. Add the caramelized onions to the mashed sweet potatoes and stir until well-combined. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Let the mixture cool down.
8. Preheat your oven to 350 F/ 180 C.
9. Remove the plastic wrap from the bowl with the dough and place the dough on a work surface.
10. Cut the dough in half to get two equal pieces. Set one portion aside.
11. Sprinkle your work surface with some flour and roll the dough into a thin rectangle – roughly 30 cm/ 12 inches in length (I eyeball it). Sprinkle more flour on your work surface if the dough begins to stick. Spread some water along the top of the dough (acts as glue).
12. Take your filling and divide it into two portions (one for each dough portion). Form a filling lag along the bottom of the dough. Fold the dough over the filling and roll it up to the end.
13. Using a knife, make light indentations into the dough, so that the dough can be divided into 4-6 equal pieces.
14. Using the side of your hand, the karate chop point, cut through the indentations.
15. To shape your knishes: to make the bottom, use your finger carefully press the filling inward, then stretch the dough to seal. For the top, use your thumbs and pointer fingers to press the cut dough in towards the center, thereby forming a small indent.
16. Repeat with remaining knishes, then repeat entire process with second piece of dough.
17. Transfer the knish to a baking tray and then bake for 35-40 minutes until the dough appears slightly golden.
18. After 10 minutes, place the knish on a cooling rake. The knish tastes best served warm.

Storage: Wrap the knish individually in plastic wrap and store in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for 3 months. To serve, pop them in the oven at 350 F/ 180 C for roughly 10 minutes. No need to thaw them.  

Kitchen Soundtrack