If you’re Jewish, a bowl of steaming-hot matzah-ball soup likely has the power to transport you magically back to your childhood.
But Sarah Nathan understood that these days, your bubbe may not be at the ready with her ladle poised to serve up this most iconic of all Jewish comfort foods. So, she created an instant matzah-ball soup designed to warm both heart and stomach.
“I’ve seen many brands elevate their culture’s food, like Siete for Mexican food and Maya Kaimal for Indian food,” says Nathan. “But nobody was doing this for Jewish food, and I felt it really needed to be done. So, I thought, why not me?”
She created a company, Nooish (“new” and “Jewish”), and an instant matzah-ball soup designed to deliver memories right to your doorstep.
At 37, Nathan has already spent a decade in the food industry. She also helped organize the online Great Big Jewish Food Fest in 2020 and served as culinary coordinator for B’teavon, an annual Jewish culinary experience in Georgia, and continues to host large Shabbat dinners at food-industry conferences.
Two weeks ago, on March 28, the product was featured on “The Drew Barrymore Show,” with the well-known actress-turned-talk-show host sinking her teeth into the Jewish staple.
‘You can always add salt’
Nathan also has happy memories of making matzah-ball soup—“a food known for its soul-healing properties”—with her mom back in Los Angeles and regularly hosts seders for friends in Chicago, where she now lives. Especially gratifying, she says, is including Jewish friends “who would ordinarily not have a seder to go to.”
“But as beloved as it is, matzah-ball soup is time-consuming to make, make right or obtain easily,” she says. “So I needed to find a way to make it easy and accessible.”
Accomplishing that turned out to be a two-year process. Working with food scientist friends and an R&D firm, Nathan settled on a freeze-dried vegetarian soup with carrots and onions, and three fluffy matzah balls (literally dumplings made from flour, water, herbs, oil and eggs) per serving when hot water is added (there’s also a microwave option). The shelf life is 12 to 18 months. And the soup is certified kosher, though not for Passover.
“But maybe next year,” she says, in the theme of the holiday.
Since the September launch, Nathan has shipped more than 20,000 cups of her soup to 48 states, plus a naval ship in the middle of the Atlantic. It’s available in a four-pack on Amazon. Feedback has included reflections that the soup takes them back to their grandmother’s kitchen and one that it needs more salt. “But I tell them you can always add salt, but you can’t take it out,” she says.
Though most customers give the taste a thumbs-up, the biggest selling point remains “connecting Jews to their identity,” believes Nathan. “When they can share something they’re truly proud of, it raises their cool factor. I want people to feel seen and represented and to enjoy a familiar feeling of warmth and comfort.”