Many people are frustrated at how difficult it is to come up with meals for Pesach and how bland and tasteless Pesach meals can be. Actually, it's not that difficult if you reorient your thinking. It's human nature to focus on the things you can't have, so many people make the mistake of trying to figure out how to make breakfast cereal, waffles, macaroni and cheese and pizza for Passover and wind up with very poor substitutes. Instead of focusing on the things you can't have, you should focus on the things you can have.
So let's focus on some foods you might want to eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner and some fruits and vegetables that are permitted. I will also provide a few substitution suggestions and a few recipes. But before we get started, a few words about finding Passover food in your local grocery store.
| Pesach foods generally require special Kosher-for-Passover certification. Regular kashrut certification is not sufficient for Pesach, and many foods that are perfectly kosher year-round are not kosher for Pesach. Look for a "P" (not the word "pareve"!) to the right of the hekhsher, like the one at top right, or the letters KFP (Kosher for Passover) or KP, or the words Kosher for Passover in English or Hebrew, seen at bottom right. |   |
In areas with a significant Jewish population, grocery stores often gather Passover items together in a single aisle. Be aware that some supermarkets are very sloppy about what they shelve in their Passover aisles. The Acme supermarket near me routinely mixes the Kosher-for-Passover sardines (packed in olive oil) with the year-round sardines (packed in corn oil) on their Passover shelves, routinely restocks the Kosher-For-Passover soda pop display with regular soda pop and so forth. One year, they put some corn-syrup Purim lollipops in the Passover aisle. But then, what do you expect from a chain that once advertised a sale on "Challah: A Passover Tradition"? (the only Passover tradition related to challah is not eating it!)
To help you reorient your thinking, here is a list of things that you CAN eat during Pesach with minimal substitutions:
- Good old-fashioned steak and potatoes
- Beef stew (without beans or barley if you normally use those; use potato starch for thickening)
- Pot roast (use potato starch for thickening)
- Meatballs or meatloaf (use matzah meal instead of rice or bread crumbs)
- Stuffed peppers (use matzah meal instead of rice or bread crumbs)
- Beef brisket (recipe below)
- Holishkes (stuffed cabbage) (recipe on the cooking page)
- Roasted chicken or turkey (gravy can be thickened with potato starch)
- Chicken with lemon wine sauce (use matzah meal for breading if desired)
- Matzah lasagna (OK, so this involves major substitutions, so sue me. I like it. Recipe below.)
- Eggs (fried, scrambled, poached, whatever)
- Omelet
- Hash brown potatoes
- Matzah brie (recipe below)
- Leftovers from the previous night's dinner
- Tuna salad or egg salad on a tomato
- Cold cuts on matzah or Atkins-style
- Salad (homemade vinaigrette dressing is best: mix olive oil with cider vinegar and spices)
Most people will eat any fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables from the grocery store, as long as the vegetable itself is kosher for Passover.*
- Artichoke (but watch out for marinated ones! the marinade may not be KFP!)
- Asparagus
- Broccoli
- Brussels sprouts
- Cabbage
- Carrot
- Cauliflower
- Celery
- Cucumber
- Leek
- Lettuce
- Mushroom
- Onion
- Parsley
- Parsnip
- Peppers (e.g., bell peppers, chili peppers)
- Potatoes (regular and sweet)
- Radish
- Spinach
- Squash (eggplant, zucchini, spaghetti squash, etc.)
- Sweet potatoes
- Tomatoes
- Turnip
- ... and many more too numerous to list!
* Some especially strict people will not eat fresh or frozen vegetables, because the vegetables may have been cut using non-Passover knives, or may have been exposed to chametz in transit. People who observe this level of strictness eat only canned or pre-packaged fruits and vegetables with KFP certification. These are often available in the Passover aisle of the grocery store. On the other hand, some especially strict people will not eat the canned fruits and vegetables, even with KFP certification, because they don't trust the certification! These people will eat only fruits and vegetables with removable skins, such as potatoes, carrots, apples and bananas, and will eat them only after removing the skins.
- All fruits are Kosher for Passover!
As I said above, you should generally avoid substitutions and focus on foods that are naturally kosher for Pesach. That being said, there are a few simple substitutions that can give you more options for your Pesach cooking without compromising flavor.
