Judaism 101
Judaism 101
Level: Basic
Many people are frustrated at how difficult it is to come up with meals for Pesach and how bland and tasteless Pesach meals can be. Actually, it's not that difficult if you reorient your thinking. It's human nature to focus on the things you CAN'T have, so many people make the mistake of trying to figure out how to make breakfast cereal, waffles, macaroni and cheese and pizza for Passover and wind up with very poor substitutes. Instead of focusing on the things you can't have, you should focus on the things you CAN have!
The tricky part is, many people today are used to just heating up or quickly preparing store-bought frozen or otherwise prepared meals. That sort of thing is not going to be available for Passover for the most part; you're probably going to have to do some cooking from scratch. But a lot of people learned to do that during the COVID pandemic, cooking from scratch for two years, and discovered that it was a lot of fun! You can certainly handle this for the eight days of Passover. You don't have to become a gourmet chef; there are plenty of simple meals you can prepare, just like your bubbe did, that would be appropriate for Passover.
So let's focus on what you CAN eat, and some foods you might want to eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner. I will also provide a few substitution suggestions and a few recipes. Your practices may not be as strict as what I describe below (there are plenty of people who observe Passover by skipping toast with their bacon, eggs and cereal; I don't judge), but if I can make this work, maybe you can make this work! Or at least you can get some ideas of what you might want to do.
Prepared foods require special Kosher-for-Passover Certification to make sure there aren't any hidden ingredients that aren't allowed for Passover. But if you're cooking from scratch, there are plenty of ingredients you can find in any grocery store that are kosher for Passover without any special supervision!
Some especially strict people will not agree with many of the suggestions below, because the ingredients may have been cut using non-Passover knives, or may have been exposed to chametz in transit, etc. People who observe this level of strictness may eat only foods with KFP certification. These are often available in the Passover aisle of the grocery store. On the other hand, some especially strict people will not eat the canned foods, even with KFP certification, because they don't trust the certification! These people may require fruits and vegetables to have removable skins, such as potatoes, carrots, apples and bananas, and will eat them only after removing the skins. This is an uncommon level of strictness. My discussion below is based on Orthodox sources.
All fruits are Kosher for Passover! Whole, fresh fruits from the produce section or frozen fruits without any sweeteners or additives are just fine for Passover. This includes most fruits we think of as vegetables, such as tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, eggplant and avocados. It does not include canned or prepared things, like fruit salad or tomato sauce, because they might have syrups or marinades or other not-for-Passover ingredients. Those would require kosher-for-Passover certification. But in many cases you can prepare those things with store-bought ingredients.
Frozen concentrate orange juice is allowed without any special certification if it doesn't have any other ingredients in it (sweeteners, flavorings, who knows where they came from?). And the juices from RealLemon and RealLime do not require certification.
The only fruits that are not allowed (if they count as fruit at all) are legumes (which includes peas, beans and any sprouts from these things), corn, rice and peanuts. These are kitniyot, forbidden by ancient Ashkenazic tradition but commonly eaten during Passover in Sephardic communities. The Reform movement abandoned the kitniyot rule centuries ago, Ashkenazim in Israel abandoned it in 1989 and the Conservative movement in America abandoned it in 2015. Nevertheless, this rule is still strictly followed by the Orthodox and many non-Orthodox American Jews just think it would be weird to eat these things on Passover. Even for those who accept kitniyot, we're still talking about whole, fresh, unprocessed ingredients, not a fresh jar of Skippy.
Dried fruits are more of a problem because who knows what was used in the drying process and what was used to glaze them after drying. They would require certification.
Most people will eat any fresh or frozen vegetables from the grocery store, as long as the vegetable itself is kosher for Passover. Grains, of course, are not kosher for Passover, and traditionally many other similar ingredients were excluded by the rule of kitniyot, such as legumes, corn, rice and peanuts (discussed in more detail above under Fruits), but a wide variety of commonly used vegetables in your produce section are perfectly acceptable for Passover.
Traditional sources say that fresh or frozen raw meat, poultry or fish in original packaging do not require special Passover certification. This refers to whole cuts, not ground meats. But of course, these sources are talking about KOSHER meat, poultry and fish, and I know many of my readers are not that strict. If you are not so strictly kosher about your meat, Passover is a good time to introduce yourself to Empire Chicken! Or just make sure that what you're getting is plain meat, poultry or fish and nothing else.
Canned fish is a bit more of a problem. The processes involved in canning the fish can introduce chametz, and the oils that the fish are canned with may be kitniyot. But I gather that a lot of national brands of canned tuna, salmon, etc. have kosher for Passover certification now (I haven't eaten meat or fish in about 15 years so I don't really know).
