How to Make and Decorate Traditional Koliva

In this video, we’re going to take the mystery out of making and decorating koliva. We’ll be breaking down the recipe and decoration into simple steps to give you the confidence to bring this beautiful Orthodox tradition into your own homes and families 🙂

There’s even a two-minute decorating design included that absolutely everyone can do!

Traditional Koliva Recipe
For ALL SOULS SATURDAY
Use cereal-sized decorative bowl to plate

Ingredients
• 1 cups dried wheat berries https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09GPW4YWZ?starsLeft=1&ref_=cm_sw_r_cso_sms_apin_dp_CAFK59KNFT640E2TTFQ0
• 6 cups water
• 2 cup crushed graham crackers
• 1⁄2 cup toasted sesame seeds
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1⁄3 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 cup pomegranate seeds available year round at Trader Joe’s
• 1/2 cup golden raisins
2 cups powdered sugar

***For funeral or memorial serve, see ingredients amounts below

Decorative options – MUST BE EDIBLE
(these are in addition to the amounts above if you also are using to decorate with)
• whole, blanched almonds
• candy covered Jordan almonds
golden raisins
Parsley stems and leaves
Slivered almonds – use natural or, to dye, add few drops of liquid food coloring and add slivered almonds, soak until desired color and dry well at least 8-10 hours.
• pomegranate seeds
• cinnamon sugar – equal parts cinnamon and granulated sugar
dusting powder colors – mix 1 part dust to 4 parts granulated sugar
Sanding sugars https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B51G5N1G?starsLeft=1&ref_=cm_sw_r_cso_sms_apin_dp_GDJ7KBZJ3JPF9SN5W0PD
Gold/silver dragees assorted

***Deco packs for 2 minute koliva dish shown in video https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LTX66KF?starsLeft=1&ref_=cm_sw_r_cso_sms_apin_dp_JSV91P84ZGNERXQ4VF6Z

Make ahead option:
You can go as far as mixing all the ingredients into the cooked wheat and keep in a Ziploc back in the refrigerator for up to 3 days ahead. Allow time for wheat mixture to come to room temperature before using.

Instructions
Rinse wheat berries and add to large pot with 6 cups cold water. Bring to a boil, lower to a simmer and cook for about an hour until soft but not mushy. Grains of wheat will begin to plump and almost split.
*Add a cinnamon stick , the peel of 1 orange or 1 tsp anise seeds to the boiling water for extra flavor.
Drain cooked wheat well and transfer to a double-layer paper towel lined sheet pan. Spread wheat out in a single layer. Allow at least 6 hours to dry completely, preferably overnight. Gently move the wheat around as it dries. You can do this up to 3 days ahead and store, covered in the refrigerator.

Prep Mix-In Ingredients
• Crush graham crackers finely in food processor or by hand. Set aside.
• Lightly toast sesame seeds in frying pan over VERY low heat for max 3-4 minutes until the seeds just begin to release their sesame aroma. Set aside.
• IF YOU HAVE A WHOLE POMEGRANATE: Cut and de-seed pomegranate and set aside on paper towel to dry. USING SEEDS: dry well on paper towel.
• Chop fresh parsley well and set aside. Make sure to rinse parsley well and
pat dry before chopping.
• Chop walnuts into small pieces and set aside.
Break up golden raisins/sultanas, soak in boiling water for 15 min, set aside.

Once wheat is completely dry, transfer from towel/sheet to large bowl.
It should feel soft but not tacky or sticky.
Combine wheat with other ingredients – except the powdered sugar.
AND REMEMBER to reserve 1/2 cup crushed graham crackers.
Mix gently and well to incorporate everything completely.
Transfer wheat mixture to bowl or platter of your choice and gently pat down. Cover with remaining 1 cup of crushed graham crackers and pat down gently and well. The back of a large spoon does this job perfectly. Once the crushed graham crackers have covered the wheat mixture completely – it may take 2-3 light layers – and the wheat mixture is no longer visible, carefully sift powdered sugar over the crushed graham crackers. Pat down and smooth using back of large spoon over piece of parchment or wax paper.

Decorate as desired.
MAKE SURE ALL DECORATIONS ARE EDIBLE
A ceramic stylus is good for making divets and trenches to place dragees and sanding sugars.
Stencils work well, filled in with sanding sugar, small dragees or pom seeds.

BE VERY CAREFUL transporting the koliva to church!
Consider decorating your koliva at church if you are going to make an intricate design – this is a great option and much less stressful!

