27 of Our Favorite Passover Recipes to Serve at Your Seder (2024)

FAQs

What is the traditional seder meal 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.

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.

For many Jews (including me), Passover, or Pesach, which retells and celebrates the story of the Israelites being freed from slavery in Egypt, is a favorite holiday. At its heart is the seder, an intricate ritual and meal filled with songs, specialized food (don't miss the matzo ball soup!), and Big Springtime Energy.

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.

– Many dairy products, like cheese and yogurt, are acceptable when they are not mixed with additives (like corn syrup). Dairy products cannot be mixed with meat. If you're strictly keeping kosher, always look for a Passover kosher hechsher.

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).

Among those Christians who observe Passover there are some differences in how it is done. Some Christians celebrate Passover as the Jews celebrate it. They roast and eat lamb, bitter herbs, and unleavened matzo.

I love serving asparagus at Passover. It's one of my favorite vegetables, and since I (more or less) only eat it seasonally, Passover tends to fall around the beginning of the season.

At first glance the answer seems obvious: of course it was, notwithstanding the fact that it would have been very different from the seder we know today and would not have been called a "seder" at the time. The Synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—unequivocally assert that the Last Supper was a Passover meal.

As we prepare for Easter, another way you can deepen your experience and grow together in Christian community is by hosting a Christian Passover Seder meal. We encourage you to gather your small group, some friends or neighbors, or your family an invite them to join you for this unique meal.

What does a biblical Passover meal consist of? ›

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).

This is the seder plate, and each food is symbolic for an aspect of Passover: A roasted shank bone represents the Pescah sacrifice, an egg represents spring and the circle of life, bitter herbs represent the bitterness of slavery, haroset (an applesauce-like mixture with wine, nuts, apples, etc.)

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).