A Brief History of Quinoa You’ll probably be shocked to hear that quinoa used to be the poor man’s food. (Whole Foods clearly didn’t get that memo.) When the Spanish invaded South America, they mocked the grain and called it “food for the Indians”. They forbid the cultivation of the grain, and the Incas (who…
Photograph by Michael Bennett Kress Quinoa is the greatest new addition to the Passover pantry. It finally received definitive rabbinic approval for Passover in 2014, after a rabbi was dispatched to Peru and Bolivia to see how quinoa is grown. He learned that quinoa grows at very high altitudes, while the grains that are prohibited…
Photo by Molly Yeh On these days leading up to Tisha B’av — especially in light of the current conflict in the Middle East — thinking about food doesn’t carry the joyous qualities that it typically does. It almost feels trivial. In my kitchen, this is not a time for cakes or colorful foods —…
When Rabbi Shoshan Ghoori of the Orthodox Union first traveled to La Rinconada, Peru, the world’s highest city, the air was so thin that he needed an oxygen tank just to stay conscious. But the lack of air did not deter him from his peculiar mission: deciding whether quinoa should be kosher for Passover. Over…
Your bread may be swept away, the table set and macaroons purchased, but it really isn’t Passover until the aroma of brisket fills the house. On a holiday without freshly baked challah, no other scent compares to the nostalgic smell of slow cooked tender meat atop a bed of vegetables or nestled into a thick…
Rabbi Shoshan Ghoori meets with South American farmers during quinoa fact-finding mission Jews around the world can breathe a sigh of relief: Quinoa is kosher for Passover. The Orthodox Union (OU), the world’s largest kosher certification agency, announced last week that it would begin certifying the popular food for use during the festival of freedom….
On any given day, a wind might blow through the farmlands of South America, pick up an errant grain of barley and deposit it nearby among the vast rows of cultivated quinoa. If that barley manages to make its way into a sifted batch of quinoa, and avoid detection during repackaging, it could wind up…
The date palm is tall and majestic. The olive tree locks oil in its plentiful fruit that anoints kings. The bountiful orange trees were the crown jewels of early Zionism. Yet it is the humble almond tree that grabs our attention when we celebrate the new year of the trees, Tu B’Shvat. According to the…
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