Milk and eggs are kosher for Passover without any special certification, but there is one little catch: you have to buy them before Passover begins! My understanding of the reasoning is that you can't benefit from the cows and chickens eating grain during the holiday. As a vegetarian, I usually buy a LOT of milk and eggs right before the holiday begins, in that dead zone between where I have to finish cleaning for Passover (before noon) and when seder begins (after 6 PM). And if I buy too much milk or eggs... I've learned how to make homemade yogurt and pickled eggs to extend the life of the milk and eggs! (not for Passover, but after the holiday begins and before the foods go bad)
Other dairy products are not automatically kosher for Passover, but many nationwide brands have their products certified for Passover every year. Breakstone's butter, sour cream and cottage cheese and Philly cream cheese are usually readily available with certification where I live. Dannon yogurt also used to get a Passover certification although I haven't seen it lately. I'm more of a Greek yogurt eater these days, and I haven't seen Passover certification on that.
Whole and chopped nuts do not require certification if they are free of BHA and BHT (preservatives). I gather that the FDA requires these to be listed in the ingredients so it shouldn't be hard to know. It used to be that BHA and BHT were on everything and I stuck with certified nuts, but I gather that these preservatives have become unpopular for health reasons and are now less common. Check your label, they may be fine!
The one exception is chopped pecans (but whole pecans are fine!). I gather that pecans sometimes have insect infestations that cause the nuts to break up when shelled, and broken pecans are given a cleansing bath that removes any bug debris but adds chametz! So chopped pecans require certification but whole pecans are fine. You can always get a nut chopper, I find them very convenient to work with.
Most seeds, however, are kitniyot. See the discussion under Fruits. Kitniyot seeds include sunflower, sesame, poppy, mustard, caraway and anise. The seeds from coriander, dill and fennel are also kitniyot but the things that grow from them are fine so feel free to eat cilantro, dill and fennel plants. The other potential problem is coatings -- I've heard that pumpkin seeds are not kitniyot but I've never seen pumpkin seeds that weren't coated in salt, which probably causes some problems.
You may have seen the free Maxwell House haggadah in the grocery store. Why is a coffee company making a haggadah? Because at one time, people heard that beans are kitniyot, forbidden on Passover, and they thought that included coffee beans. It does not! Coffee beans are not legumes and are completely acceptable for Passover, and Maxwell House wanted you to know that. Whole coffee beans do not require any special certification. You can grind your own at home (but please use a grinder that was not used during the year to avoid cross-contamination). Or you can use Maxwell House, which I'm sure has KFP certification. The Star-K certification organization says this year (2024) that Folgers regular and decaf unflavored instant; Nescafe aster's Choice regular unflavored instant including house blend and French roast; and Trader Joe's regular unflavored ground are all kosher for Passover without certification. How would you get through the seder without your caffeine?
Tea is also relatively easy to get for Passover. Unflavored pure black, green or white tea leaves or tea bags do not require certification unless they are decaffeinated.
Cocoa powder is another bean product (from cocoa beans) that is kosher for Passover. It requires no special certification if it is 100% pure cocoa powder produced domestically and doesn't specifically say that it is produced with chametz or kitniyot. This just refers to cocoa powder, not Swiss Miss instant. I usually use Hershey's cocoa powder. I've heard that their Special Dark is a problem.
Non-iodized salt that does not contain dextrose or polysorbates does not require Passover certification, but good luck finding it. I had a friend with a medical condition that required non-iodized salt and the only place she could find it was in the kosher section of the grocery store. The good news is that salt never goes bad so once you find it you can set it aside for Passover in your house and use it for the next decade.
Garlic is a vegetable and is always kosher for Passover... if you buy a whole bulb, which is certainly the way to go. Peel off the skin and put it in a garlic press, or just slice it. Pre-peeled garlic requires certification, but why would you pay somebody extra to do something so easy?
Whole, not ground spices are not a problem ... unless they are kitniyot (discussed more under Fruits), and a number of spices are kitniyot. Caraway, cardamom, coriander seeds, cumin, dill seeds ... all are kitniyot. The good news is, basic spices like black pepper are kosher for Passover. Buy whole peppercorns and put them in a home grinder. Cinnamon is commonly available certified kosher for Passover but buy it early! It sells out quickly!
Herbs are basically plant leaves and like vegetables they are all kosher for Passover without certification... but only if they are whole. I tend to buy a few plants shortly before Passover to give me herbs: Basil, Dill and Thyme plants are commonly available in the grocery store at this time of year. And you can often buy sprigs of mint, cilantro, dill, parsley and others in the produce section. Chop them up at home! They have more flavor fresh anyway. Remember: cilantro and dill SEEDS are kitniyot, but the leaves used as herbs are fine.
Pesach foods generally require special Kosher-for-Passover certification. Regular kashrut certification is not sufficient for Pesach, and many foods that are perfectly kosher year-round are not kosher for Pesach. Bread, for example, is certified for year-round but not for Passover. Look for the letter "P" (not the word "pareve"!) to the right of the hekhsher, like the one at top right, or the letters KFP (Kosher for Passover) or KP, or the words Kosher for Passover in English or Hebrew, seen in the illustration.
