27 of Our Favorite Passover Recipes to Serve at Your Seder (2024)

FAQs

What is a good menu for Passover? ›

The actual Seder meal is also quite variable. Traditions among Ashkenazi Jews generally include gefilte fish (poached fish dumplings), matzo ball soup, brisket or roast chicken, potato kugel (somewhat like a casserole) and tzimmes, a stew of carrots and prunes, sometimes including potatoes or sweet potatoes.

This is the seder plate, and each food is symbolic for an aspect of Passover: A roasted shank bone represents the Pescah sacrifice, an egg represents spring and the circle of life, bitter herbs represent the bitterness of slavery, haroset (an applesauce-like mixture with wine, nuts, apples, etc.)

The Passover seder meal usually begins with a hard-boiled egg dipped in salt water. Then, the rest of the meal features matzah ball soup, brisket, and even matzah lasagna in some communities. Dessert often includes ice cream, cheesecake, or flourless chocolate cakes.

The orange also represents the oppression that LGBTQ+ people still face within the world and the Jewish community. According to Heschel, the seeds of the orange represent hom*ophobia and symbolically spitting them out is a crucial part of the tradition.

The tradition goes back to the 13th century, when custom dictated a prohibition against wheat, barley, oats, rice, rye and spelt, Rabbi Amy Levin said on NPR in 2016.

At a Passover seder, the following traditional items are on the table: Seder plate: The seder plate (there's usually one per table) holds at least six of the ritual items that are talked about during the seder: the shankbone, karpas, chazeret, charoset, maror, and egg.

Whether you spell it matzo or matzah, no Passover meal is complete without the brittle unleavened bread. You'll inevitably have plenty leftover, so use it to make matzo brei, matzo granola, or matzo toffee.

Chazeret (lettuce)

Chazeret is simply used as an additional bitter herb. The Haggadah (the book read during Passover) instructs us to eat matzo with “bitter herbs.” Taking this commandment extremely literally, we add a second source of bitterness – usually romaine lettuce or endive ⁠— to the Seder plate.

Recent research suggests a bean stew, lamb, olives, bitter herbs, a fish sauce, unleavened bread, dates and aromatized wine likely were on the menu at the Last Supper.

This is a festival which remembers the escape of the ancient Israelites from Egypt. Jesus and his disciples were celebrating the Passover meal together. As this was the last meal that Jesus would share with his disciples, he took elements of the Passover meal and made them symbols of his death.

Can you eat rice on Passover? ›

The ban has been in place since the 13th century, but it's always been controversial. In fairly recent history, it's been overturned. According to NPR, in December of 2015 an international group of conservative rabbis made the decision that it's acceptable to eat rice, beans, and corn during Passover.

Potatoes may be the most common ingredient because there are so many varieties, and it is the ubiquitous food when it comes to Passover. No need to use the plain-old white potato; vary your mash.

The Seder plate contains six different foods: matzo, a green vegetable, a lamb shank bone and haroset, which is a mixture of apples and cinnamon, bitter herbs and an egg. Helfand said the foods on the Seder plate are “pieces of the Exodus story.” “In the Seder plate, each food is meant to tell the story.