- Potato Starch
- Potato starch can be used instead of corn starch or flour to thicken sauces, stews or gravies.
- Matzah Meal
- Matzah meal is ground up matzah in pieces about the size of bread crumbs. It is an effective substitute for bread crumbs to make breading for things like fried chicken or eggplant parmesan. In fact, I use it that way year round. It is also an effective substitute for bread crumbs or rice in recipes where they are used to hold ground beef together, such as stuffed peppers, meatloaf or meatball recipes.
- Matzah Farfel
- Matzah farfel is chunks of matzah about the size of a dime. It is a useful substitute for noodles, rice or pasta as a side dish. Serve your main course over matzah farfel and it will soak up the sauces nicely. It can also be used much like croutons on a salad, or can be used as the basis for a Kosher-for-Passover stuffing.
The ingredients specified for these recipes are all available with Kosher-for-Passover certification in the supermarkets near me; your mileage may vary. Make sure the ingredients you use are certified, as many of these things contain grain products when they are not KFP-certified.
There are many different ways to make matzah brie (usually rhymes with "rye," although some pronounce it like the cheese), and I will undoubtedly be branded a heretic for my particular technique, but this is the way I learned to make it and this is the way I like it. This recipe is really just French toast with matzah instead of bread!
Prepare the same kind of soaking batter you would make for French toast: beat a couple of eggs with some milk or water and some cinnamon. Break up some matzah into pieces about the size of your palm (precision is not required) and soak them in the batter until they are a little soggy but not falling apart. Fry them in butter in a frying pan until they are crispy. If you need to use up the last of the egg mixture, you can pour that into the pan with the last of the matzah.
Serve with honey (because it's hard to find syrup that is kosher for Passover -- most syrup these days is corn syrup). It's good hot or cold, so you can put your leftovers in the refrigerator and have them for lunch!
Once again, I will probably be branded a heretic for this simplistic brisket recipe, but it works well for me. I'm not sure of the quantities, because I don't make this very often and I go by feel:
- London broil beef (yeah, I know, it's supposed to be brisket beef, but I prefer the taste and the leanness of London broil)
- A bottle of ketchup (make sure it's Kosher for Passover! Most ketchup uses grain-based vinegar)
- A packet of powdered onion soup mix (Goodmans makes a nice one that is Kosher for Passover)
- Some water
Mix the ketchup and soup mix with enough water to get a smooth consistency (not a soupy one; about the consistency the ketchup originally was). Pour it over the London broil in a roasting pan. Cook at 325 degrees until it's done (depends on the size and shape of the meat). For more tender brisket, you may want to marinate it for a while before cooking.
This is the ultimate expression of a substitution mentality, which is exactly what I tell you to avoid throughout this page... and yet, I really like the way it tastes. It is my Pesach guilty pleasure. Basically, this is a typical lasagna with matzah substituted for the noodles and cottage cheese for the ricotta (because ricotta cheese is usually made with grain vinegar, though it's not called that on the ingredients list -- it's called catalyzer or something goofy like that).
- 2 pieces of matzah
- Tomato or spaghetti sauce (make sure it's kosher for Passover!)
- Cottage cheese
- 1 egg
- Parmesan cheese
- Optional: chopped vegetables, such as chopped broccoli or zucchini
- Mozzarella cheese, shredded
Beat the egg. Mix it with about 8 oz. cottage cheese and the parmesan cheese. If using vegetables, mix those in as well. In an 8x8 inch cake pan (conveniently the same size as a piece of matzah), put down a thin layer of tomato sauce. Put a piece of matzah on top of that. Put a thin layer of tomato sauce on top of the matzah. Spread the cottage cheese mix over the matzah. Put a thin layer of sauce over the cottage cheese mix. Cover with the second piece of matzah. Cover with sauce and shredded mozzarella. Bake at 350 degrees until the mozzarella turns dark brown.
Elsewhere in this site, I have provided recipes for the following dishes which are (or can be made) Kosher for Passover:
- Latkes, potato pancakes traditionally served during Chanukkah. Makes a nice Sunday breakfast.
- Matzah Ball Soup, traditionally served at Pesach seder.
- Holishkes: sweet and sour stuffed cabbage.
