My Family's Apple Harosets Recipe & What Passover Is Really About (2024)

FAQs

What food is served at the Passover? ›

What Do You Eat for Passover Seder Dinner? In addition to the foods included on the Seder plate, Passover typically involves a delicious meal for all to enjoy. The menu may differ depending on family tradition, but some popular choices include brisket, roasted chicken, gefilte fish and potato kugel.

Charoset (pronounced har-o-set) comes from the Hebrew word cheres that means "clay," though it goes by many different names around the world. It is a sweet relish made with fruits, nuts, spices, as well as wine and a binder such as honey.

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.

Matzah. The most iconic of all the Passover foods, matzah is an unleavened cracker-like food that represents the bread the Israelites took with them when they were rushing to leave Egypt. So the story goes, when the Israelites had the opportunity to escape, they didn't even have enough time to allow the bread to rise.

The biblical passover meal involves the commanment to eat Roasted Passover Lamb, Matzoh, and Bitter Herbs alongside an edible mixture to remind us of mortar.

Charoset is one of the symbolic foods on the Passover Seder Plate. After reciting the blessings, and eating first maror dipped in charoset and then a matzah "Hillel sandwich" (with two matzot) combining charoset and maror, people often eat the remainder spread on matzah.

A second bitter item, which is sometimes left off the Seder plate entirely, romaine lettuce symbolizes the fact that the Jewish stay in Egypt began soft and ended hard and bitter (look at the two ends of a piece of lettuce). How it's used: Some families do use the chazeret and the maror interchangeably or together.

During Passover, Ashkenazi Jews traditionally stay away from not only leavened foods like bread, namely barley, oats, rye, spelt, and wheat, but also legumes, rice, seeds, and corn. The ban has been in place since the 13th century, but it's always been controversial.

Ashkenazi Jews, who are of European descent, have historically avoided rice, beans, corn and other foods like lentils and edamame at Passover. 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.

The Torah's Book of Exodus, Chapter 12, offers one description of the instructions for Passover fare: “The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: [Each household] shall eat [lamb] roasted over the fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs” (Jewish Publication Society translation).

Can you eat potatoes on Passover? ›

Potatoes are the answer to that yearly question, "what am I going to cook for Passover?" Instead of focusing on what you can't eat during Passover, enjoy what you can eat, like potatoes.

Because of this, any type of leavened bread or bread product is prohibited during Passover. These leavened products, known as chametz, include certain grain-based foods like breads, pasta, pastries, breadcrumbs, crackers, etc. Unleavened bread, aka “matzo,” traditionally takes the place of chametz during Passover.