Funeral or Memorials Sized Koliva
Ingredients
Ingredients
• 2 cups dried wheat berries
• 10 cups water
• 3 cup crushed graham crackers
• 1 cup toasted sesame seeds
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 2/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 cup pomegranate seeds (approx 1 ripe pomegranate)
• 1 cup golden raisins
4 cups powdered sugar

This is Kiki from the Greek vegan and today we’ll be making and decorating Kiva Kiva as most of you know is a dish that Orthodox Christians make in memory of our loved ones who’ve reposed it’s traditionally made and brought to church for funerals Memorial services and All

Souls days you may have thought about making ker yourself for your loved one who’s passed away but felt a little daunted by the idea and that’s completely understandable it’s not something we make every day and you can usually pay a Greek bakery or caterer to make it for you and that’s totally fine

That said it’s such a special blessing to make it for your loved ones yourself and that’s why in this video we’re going to break down the recipe and decoration into simple steps to give you the confidence to bring this beautiful Orthodox tradition into your own homes and families there’s even a two-minute

Decorating design included that absolutely everyone can do all of the ingredients and the complete recipe are written out in the description box below so no need to take notes I’ll also add links to where you can order wheat berries if they’re not at your natural food store and I’ll also link all the

Decorative elements and tools that we use here today so you’ll have quick access to everything you need you can actually find a lot of these things in the cake decorating sections of your favorite um craft stor like Hobby Lobby or Michaels as well so that’s always an

Option now Kiva is made in orthodox communities around the world you’ll notice that the ingredients and decorative Styles may vary slightly depending on what foods are native to each country the main and pretty much Universal ingredient ingredient in all Kiva sorry about that is wheat wheat symbolizes for us as Orthodox Christians

Our belief in the Resurrection The dried seeds go into the Earth and they come out again as new life other po ingredients are sweet and bitter reminding us of the sweetness and bitterness of life and the decorations are to remind us of the beauty of eternal life so the first step is to

Boil your wheat berries um these are just dried wheat berries right here and here are the boiled wheat berries you can see how much they puff up we boil the dried wheat berries for about an hour you can add a cinnamon stick or orange peel to the water if

You’d like it’s always nice once the wheat is cooked and you can see here it will really plump up significantly it’s slightly chewy and has a Nutty taste you drain out the cooked wheat and in a large mes drainer I like and then you

Stir it a few times to let the steam out my grandmother aunts and mom used to use a large cotton sheet laid over the kitchen table to dry the wheat on and when I have dedicated space I can do that but in my small kitchen though most

Times I just take a large sheet pan with a double layer of paper towel and transfer it onto that dry it out in a single layer for a good six hours of drying time if not overnight make sure that you stir it a few times so that the

Air gets to all the wheat berries it should be squishy and soft but not sticky or tacky that’s our goal I’ll add um a lot of uh I’ll usually make a large batch and at one time and then what I do is I um freeze half of it in a quality

Freezer bag and it just takes a couple hours to thought it’s a real time saer when you’re in a pinch um next we simply mix all the ingredients together the wheat of course um the golden raisins that I that I have soaked that’s plumped up beautifully that’s a plump eat the rest

Of those chopped water walnuts makes a nice crunch pomegranate seeds which I absolutely love they’re sweet and juicy and parsley it’s always nice that’s our herb for today some people use mint I like parsley um I add a smidge of cinnamon I didn’t boil them today in with a cinnamon stick so that’s

Why I’m going to add it now it’s up to you I often add white sesame seeds I don’t have any on hand and today I’m actually going to add about half a cup of uh crushed graham crackers and I’ll explain to you why later on and the importance of making sure that this

Mixture is as dry as possible now just going to gently mix this all together when you are making your Kiva um you try to be as quiet and undistracted in state of mind is possible I often try to work on it late at night when everyone’s asleep and I

Also um I try to either say some prayers or to have an act that this playing in the background that kind of thing um just to keep your your distractions and keep your focus on what you’re doing now um just a little bit about the moisture in the C but it’s very

Important to the decorating stage and I’ll explain further in just a minute but at this point you can cover and refrigerate your wheat mixture for up to 3 days just leave it out of the refrigerator for about 2 hours or until it comes to room temperature before you

Plate at this point you can split the next steps up into two parts or go all at once depending on when you have to have the Kiva at church it’s best or safest let’s say to decorate your COA the morning of the day you’ll bring it

To church and this may mean a very early rise and shine to get prepped for a tiny bit less early rise you can plate and add your first layer as we will now um and leave the powdered sugar layer and decorating until morning this is normally what I do your actual plating

