20 Modern Passover Recipes For Your Seder Feast (2024)

The Passover Seder is steeped in tradition, but that doesn't mean your meal has to be completely conventional. Here are 20 modern takes on classic Passover dishes, like Manischewitz-spiked co*cktails and matzo-based chocolate bars. (Don't let the word "modern" scare you; there's still plenty of smoked fish, matzo ball soup, and kugel in the mix.)

When is Passover in 2023?

Passover begins the evening of April 22, 2024, and lasts through the evening of Apr 30, 2024.

What is the traditional meal for Passover?

The traditional meal for Passover includes a mix of symbolic foods. Meat, eggs, fruit and vegetables, herbs, and saltwater all have a place on the Seder plate, though more modern passover meals make some variations on the ingredients included.

What are the 6 foods of Passover?

A lamb’s bone (Zeroah), roasted egg (Beitzah), fruit and nut paste (Haroset), bitter herbs like horseradish (Mar’or), green vegetables (Karpas), and a small bowl of salt water are the 6 main foods of Passover.

What food is forbidden on Passover?

Some traditions celebrate the jewish holiday with restrictions on leavened bread (chometz). Breads made from wheat, oat, spelt, rye or barley are not eaten on Passover.

The Best Foods To Make For Your Passover Meals

20 Modern Passover Recipes For Your Seder Feast (1)

Smoked Salmon Platter

Now that everyone has a drink, get the party started with a show-stopping salmon platter, complete with cukes, tomatoes, red onion, and tons of shmear. Replace the bagels with matzo to hold all those toppings. (via How Sweet Eats)

20 Modern Passover Recipes For Your Seder Feast (2)

Matzo Ball Soup

This Passover classic is traditionally made with chicken. Welcome your vegetarian friends to the table with a meat-free version. (via Foodal)

20 Modern Passover Recipes For Your Seder Feast (3)

Salmon Instant Pot Dinner

If you're hosting a small Passover Seder, use your Instant Pot to create a full meal of steamed fish, potatoes, and veg. (via Brit + Co.)

20 Modern Passover Recipes For Your Seder Feast (4)

Roasted Beef Tenderloin With French Onion Au Jus

Feeling fancier than brisket? This thyme-crusted tenderloin is simpler than it looks but is definitely main-course worthy. Just be sure to omit the butter or replace it with a dairy-free substitute. (via Half Baked Harvest)

20 Modern Passover Recipes For Your Seder Feast (5)

Matzo Schnitzel

With matzo meal and potato starch, crispy breaded chicken free of leavened ingredients can be yours for your Passover crowd to enjoy. (via Jamie Geller)

20 Modern Passover Recipes For Your Seder Feast (6)

Instant-Pot Pot Roast

Embrace the modern-day craze for the Instant Pot (and the Whole30 diet) with this nourishing pot roast, which incorporates more veggies than the traditional version. (via Life Made Sweeter)

20 Modern Passover Recipes For Your Seder Feast (7)

Kofta Kebabs

These kebabs have just six ingredients but are intensely flavorful from cozy cinnamon and aromatic basil. Swap out Passover Panko or matzo meal for the breadcrumbs. These have a tahini dressing, which can be left out depending on if your family consumes kitniyot during Passover or not. (via Jamie Geller)

20 Modern Passover Recipes For Your Seder Feast (8)

Instant Pot Steamed Artichokes

Celebrate the classic fried artichokes of the Roman Jewish Ghetto with this lighter version, which steams in 10 minutes in the Instant Pot. (via Cotter Crunch)

20 Modern Passover Recipes For Your Seder Feast (9)

Beet and Carrot Fritters

Switch up the Passover table's very beige (yet delicious) color scheme with these bright and healthy beet fritters. (via Leite's Culinaria)

20 Modern Passover Recipes For Your Seder Feast (10)

Creamy Vegan Risotto With Asparagus and Quinoa

Quinoa is technically a seed, not a grain, so many people give it the seal of approval on Passover. Use it to concoct this risotto, which gets its creamy texture from a purée of roasted cauliflower, beans, and almond milk. However, if you are avoiding beans, just sub in more cauliflower. (via Well Plated by Erin)

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Matzo Farfel Stuffing

Dates add an unexpected sweetness to this comforting tray of matzo pieces, mushrooms, and aromatic veggies. (via Jamie Geller)

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Roasted Eggplant Salad

Juicy pomegranate seeds can make any dish look festive, as proven by this bed of seasoned roasted eggplant and pine nuts. Dress it in lemon juice, sea salt, and olive oil if you are not consuming kitniyot like tahini sauce. (via Foraged Dish)

Make These Delicious Desserts And Sweets For Passover

20 Modern Passover Recipes For Your Seder Feast (13)

Vanilla Noodle Kugel

Use Passover-friendly (usually matzo-based) egg noodles and wafer cookies for this kugel, which balances the sweet notes of vanilla and sugar with the tangier flavor of sour cream. (via Tori Avey)

20 Modern Passover Recipes For Your Seder Feast (14)

Flourless Chocolate Fudge Cake

Butter, chocolate, eggs, and sugar make a shockingly fudgy cake — no flour necessary. You can always sub in vegan butter if you plan on eating the meal less than two hours after consuming meat. (via Baker by Nature)

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Waffle-Iron Latkes 5 Ways

Modernize the traditional latke by cooking it in a waffle iron and adorning it with updated toppings, like crème fraîche and apple butter or Greek yogurt and pomegranate. (via Brit + Co.)

