Shared by Adeena Sussman
Shared by Adeena Sussman
Kasha Varnishkes Salad
Yield: 5 servingsTime: 35 minutes
Kasha Varnishkes Salad
Yield: 5 servingsTime: 35 minutesFamily Journey
Palo Alto, CANew York City
Tel Aviv
Cookbook author and JFS board member Adeena Sussman grew up in 1970s Palo Alto, California when kosher food wasn’t easily accessible. There was a little section at the local supermarket that sold matzah at Hanukkah, she says laughing. Her parents even operated a kosher cheese business out of their garage because no one nearby carried it.
But, there was Wolff’s kasha, “which was a sort of beacon of Ashkenazi culture,” she writes in her latest book, “Zariz: 100 Easy, Breezy, Tel Aviv-y Recipes.” Her mother Stephanie’s kasha varnishkes graced their table every Shabbat and holiday. It’s a nostalgic dish for Adeena, but “like all of the food that I make, I wanted to put my own twist on the classics,” she says. So she transformed it into a pasta salad with earthy roasted mushrooms, spicy radishes, and peppery arugula. The bright dressing, she adds, “makes all the ingredients in this salad stand up and pay attention."
Ingredients
- 1½ teaspoons kosher salt, plus more for seasoning
- 1½ cups (4 ounces) dried bow tie pasta
- ½ cup dried kasha (buckwheat groats)
- ½ cup olive oil, plus more as needed
- 1¼ pounds mixed mushrooms, cleaned, stemmed, and quartered
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- ¼ cup distilled white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ¼ teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
- ½ medium red onion, sliced
- 4 small radishes, thinly sliced (½ cup)
- One 5-ounce package (5 cups loosely packed) baby arugula leaves
Preparation
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 450°F. Fill a large saucepan halfway with generously salted water and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and kasha and boil until cooked, 11 to 12 minutes. Drain the pasta and kasha well, add to a large salad bowl, and toss with a splash of olive oil to prevent sticking.
Step 2
Arrange the mushrooms on a sheet pan and drizzle with ¼ cup of the olive oil and 1 teaspoon of the salt; toss to coat. Roast until the mushrooms have browned and reduced in size, 14 to 15 minutes.
Step 3
In a salad bowl, whisk the remaining ¼ cup olive oil with the mustard, vinegar, sugar, pepper, and remaining ½ teaspoon salt. Add the mushrooms, onions, radishes, and reserved pasta and kasha and toss to coat. Before serving, add the arugula and toss.
Excerpted from ZARIZ by Adeena Sussman, published by Avery, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright @ 2026 by Adeena Sussman