At this point will depend on whether you are making your civa for a funeral memorial service or All Souls day for a funeral or memorial service I like to use a large flat platter this is part of a set of serving pieces my sister gave me from Tiffany’s on our wedding day

Which I absolutely love my one recommendation for large platter options is that it be sturdy I saw a large Kiva a lovely Kiva come church one day it was the saddest thing the beautiful top design had been cracked um the the plate the tray was too flexible and it flexed

And it cracked for All Souls days on Memorial small memorial Services I like to use small serial sized bowls um like this red one here and this glass footed one I like these two in particular um they’re just the perfect size our parishes ask for smaller this size bowls

On those days because so many C us do come to church as you can see I’ve already laid down a gram cracker uh layer here on this one and you can see that it’s very smooth on top there are no there’s no green parsley popping out there’s no

Golden raisins or pomegranates so and that used about two tablespoons of crumbs to cover I’ll demonstrate today on the large platter um oh also you can use a large sheet pan as um as a as an option for a large just cover it with doilies over the sides and the bottom

And it really works well um I also thought of this I will at the end of this video post some photos of really beautiful kivas and hopefully there’ll be some inspiration there are some from gree that are absolutely gorgeous and I think they’ll really inspire you so

Right now let’s pour out um our COA mixture into this plate we want it to be not completely flat slightly mounded not too mounded because of course course then our Coba decorations will fly around we don’t want that so just put that over here spread this out

And depending on the size of the number of people that you’re going to be feeding can make this much larger that’s why I like this plate it’s pretty versatile um you’re only going to really be giving out a couple spoonfuls of this to each person so keep that in mind when you’re

Um when you’re making your C when you’re deciding how much to make now what I like to do is go along the edges with the spoon and just kind of Mound it up slightly that’s all you need to do nothing more than that and as we add the layers of

Crackers and then the powdered sugar this of course will rise so you do want to make sure that there’s a little space at the top for your for your decorations for your decorative layer now I do take the back of a spoon a large spoon and I gently smooth over the

Surface I just want to make sure that all these guys are kind of in a level layer and I have a working surface that I can go with now I’m going to add my gram crackers um I chose actually here to use um something that that my

Mom’s mom and uh my mom’s mom actually was the one who who used it most um she used zuback cookies and she ground those up at paximadia I haven’t seen them in stores in ages but my dad loved them and I decided that actually found that these

Gram crackers from Trader Joe are almost identical so that’s what we’re using today you can use um more traditional um first layers like toasted breadcrumbs or toasted almond flour but that’s not the way I’m going to go today so I’m just going to take a few

Just going to sprinkle this over the top to lightly layer what I need to do here it doesn’t take a ton but you do want to make sure that everything’s covered you want to make sure all your colors are covered and all your big knobby bits are covered

As well go right up to the edge we doing here and this will take a couple couple passes be patient it’s not not terly te now I like to go over the first one just gently smooth everything down before I add the second layer and just slightly Tamp it down go along the

Edges to keep your edge up little bit of a crunch you can see that things are still looking kind of a little funky as you can see with this one really nicely smooth squeeze a little bit more again just sprinkle your layer you can see a which need

More more coverage and areas which we’ve got pretty well covered already so of this don’t be too heavy-handed um with your crumbs because you know you don’t that’s not the only flavor you want to have the only texture you want to have so and this just going to smooth this

Down so you can see I’ve got a few ra raisins that want to poke through those especially because they’re moist need to be kept in check so I’m going to put a couple more spoons on here and I’ll come right back so we have our moisture barrier

Down of the gram cracker comes I again would recommend you do this part on the morning of the day you bring your cl to church oh and a reminder you’re going to have to transport this Civ to church um unless you can do it there so remember

That it’s going to have to survive a car ride and that can be problematic so what we’re going to do I already have here one layer of powdered sugar down and I tamped it down with my a parchment paper and back of a spoon I’m going to put

Another layer down again this can get not super messy but it’s not the um it’s messy anyway this is that’s what I’m doing on the large one to show you so you just try to give as even a layer as possible I like to use a small mesh

Wire s and then I can see I’m sorry you can’t see from this angle but there are some areas like right along the edges where I want to like deposit an actual focused drop of powdered sugar I feel like a a a drone a strike drone or something and that way I

Can get these pieces little more over the top under control now I’m going to go back to smoothing so I take my big spoon piece of parchment paper I cut a bunch of squares and just Us in that way and I start usually up a right hand

