Noodles with Poppy Seeds – Czech Nudle s mákem

In the mood for something sweet? Let’s cook Czech-style noodles with poppy seeds; they’re made in a flash with only a few ingredients. Guaranteed success!

➜ What noodles with poppy seed topping

Nudle s mákem is a Czech sweet treat, usually served as a main dish. Cook some wide noodles, sprinkle with a topping consisting of ground poppy seeds and powdered sugar. In the end, pour melted butter over noodles. 

Czech kids love this delicacy, and they ask their grandmas to make nudle s mákem again and again.

This is one of the easy Czechoslovakian recipes, in Slovakia known as “rezance s makom”.

Another very popular Czech poppy sweet treat is Škubánky s mákem.

➜ Ingredients

• Wide noodles; if you don’t have them on hand, use any different kind of pasta. In my opinion, twisted pasta variations are fine for “nudle s mákem,” for example, fusilli or farfalle. They are not smooth but a bit crooked, so the ground poppy seeds don’t slide down but get stuck in their folds.
• Poppy seeds; ground. In Czech, I can easily buy ground poppy seeds in a store. In the USA, if you can get whole poppy seeds only, use a particular mill or a clean coffee grinder to grind poppy seeds. Ground poppy seeds are a must for this dish.
• Sugar; powdered sugar works best and creates a lovely and delicious topping (in Czech posypka) with poppy seeds.
• Butter; unsalted, to pour the noodles.

✅ You will find the exact ingredient amounts in the recipe card below, which you can also print out.

➜ Instructions

Follow these steps and serve your sweet pasta in less than 30 minutes!

STEP 1: Cook the noodles according to the producer’s instructions.

STEP 2: Meantime, mix powdered sugar and ground poppy seeds in a bowl. Let melt butter over lower heat. 

STEP 3: Strain the noodles properly. Try to get rid of most of the liquid from the noodles' surface.

STEP 4: Arrange the noodles in a bowl, sprinkle with poppy seed sugar mixture, and pour melted butter over them.

STEP 5: Serve warm as a separate main dish. 

Noodles with poppy seeds in Czech style are sweet goodness. In our family, we always add a generous amount of poppy seeds and sugar to noodles, much more than it’s often demonstrated in other recipes. 

➜ Cook’s Tips

• Cook the noodles tender to bite only; try not to overcook them. 
• After cooking noodles, strain them but do not rinse because nudle s mákem are eaten warm. 

Czech poppy seed recipes:

• Kohoutí hřebeny – puff pastry with poppy seed filling
• Makovec – coffee cake with lemon icing
• Poppyseed filling – maková náplň
• Poppy seed bundt cake – Czech makova babovka
• Poppy seed horseshoe rolls – Martinské podkovy
• Beleše yeast pancakes – with plum butter (povidla) and sweetened poppy seeds

Or browse the category with Easy Czech recipes for more ideas.