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

FAQs

What is the traditional Passover meal? ›

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.

Charoset, also known as haroset, is a mixture of fruits and nuts eaten at the Passover Seder. Traditional Charoset is easy to make, and it's one of those fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants recipes, as you adjust as you go! This traditional haroset recipe is naturally gluten-free of course, and is a yummy, sweet condiment.

A brisket is classic, but we've included some other impressive roast meats, like chicken, rack of lamb, and salmon too. Side dishes—like our cranberry apple quinoa salad, our potato kugel, and chicken matzo ball soup—are also represented.

Though not on the Seder plate itself, three pieces of matzo are wrapped in cloth and included on the Seder table. During Passover, Jews are forbidden to eat leavened foods, and instead eat matzo, an unleavened flatbread similar to the unleavened bread eaten during the flight from Egypt.

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.

: a pastelike mixture of apples, nuts, cinnamon, and wine used during the seder meal on the Passover and symbolic of the clay from which the Israelites made bricks during their Egyptian slavery.

However, make sure you bring something that is 'Kosher for Passover,'" advises Schweitzer. "There's a difference between just kosher and kosher for Passover. Make sure to avoid offering any gift with yeast or wheat or any food prepared in dishes or with utensils used for unleavened food.

Recipes to make Passover foods

Matzo Ball Soup. Gefilte Fish. Slow Cooker Brisket.

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.

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).

What is the traditional meat for Passover? ›

Brisket is one of the more popular cuts of meat served on Passover. Not only is it considered Kosher, but it's also incredibly tender and flavorful when made in a slow cooker. For this recipe, you'll want to swap the cornstarch for potato starch, but don't leave out the hearty potatoes, carrots, and celery.