Corner and I try to go to the edges if you can see just slowly gently nothing crazy it takes a little bit of time but the finished product is very worth it some people leave it just as is they don’t smooth over their powdered sugar and that’s fine as well it’s up to

You um I happen to like this look a little bit better takes a little more time but I will I’m actually going to show you in a second a super quick literally 2-minute decoration that anybody can do and it’s it’s just fun I happen to think it’s a lot of fun um

Someone actually remarked me that they at a memorial service where I did a similar design that they actually wanted that clo at their memorial service someday because it was such a happy design so now try to get your edges down with the side of your spoon this is

Pretty well done tell you the truth I’m going to pop these just a rogue Berry here and there I’m just going to just going to pull out super easy um right now what I’m going to do is I’m going to take I have certain tools that

I use um but this one is my mostly for decorating this is actually for cleanup and it’s just a you can use a pastry brush but I found that they can be a little waxy the bristles this is simply a paint brush it’s a cheap paint brush

That I think I got at Home Depot or Lowe’s this is a text C plate which is kind of a little bit annoying but to get the powdered sugar out of but you just want to clean up your edges this is not have to be exact it’s not anything that

Has to be completely perfect once you do push that down into your edges you can go along your edges again with your spoon and clean them up a bit now normally most clas have decoration along the edge so it’s not they don’t have to be perfectly clean which is a nice

Um I’m just Edge these out slightly I put one more L over the top I just think it’s a little bit tiny bit dark not dark but just would like a smidge more and again just like with your gram cracker crust you don’t want to load it down you don’t want this to

Be you know 2 lounds of Wheat and 12 pounds of sugar that’s not going to be what we need so just lightly again over the surface glue it out make it look pretty and your design is going to sit right on top of this now one second when I finish this up I’m

Going to show you the two-minute design and then we’ll go back to this for the larger design techniques show you my tools that I use and I’ve collected over the years this is pretty good I think I’m happy with this right now I wish I had an overhead

Shot for you to see but I am pretty happy with this I’ll come back at the very end after the Design’s done and I will go back to that now I’m actually going to switch to this one to show you the two-minute design I promised earlier

In the video this is just um layer of powdered sugar on top of the moisture barrier of the cracker crumbs I’m going to do a quick clean up with this and the bowl is beautiful but it is annoying that it you know the the dust Falls all over the place

So where’s my oh here it is remember I put it so I take a bag these come all kinds of funny little decorations in one bag they’re all color coordinated and I’m going to use four jordan almonds because as I’m going to explain in a second every C of

A design must have a cross in the center but it can be the simplest of crosses just like this it’s going to be for um Jordan alins so open this up so you see I’ve smoothed that down pretty well it’s certainly not perfect but do it I’m just going to I’m not

Going to say dump we’re going to sprinkle these all over we’re going to cover the top and it really is so so pretty this this um combination happens to have small white PS like gu and what I’m do is I’m going to put that in the very center I’m

Going to push it down you can see and I’m sorry I’m hoping you can see this a little bit so that the white beads in the very center what I’m going to do is I’m going to put my jordan almonds around the sides these are not my best almonds

Either I just grabb them real quick because I wanted to show you this design and I’ll leave a photo of it at the end but it literally takes one second and it’s so pretty and anyone would love to have that in their memory or I would certainly so oops it

Daisy I should use my tweezers and I’ll show you my tweezers in a second because they are awesome for this kind of thing I’m just doing freehand not my best but get the general idea you can do it much better so let me just show you here one second without it

All tipping but you can this is it took me two seconds you can see that so if you ever want to do something fun you feel like you have no artistic talent it’s beautiful no one will ever know I would just take um a damp paper towel

And go around the edges I’m not going to do the whole dish right now but you can see it cleans up very easily so you just want to make it look nice so you can set it out and again this is our two-minute C up so um

After getting your surface you need to look at your tools and for tools I most often use um hold on one second I most often use I’m sorry a little confused um I have like the paintbrush that I showed you I have a set of those

A couple of those and I have some clay style I use my clay sty is quite a bit I have a few different sizes and they can make bbbots um or trenches in the sugar so that laying down decorative elements is easier and it’s more stable to do not

Like what I was just doing right now now I’ve also made a few stencils because I’m not a freehand person um I used them on heavy card stock the toothpicks are great to hold the stencils in place and you can fill um what I do is I fill my

Stencils in with um sanding sugar and it can make lovely designs like that I’ve also filled in stencils with um pomegranate seeds as well so here are some of my stencils and I use this oops I use this one an awful lot very simple these are for smaller ones um again just very

