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 a dessert. I like to have it for breakfast.
Pick your favourite grain: wheat, barley, millet or rice. Also, you can use different nuts. The most common nut in Ukraine is the walnut. I roast them in their shells 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 an old-fashioned poppy seed grinder. A 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 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 an old-fashioned poppy seed grinder. A 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 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
The most common grains for Kutya are wheat and barley. For a gluten-free option, you can also use rice (like me) or millet.
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
