Traditional Instant Pot Kutia
The traditional first-course of any Ukrainian Christmas Eve supper.
Ingredients
- 2 cup wheat berries red or white
- 4 cups water
- 1 cup honey
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup poppy seeds
- 2 cups boiling water optional
- 1 cup finely chopped walnuts optional
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Spread the dry wheat berries on a rimmed baking sheet making sure they're in one layer. Bake for 15 minutes.
- Remove the sheet from the oven, shake to distribute the wheat berries. Bake for another 10 minutes.
- Transfer the wheat berries to the Instant Pot with 4 cups of water. If there's any chaff, it'll float to the top - just remove it.
- Set the Instant Pot to Manual and High pressure and 60 minutes
- When the cooking is complete, do a quick release of the pressure.
- Remove about 1 cup of the remaining water or boil 2 cups of water. Combine with the 1/2 cup of poppy seeds so that the poppy seeds are scalded. Let them sit about 10 minutes.
- Using a small food processor or coffee/spice grinder, grind the poppy seeds.
- Add the ground poppy seeds, honey, sugar and nuts to the wheat. If it's still watery, use the Saute function to boil off some of the water. It should be syrupy but not watery.
- Smachnoho!
Notes
- Serve at room temperature.
- For even softer wheat, cook the wheat 90 minutes in the Instant Pot.
- It's also great for breakfast on Christmas morning or any morning.
- Make it a couple days ahead of time. With 11 more dishes to make for Christmas Eve, you'll be busy
- Add cinnamon to taste for a less traditional flavour.