Simple this one I actually want to cut out soon I want to try this one I haven’t I I did print it and I want to try it um again I use the toothpicks to hold them down I have little holes poked in in each side and lay it on the surface

Of my clothing I just want to show you with these the clay stylists like I said I have multiple um sizes they’re very easy to just lightly I’ll show you in a second push into the sugar and leave room for your decorating they’re wonderful tools so um as I mentioned earlier the Cake

And Candy aisles of your local craft store are full of fun things to use um in decorating I’m going to share a few of my favorites here there are just so many options let me put so let’s get to decorating slivered almonds the raw colored here are very traditional as

Well as our whole almonds I actually love to dye my almonds I use Liquid food coloring not the gel a few drops in a bowl of water and you can soak them for longer for more vibrant color the trick is they have to be done about a day

Ahead because they must have time to dry you lay them out in a single layer on a paper towel line pan or plate and move them around a little bit just so that they’re fully dry before you use them you don’t want the color coming off on

Your clo that just is not a good plan um of course the silver and gold Dres however you pronounce them there’s so many um different sizes and shapes the colors are lovely they always add so much paza um I love sanding sugars they’re actually perfect to fill in a stencil

Which I did here and um fresh pomegranates are lovely too if you wanted to go with a more natural design you can do the uh natural silvered almonds you can use the pomegranates and I use parsley stems and leaves I went with this more traditional design from my mother-in-law’s funeral um Kiva a

Couple of years ago she was taured a none before she died and just felt more appropriate for some reason to go with those more traditional elements um of course white jordan almonds are always in the mix so I wanted to show you just some of the design elements here in this

Large CL which I just did in the last few minutes um I used the stencil that I showed you earlier with some of the draes and the sanding sugar I used the dyed slivered almonds in the corners and they just have some Dr elements with

Them and I just threw a few of the pomegranates on the top with the gold balls to just accent it but this your designs are absolutely Limitless I just did this in in a few minutes and again I just want to remind you about the um the

Literally two minute coliva that we did earlier so your your imagination is your limit of course you want it to be appri for church you want it to be appropriate for um a a somber but yet joyous occasion a Bittersweet occasion is what warthox Christians consider these kind

Of things bitter because we miss the person’s sweet because we know we hope and pray that they’ve gone on to a better place all col designs should include a cross in the center um you can use the four almonds like that one you can use the stenciled cross all kinds of

Different things I asked a friend to make a civa um my friend reposed a few years ago and his ancestry is Irish his wife did not know the tradition of Kiva so what I did was to honor him I made a shamrock in the center a giant Shamrock

C stencil that I filled in with green sanding sugar um and and it represents the cross St Patrick used it to teach with so if I have a picture of that I’m going to add it at the end also now traditionally most CA designs include the initials of the reposed at the at

The funeral not usually at Memorial Services afterwards and certainly not that I’ve ever seen at um also Saturdays but definitely at funerals um I did this on my dad’s most recently I did this my mother-in-laws as well a couple others so I’m try to include photos of those so

You can see what that means um it is also traditional to place a candle in the center of your civa I it really makes me feel like someone stabbed my design and and I so I’ve created a workaround for myself and so what I do is um I will normally bring if

It’s if it’s for a funeral or or a large memorial service where I do a large platter I will bring a Candlestick um a candle holder and I just place it nearby normally at these occasions you know there are there is space for that um on

All Souls day I don’t mind you know just put it right in there’s so many bowls there’s just nowhere for that to be uh to place the candle so I just had to tell you a quick story at my father’s funeral he he reposed almost six weeks

Ago we’re going to have his um 40-day Memorial on All Souls this Saturday I brought his Kiva and I left it at the front of the church I went back to get my candle holder and a very well-meaning guest thought I had forgotten and just

Put a candle right in the center of it it drove me crazy for all of two minutes and then I realized you know not a big deal in in the scope of the day so I will include a picture of that as actually may use that as as my thumbnail

You can see the rose hedge in the background so I want you to take these these tips and tricks and examples and really be confident that you can do this remember the people that you love remember the things about them and the things that make you smile when

You remember them and try and remember while you’re making your civa to sa the prayer for the reposed um and that’s just simply with the Saints Grant rest o Christ to The Souls of thy servants where there is neither pain nor sorrow nor sign but life unending you can

Certainly add your loved ones names in there so for right now see you next time on the Greek vegan thank you all for watching I know it was a lot of info see you next Time get the s Me chisto