Today Ukraine celebrates Christmas. And our main Christmas dish is Kutya.
Usually Kutya is made of wheat berries, but in my family it has always been rice Kutya with lots of raisins and walnuts. So you can actually classify it as dessert. I like to have it for breakfast.
Pick your favorite grain: wheat, barley, millet or rice. Also you can use different nuts. The most common nut in Ukraine is walnut. I roast them in shell in the oven, then it’s easy to peel their bitter skin off.
First cook the rice (or your grain of choice).
Meanwhile coarsely grind the poppy seeds. I do it in old-fashioned poppy seed grinder. Ceramic coffee mill should work as well.
When rice is cooked let it cool down completely.
Dissolve the sweetener in lukewarm Uzvar or water.
Mix together rice, poppy seeds, nuts, raisins and sweetened Uzvar. Refrigerate for 6-8 hours or overnight. Rice, nuts and raisins should absorb most of the liquid.
Your Kutya is now ready.
Kutya (Ukrainian Christmas cereal dish)
Traditional Ukrainian Christmas rice or wheat berries pudding.
- Prep Time: 10 min
- Cook Time: 15 min
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
- Category: Dessert, Breakfast
- Cuisine: Ukrainian, Christmas
Ingredients
Scale
- 2 C rice (I’m using parboiled)
- 1/2 liter Uzvar (or water)
- 1/2 C liquid sweetener
- 3/4 C roasted chopped walnuts
- 100g raisins
- 80g poppy seeds
Instructions
- First cook the rice (or your grain of choice).
- Meanwhile coarsely grind the poppy seeds. I do it in old-fashioned poppy seed grinder. Ceramic coffee mill should work as well.
- When rice is cooked let it cool down completely.
- Dissolve the sweetener in lukewarm Uzvar or water.
- Mix together rice, poppy seeds, nuts, raisins and sweetened Uzvar. Refrigerate for 6-8 hours or overnight. Rice, nuts and raisins should absorb most of the liquid.
- Your Kutya is now ready.
Notes
Most common grains for Kutya are wheat and barley. You can also use rice (like me) or millet for gluten-free option.
Nutrition
- Calories: 450
- Sugar: 27.4g
- Sodium: 10mg
- Fat: 9.8g
- Saturated Fat: 1.1g
- Carbohydrates: 83.8g
- Fiber: 3.3g
- Protein: 8.1g
- Cholesterol: 0mg
