88 | SEPTEMBER 26 • 2024 
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ave you ever craved a bowl of hot matzah 
ball soup, but had to go without because 
you weren’t able to make it from scratch 
or journey to a deli? Those days are over, thanks 
to newly available NOOISH instant matzah ball 
soup. The product is packaged in a single-serving 
cup, and after adding water and microwaving for 
two minutes, it provides a delicious, piping hot 
and elevated bowl of matzah ball soup, including 
fluffy matzah balls in a rich broth. 
NOOISH is vegetarian and certified kosher by 
the Chicago Rabbinical Council and is available 
to order in time for the High Holidays to send 
as a hug-in-a-cup or to be prepared en masse for 
holiday meals.
The instant matzah ball soup is the first prod-
uct from the NOOISH brand of modern Jewish 
comfort food. Sarah Nathan, 37, originally from 
Orange County, California, and currently based 
in Chicago, launched the brand to address a need 
that wasn’t being met: “All the time I hear people 
say, I love matzah ball soup, I hate making it, or 
I don’t know how to make it, and I would eat it 
more often if it was more easy and accessible.”
Sarah has almost a decade of diverse experi-
ence in the consumer-packaged goods industry 
in start-up, corporate and retail roles, and has 
worked as a consultant, using her expertise to 
guide new founders in the industry. She has 
also worked as the culinary coordinator at the 
B’teavon Jewish food retreat and as one of the 
producers of the Great Big Jewish Food Fest, a 
10-day virtual festival showcasing the diversity 
of the Jewish community that took place in May 
2020 at the beginning of the pandemic and was 

streamed to 25,000 people. 
The idea for the brand came to Sarah after the 
Great Big Jewish Food Fest. “So many people 
wrote to us and said, ‘I have never felt so con-
nected to my culture, but how can I continue to 
do this? This programming is making me excited 
about who I am in a way that I normally don’t 
connect with.’”
Sarah was motivated to replicate the food fest 
experience in a product and was inspired by 
brands that were elevating other cultures’ foods. It 
took almost two years to think of the right prod-
uct that could reach beyond the kosher aisle. 
She identified key criteria: not-holiday-specific, 
non-perishable, long shelf life, lightweight. It had 
to be something that most people, whether they’re 
Jewish or not, have already heard of, maybe have 
tried. That led her to the idea of making matzah 
ball soup into an instant soup cup. 
The product fits with current trends in elevat-
ed, intentionally made grab-and-go food with 
global flavors. After landing on instant matzah 
ball soup as a product, it took another year and a 
half to develop a process to make it shelf-stable, 
which had not been done before. Sarah was ener-
gized by this opportunity for innovation. “How 
often do you get to invent something?” she said.
NOOISH enables matzah-ball-soup lovers to 
obtain kosher, shelf-stable matzah ball soup for 

themselves or to share with their loved ones. 
While people have previously sent matzah ball 
soup using websites like spoonfulcomfort.com 
or goldbelly.com, or through delis like Zabar’s 
or Zingerman’s, these options typically send two 
quarts of frozen soup, which either need to be 
eaten right away or frozen and tend to be very 
expensive. 
In contrast, NOOISH is available in a shelf-sta-
ble six-pack, which, including shipping, will cost 
a third of the price of these alternatives, and 
recipients can eat one and save the rest in their 
pantry for when they want them later. In partic-
ular, NOOISH provides a great opportunity to 
support college students on campus who are away 
from home, and Sarah hopes to partner with 
Hillels to bring matzah ball soup to students who 
are sick or otherwise in need of comfort.
In the next year, Sarah hopes to build the 
community and the brand and has ideas for new 
products and collaborations cultivating Jewish 
joy. “I really want to show 15 million Jews 15 mil-
lion ways to be Jewish. This is a way to bring an 
exciting, inclusive brand out into the world.” 

NOOISH is currently available as a six-pack of single-serving 

cups, with more options to come. Learn more about NOOISH 

at www.nooish.co and follow NOOISH on Instagram at @

nooishfoods.

FOOD

NOOISH serves up matzah ball soup in an instant. 
NOOISH serves up matzah ball soup in an instant. 

Ready-to-Roll 
Instant Bowl 

JOELLE ABRAMOWITZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Sarah 
Nathan

