What Makes This Kreplach Recipe So Easy? Ground Beef! (2024)

Kreplach are a beloved staple of Eastern European Jewish cuisine. These triangle-shaped, meat-filled dumplings are enjoyed on holidays such as Purim and around Yom Kippur, or really any time the craving hits.

My favorite kreplach are filled with a simple mixture of beef and browned onions, so that’s what I’ve used here. Traditional versions are made with braised beef, but we’re using fast-cooking ground beef for this version. I also take the shortcut of using store-bought wonton wrappers instead of making a dough from scratch. Easy peasy! The whole recipe takes about an hour to put together, so it’s pretty weeknight-friendly if you’re in the mood to fold up some dumplings at dinnertime.

A Comforting Carb Fest

Jewish delicatessens often include kreplach on the menu, too. They’re usually listed as an optional add-in for a bowl of chicken noodle soup—you can often order a bowl that includes kreplach, noodles, and a matzo ball or two. Talk about a comforting carb fest! Kreplach can also be served sans broth—pan-fried until they’re browned and crispy, then served with sour cream and/or caramelized onions.

Purim Traditions With Family and Friends

Purim is one of the more fun and silly Jewish holidays (some might even say the most fun), with kids and adults alike enjoying the festivities. We recount the story of how Queen Ester saved the Jews, reading the megillah aloud and making lots of obnoxious noise every time the villain, Haman, is named. We eat triangle-shaped cookies called hamantaschen, which translates as “Haman’s hats,” and deliver mishloach manot, or Purim baskets, of cookies and treats to friends and neighbors.

There’s also a costume/dress-up element to the holiday that makes things even more fun. In my Jewish preschool, we’d have a Purim parade, with all the kids dressing up as either characters from the story of Ester, or in whatever costume they liked.

As an adult, one of my favorite traditions for Purim is the Purim “spiel,” or play. At my synagogue, the rabbi would write a different play every year, interspersed with musical numbers and lots of raunchy humor. Drinking wine was encouraged, and no kids were allowed in attendance. As it turns out, it’s traditional to imbibe on Purim, until you’re tipsy enough to enjoy the merriment, all the more.

In addition to the cookies, costumes, and silly plays, Purim has a traditional meal. This is one element of the holiday that was not familiar to me until I recently did some digging and asked a few Jewish friends, both American and Israeli, about their Purim traditions.

The Purim seudah is to be enjoyed during daylight hours, and along with all the celebratory wine, at least two dishes (but preferably more) should be served. Oftentimes, a beef dish is served, as it’s considered more festive than chicken. Sometimes, the seudah will be vegetarian and feature seeds and grains prominently, in honor of Esther’s keeping vegetarian while living in the palace. She would likely have had to do so in order to keep kosher.

Making Kreplach With a Few Short Cuts

With this kreplach recipe, I’m giving you my most pared down and simple way to make them, using a few shortcuts. Traditionally, beef-filled kreplach are made with already-cooked pot roast or brisket, which is then chopped and mixed with caramelized onions.

Here, the filling starts with some of those yummy, browned onions, which caramelize in just 15 minutes since they’re diced very small and cooked in a small batch. The onions are mixed with lean ground beef for a quick and easy filling. If you’d like to go the vegetarian route, simply substitute plant-based “beef” grinds (Beyond Beef and Impossible are two brands I like) for the ground beef.

Making a traditional kreplach dough is, like the traditional filling, another time-consuming and labor-intensive step. Instead of making the dough from scratch, we’re using store-bought wonton wrappers. These dumplings are thin and delicate, and they only take a few minutes to fully cook through. You’ll want to serve them right away, as they have a tendency to break apart if left in their broth for too long.

Oh, and as for the broth, of course you can use the homemade stuff if you have it on hand, but store-bought will do just fine.

Folding Kreplach With Ease

The most time-consuming part of this recipe is the folding of the kreplach, but I’m using the easiest and fastest method I know of: Folding the squares of wonton dough over diagonally to make triangles. Some triangle-shaped kreplach are folded more elaborately, but this recipe requires just one fold.

Round wrappers (usually labeled potsticker wrappers) will work too, though the dumplings will end up half-moon shaped rather than Purim-ready triangles. Either way, just about anybody can help you with this task, even/especially children, and many hands will lighten the load.

Making Crispy Fried Kreplach With an Air Fryer

When I want to make crispy, fried kreplach, I actually use my air fryer. Timing and temperature recommendations can vary based on the make and model of your air fryer, but as a general recommendation, brushing the kreplach lightly with olive oil, then placing them in the basket in a single layer at 375°F for 4-5 minutes should yield crispy fried dumplings.

If you’re making them this way, double up on the caramelized onions, so you’ll have plenty to top your kreplach with when they come out of the air fryer.

Kreplach Swaps and Substitutions

Ingredient swaps and substitutions can be made, including the following:

• Potsticker wrappers for wonton wrappers
• Ground turkey or chicken, or plant-based “grinds” instead of ground beef
• Vegetable broth in place of chicken broth
• Chives and/or green onions instead of parsley and/or dill
• Spices—a teaspoon of Italian seasoning, ras el hanout, berbere, garam masala, or curry powder added to the filling would make for a flavorful twist

Make Kreplach a Day in Advance

You can make the kreplach themselves a day in advance and store them in the refrigerator before boiling them in broth. Just lay out the dumplings in a single layer on a sheet pan or in a large, lidded container as you’re folding them, placing a sheet of plastic wrap between layers of dumplings to keep them from sticking to each other.

I wouldn’t try to store the kreplach in the broth after it’s made—the delicate wonton skins will quickly become soggy and break apart in the broth.

More Recipes to Celebrate Purim

• Apricot Hamantaschen
• Instant Pot Beef Brisket
• Easy Red Wine Sangria
• Mixed Berry Sangria