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Dessert-Wine Poached Pears

A holiday without flour is an opportunity to get creative with fruit. These pears are poached in simple syrup, honey, and dessert wine until warm and tender. Serve them with non-dairy vanilla ice cream for a glorious temperature contrast. (via Drizzle and Dip)

20 Modern Passover Recipes For Your Seder Feast (17)

Passover Apple Cake

Matzo cake meal is the secret ingredient in this nutty, apple-rich, and raisin-studded cake. (via Leite's Culinaria)

20 Modern Passover Recipes For Your Seder Feast (18)

5-Ingredient Magic Matzo Chocolate Bars

Have the kids in the family make these crunchy-chewy chocolate bars. The recipe is a simple matter of layering, sprinkling, and drizzling, so it can't go too awry. (via Half Baked Harvest)

20 Modern Passover Recipes For Your Seder Feast (19)

Passover Chocolate Chip Cookies

As long as you have matzo meal, you don't have to give up chocolate chip cookies during Passover. (via Tori Avey)

20 Modern Passover Recipes For Your Seder Feast (20)

Classic Red Sangria

You could pass around standard glasses of Manischewitz, or you could use the red wine to make a fruity sangria. Since Manischewitz is already so sweet, you don't need to add any sugar to the mix. (via Kitchen Treaty)

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This post has been updated.

Header image via How Sweet Eats

20 Modern Passover Recipes For Your Seder Feast (2024)

FAQs

What is a good menu for Passover? ›

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.

What's on a modern seder plate? ›

7 Modern Additions to the Seder Plate
  • An Orange for LGBTQ+ Equality. ...
  • Miriam's Cup to Honor Women. ...
  • A Potato for Ethiopian Jewry. ...
  • Fair Trade Chocolate or Cocoa Beans for Labor Issues. ...
  • A Banana for Refugees. ...
  • Cashews for the Troops. ...
  • An Acorn for Indigenous Land.

What is the order of food for the Passover Seder? ›

The Passover seder meal usually begins with a hard-boiled egg dipped in salt water. Then, the rest of the meal features matzah ball soup, brisket, and even matzah lasagna in some communities. Dessert often includes ice cream, cheesecake, or flourless chocolate cakes.

What are the five forbidden foods on 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.

What not to eat at Passover? ›

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.

What was the Seder meal with Jesus? ›

This is a festival which remembers the escape of the ancient Israelites from Egypt. Jesus and his disciples were celebrating the Passover meal together. As this was the last meal that Jesus would share with his disciples, he took elements of the Passover meal and made them symbols of his death.

What are the six symbolic foods of Passover? ›

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.

Why is an orange on the Seder plate? ›

Susannah Heschel was lecturing in Miami, and, while she was speaking of feminism, an Orthodox man supposedly shouted that “a woman belongs on the bimah [pulpit] as much as an orange belongs on the seder plate.” And so, as feminists, we all added the orange as an act of resistance; a symbol of women's rights.

What does the Strawberry mean on the Seder plate? ›

It helps us remember that although our ancestors were delivered from Egypt, we are all still enslaved in our own personal Egypt.</li>\n\t<li><u><strong>Karpas- Strawberries</strong></u> Symbolizes new growth and rebirth of the world</li>\n\t<li><strong><u>Charoset- Marshmallow Mixture</u></strong> A representation of ...

What can I use instead of a shank bone? ›

The updated way: Although the shank bone isn't actually eaten, it doesn't have a place at the modern, vegan table. Instead, substitute a roasted beet (whole or cut up).

What is the bitter herb for Passover? ›

The Mishnah specifies five types of bitter herbs eaten on the night of Passover: ḥazzeret (lettuce), ʿuleshīn (endive/chicory), temakha, ḥarḥavina (possibly melilot, or Eryngium creticum), and maror (likely Sonchus oleraceus, sowthistle).

What is a typical Passover dinner menu? ›

Traditional dishes include kugel (a casserole recipe made with potatoes), tzimmes (a roasted vegetable dish made with dried fruits), and Passover desserts like macaroons (a coconut cookie made without any flour).

What do you eat the first night of Passover? ›

Thus, Seder participants recall the slavery that reigned during the first half of the night by eating matzah (the "poor person's bread"), maror (bitter herbs which symbolize the bitterness of slavery), and charoset (a sweet paste, possibly representing the mortar which the Jewish slaves used to cement bricks).

How do you plan a Seder meal? ›

First Seder Meal:
  1. To Start: Chicken Soup, with or without matzah balls.
  2. Main: Kibbeh with Beef or Lamb (cooked in a skillet)
  3. Vegetables: Moroccan Carrots, Smashed Potatoes, Steamed Broccoli.
  4. Dessert: Chocolate Dipped Strawberries or Chocolate Dipped Bacon.

What foods are appropriate for Passover? ›

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.

What to give someone for a Passover? ›

  • La Chatelaine Hand Cream Trio Tin Gift Set. Amazon. ...
  • Taja Collection Passover Candle. Taja Collection. ...
  • The Jewish Cookbook by Leah Koenig. Amazon. ...
  • A&S Mezuzot Quartz Mezuzah Case. Amazon. ...
  • MacKenzie-Childs Frog Salt & Pepper Set. MacKenzie-Childs. ...
  • Michael Aram Matzah Plate. ...
  • 'Dayenu' Acrylic Earrings. ...
  • Brightland The Luminous Capsule.
Apr 11, 2024

What are the six Passover foods? ›

There are at least five foods that go on the seder plate: shank bone (zeroa), egg (beitzah), bitter herbs (maror), vegetable (karpas) and a sweet paste called haroset. Many seder plates also have room for a sixth, hazeret (another form of the bitter herbs).

What was on the menu for the Passover in the Bible? ›

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).

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