Food

Eating Kitniyot This Week? 8 Recipes From Top Jewish Food Bloggers

Image by Tori Avey

By Michelle Honig April 10, 2017

Last year, the Conservative movement issued a teshuva, or ruling, that kitniyot — i.e rice, beans and legumes, traditionally avoided by Ashkenazi Jews at Passover — are now permissible. For those who feel liberated by this decision (perhaps feeling that the dictum to avoid chametz is enough of a manacle), you may also be overwhelmed by the sheer number of options that are suddenly at your disposal.

To help, we’ve selected some of the most tempting holiday-friendly kitniyot-based recipes from a few of our favorite Jewish bloggers. (If you won’t be incorporating kitniyot, you can enjoy them post-Passover.)

We should note that some of these recipes come from Orthodox-Ashkenazi bloggers, who do not abide by the Conservative movement’s decision and therefore would never use their recipes in the context that we are presenting them here.

Red Rice And Beet Cakes With Honey Mustard

Image by Tori Avey

One of the truly great things about eating kitniyot on Passover, is that it makes it so much easier to be vegan during the holiday without having to resort to eating pounds of potatoes to avoid the constant stream of chicken and brisket and every other cut of meat imaginable. And these rice and beet cakes from Tori Avey allow you to pretend you’re eating a gourmet burger that’s both vegan and beautiful.

Tzimmes With Tahini Pesto And Pomegranate

Image by Amy Kritzer/ What Jew Wanna Eat

For many people, tzimmes is a Jewish holiday staple. So why not take advantage of your newfound Passover freedom and slather those veggie babies with a tahini pesto (which you will use on top of everything this holiday). What Jew Wanna Eat’s recipe is both beautiful and delicious.

Paella-Inspired Cholent

Image by Melinda Strauss/Joyofkosher.com

One thing that many who keep kitniyot miss is that timeless Shabbat staple: cholent. Some of cholent’s main components are beans and barley, so some resort to making a pale imitation of the stew-like dish for Passover Shabbat, resulting in yapchick (potato kugel with meat). But because you can use beans, why not take cholent to the next level and use arborio rice to make it a paella with this recipe from Joy of Kosher?

Chicken Congee With Soy Sauce Mushrooms

Image by Shushy Turin/Cooking in Heels

Not so into cholent, but want some sort of stew? Look no further than this Chinese congee from Shushy at Cooking In Heels. The sushi rice gets silky smooth and the runny egg yolk melds the whole concoction together into a satisfying meal.

Warming Sweet & Savory Red Lentil Soup

Image by Liz Rueven/ Kosher Like Me

If you’re not so into stews, but do like soups, try this red lentil soup from Liz over at Kosher Like Me. This is the perfect, hearty soup that will warm up your insides on those not-quite-spring chilly Passover nights.

Bukharian Pilaf With Kidney Beans & Carrots

Image by Dahlia Abraham Klein/joyofkosher.com

Bring some color to your meal (and showcase your dedication to eating kitniyot by adding rice AND beans) and make this Bukharian rice pilaf from Joy of Kosher.

Green Coconut Risotto

For a refreshing, apres-seder dairy lunch, you can use some arborio rice kitniyot to make this beautiful Green Coconut Risotto from Food52.

Alex’s Mom’s Stuffed Cabbage

Image by Deb Perelman/SmittenKitchen.com

Hungarian guests will appreciate being served this traditional dish. And although it can often be challenging to make, Smitten Kitchen’s recipe will make you a stuffed cabbage pro.

Michelle Honig is the food intern at the Forward. Find her on Twitter and Instagram.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO