Microwaveable Matzah Balls–Yes We Can!

Three years ago I tried out a couple of possibilities for making matzah balls in the microwave–mostly because I was cooking for just my husband and myself for the seder and because I hate waiting for a full stockpot to boil. Also just because. And it wasn’t a raving success–more like, “well…it was worth a try.” Or as I put it at the time, I try these things out so you don’t have to.

My conclusion then: you can’t microwave ordinary matzah balls the way you’d think, dolloping the mixture into boiling water and then heating with a lid, as I’d hoped. They’ll just start falling apart in the water and the ones that don’t will be awful and tough in the center and awful and gluey like undercooked oatmeal on the outsides, and in general not good and a complete waste of ingredients and your valuable effort.

At the time I also thought maybe I hadn’t used enough egg to make it work–because I only had one egg in the house for a cup of matzah meal, and the standard recipes for that amount called for two to four.

However, I discovered that a spinach-enhanced version would work okay, at least on a very small-batch basis, if I dolloped the mixture onto a plate and microwaved the dumplings that way, just to seal the surfaces and kind of steam them through to cook the egg and make them hold together, THEN put them in hot soup and let them sit a few minutes to absorb and fluff a little more. And…they were okay. Not fabulous. They still had a few corners on them.

But as a fairly dedicated microwave experimenter–I’m not quite up to claiming “maven” yet, that’s next week–that doesn’t really end the question for me, because I keep thinking, maybe I could possibly change something and make them work out after all? And wouldn’t that be cool? …I’m probably the only person I know who would answer “yes” on that, but too bad. Because, on take 3 1/2 or so, I finally think I’ve got it. And this time my husband actually agreed.

So picture me on Sunday afternoon, the first full day of Passover 5781 (aka 2021). Saturday evening we (meaning, mostly me) did manage to get all the kashering and cleaning and cooking done and ready for the first seder in reasonable time for the two of us, and we skipped soup and matzah balls because really, it was too much right then. Sunday, though, I decided I had time after lunch to make some not-chicken soup in the microwave and then–well, why not?–try a new tack on microwave matzah balls. Yet again.

This time I thought about those tough centers and decided what the matzah needed was a quick fluffing up before adding any other ingredients. I’m going to go out on a limb and say this idea should work decently for standard stovetop matzah balls as well. Might even let you get away with fewer eggs for the recipe and a little less time letting the mixture rest in the fridge.

So here I combined two tricks:

First, I poured boiling water on the matzah crumbs and let it all soak up for 15 minutes or so before adding the egg and oil and flavorings. Second, I used the same dollop-and-nuke-on-a-plate method I’d used last time for the sort-of-okay spinach matzah balls to seal these plain ones and get them cooked enough to hold together, then heated a little lightly-salted water in a bowl, added the matzah balls and a lid and heated again to steam/simmer them through for another minute or so. Total microwave time for all three steps: maybe 6 minutes.

They came out as half-domes rather than spheres, flat on one side–microwaving them on a plate will do that. But they were springy and tender, good tasting, neither too fluffy nor too heavy, and they were quick and really easy and didn’t make a big mess or require a huge stockpot of boiling water.

Microwave Matzah Balls

This makes 12-15 1″ half-dome matzah balls, so maybe 4-6 servings at 2-3 per bowl. Scale up accordingly–if you double the amounts, you might want to add microwave time to each step in 30-second increments, until they’re just cooked through but without overdoing it.

Ingredients

• 2 sheets matzah
• 1/2 c. water plus a few extra spoonfuls if you need them
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 large egg
• 1/8-1/4 t. salt–be sparing, 1-2 pinches, especially if your soup has salt in it already
• optional flavorings: VERY tiny sprinkle or single-swipe grating of nutmeg (caution, three swipes is too much; a little goes a long way) OR a grinding of black pepper (more conventional), or else a pinch or so of powdered or minced sage, thyme, dill, parsley, chives, finely chopped scallion, grated garlic, etc. etc. as you prefer.

Mix

Fluff up the matzah meal with boiling water first.

Crumble the matzah reasonably fine by hand (more rustic) or pulse it in a food processor and pour it into a bowl. Heat the water to simmering, about 1 minute, in a mug in the microwave, then pour it over the matzah crumbs and stir. Let it sit to absorb 15-20 minutes (it might not actually take this long)–all the liquid should be gone and the matzah should be like cooked oatmeal. >>If there are still dry spots or hard bits, add another spoonful of water, stir, mash, let sit a few minutes more until it’s all softened. Stir in the egg, oil, salt and nutmeg, pepper or other flavorings as desired. The mixture should be thick but not stiff or near-solid. Again, if you need to, add a spoonful of water to get it to a thick but stirrable oatmeal texture.

Notes:

You’re aiming for a mix that’s just a little looser and moister than what you’d expect for conventional stovetop, shape-able matzah balls because you need a little more moisture in the mix for microwaving. You can refrigerate the mix at this point, but it won’t thicken further or absorb a lot more moisture, so you can just cook it now if you want.

Parcook

Dollop the mix on a plate and microwave without broth

Dollop 1-inch spoonfuls onto a microwaveable plate, mounding them up slightly with the spoon and spacing them 1/4″ apart if there’s room. I managed to fit about 12 on a very small salad plate but use your best judgment. Microwave them uncovered for 2.5-3 minutes on high, until the tops are just dry (i.e., not sticky with raw egg) and you can easily get them back off the plate with a butter knife or spoon and the undersides are steamed through (they will be moister than the tops, but that should be from steam runoff, not raw egg stickiness).

Simmer

Microwave the parcooked matzah balls another minute or so in simmering water.

Heat half an inch of water with a pinch or two of salt to steaming hot in a lidded container just big enough to hold the just-cooked matzah balls. (I used a wide soup bowl with a saucer for a lid and it took 2 minutes in my microwave, but your mileage may differ depending on what container and oven you have). Remove the lid carefully away from your face, scoop in all the matzah balls, put the lid back on and microwave another 1-2 minutes on high to steam/simmer them through. Open the lid again to check one and make sure it’s done–then drain and either cool them for the fridge or serve them right away in hot soup.

To serve

You can make these ahead, refrigerate them in a lidded microwaveable container without the cooking liquid, then reheat the whole batch in the microwave with just a little water or soup broth to cover in a couple of minutes, spoon a couple of them into each bowl, and ladle the (presumably hot) soup with vegetables over them. Or just for yourself, put two or three matzah balls in a (microwaveable) bowl of soup and heat it all together for 2-3 minutes.

B’te’avon, mangia bene, eat nice and shep nachas (enjoy)–you’ve just managed some pretty decent matzah balls in less time than it takes to boil a stockpot of water. And you avoided making them as big or heavy as that boulder in Raiders of the Lost Ark (or the Passover Edition Shalom Sesame takeoff from…1988?). You might not need that second Tums after all!