In areas with a significant Jewish population, grocery stores often gather Passover items together in a single location. Be aware that some supermarkets are very sloppy about what they shelve in their Passover section. A supermarket near me routinely mixed the Kosher-for-Passover sardines (packed in olive oil) with the year-round sardines (packed in corn oil) on their Passover shelves, routinely restocked the Kosher-For-Passover soda pop display with regular soda pop and so forth. One year, they put some corn-syrup Purim lollipops in the Passover aisle. But then, what do you expect from a chain that once advertised a sale on "Challah: A Passover Tradition"? (the only Passover tradition related to challah is not eating it!)
To help you reorient your thinking, here is a list of things that you CAN eat during Pesach with minimal substitutions:
All fruits and most vegetables are kosher for Passover, but they aren't a very good source of protein. Many popular vegetarian sources of protein are not kosher for Passover: beans, grains, pasta, soy products (tofu, tempeh, etc.) and many seeds, among other things, are all forbidden. What is a good vegetarian to do?
Vegetarians who eat eggs and dairy products are in luck: eggs and milk are kosher for Passover and do not require special certification if they are purchased before the holiday begins. Cottage cheese, yogurt, cream cheese and sour cream require certification, but several leading national brands routinely carry such certification. Hard cheeses (cheddar, mozzerella, etc.) are more difficult to find, but only because kosher hard cheese itself is difficult to find -- rennet that is used to harden cheese is a complicated kashrut issue. Kosher brands of cheese, such as Miller's and Les Petites Fermieres, are commonly kosher for Passover.
For vegans, who refrain from eggs and dairy, there are still a few options. Most nuts are kosher for Passover, see details above. You can find an extraordinary selection of kosher for Passover nuts at Oh Nuts, and they ship promptly! Important Note: Peanuts are not nuts, they're legumes, and they are not kosher for Passover.
Another exciting Passover protein option for vegetarians and vegans is quinoa, the new world grain-that's-not-a-grain. Quinoa is one of the best, most complete vegetarian sources of protein available. A recently as 2010, there was much debate as to whether quinoa was forbidden as kitniyot, like peanuts, beans and corn. More recently, major kosher certification organizations like Star-K CRC and Orthodox Union have written articles expressing support for quinoa as a Passover option. That's the good news; the bad news is, now you have to look for quinoa with Kosher for Passover certification! At one time, the CRC organization held that Ancient Harvest brand whole grain quinoa (not flour or flakes) was kosher for Passover without special certification, but I'm not sure if they still say that. Some have said that whole grain quinoa can be used but must be sifted carefully to make sure no forbidden grains have slipped in. Oh Nuts offers quinoa certified for Passover.
Two of the recipes on this page are vegetarian (though not vegan): matzah brie and matzah lasagna. I have prepared a PDF, Thinking Outside the Matzah Box, of 25 different vegetarian recipes that can be made for Passover. Many are (or can be made) gluten-free and/or vegan. Most are not traditional Jewish recipes but just vegetarian recipes that can get you through Passover. You can also look through an index of all the Passover and other recipes I've posted here.
As I said above, you should generally avoid substitutions and focus on foods that are naturally kosher for Pesach. That being said, there are a few simple substitutions that can give you more options for your Pesach cooking without compromising flavor.
The ingredients specified for these recipes are all available with Kosher-for-Passover certification in the supermarkets near me; your mileage may vary. Make sure the ingredients you use are certified, as many of these things contain grain products when they are not KFP-certified.
There are many different ways to make matzah brie (usually rhymes with "rye," although some pronounce it like the cheese), and I will undoubtedly be branded a heretic for my particular technique, but this is the way I learned to make it and this is the way I like it. This recipe is really just French toast with matzah instead of bread! If you'd like something fancier, try my Creme Brulee Matzah Brei, but this recipe is very traditional and quick and easy to make.
Prepare the same kind of soaking batter you would make for French toast: beat a couple of eggs with some milk or water and some cinnamon. Break up some matzah into pieces about the size of your palm (precision is not required) and soak them in the batter until they are a little soggy but not falling apart. Fry them in butter in a frying pan until they are crispy. If you need to use up the last of the egg mixture, you can pour that into the pan with the last of the matzah.
Serve with honey (because it's hard to find syrup that is kosher for Passover -- most syrup these days is corn syrup). It's good hot or cold, so you can put your leftovers in the refrigerator and have them for lunch!
Once again, I will probably be branded a heretic for this simplistic brisket recipe, but it works well for me. I'm not sure of the quantities, because I don't make this very often and I go by feel:
Mix the ketchup and soup mix with enough water to get a smooth consistency (not a soupy one; about the consistency the ketchup originally was). Pour it over the London broil in a roasting pan. Cook at 325 degrees until it's done (depends on the size and shape of the meat). For more tender brisket, you may want to marinate it for a while before cooking.
This is the ultimate expression of a substitution mentality, which is exactly what I tell you to avoid throughout this page... and yet, I really like the way it tastes. It is my Pesach guilty pleasure. Basically, this is a typical lasagna with matzah substituted for the noodles and cottage cheese for the ricotta (because ricotta cheese is usually made with grain vinegar, though it's not called that on the ingredients list -- it's called catalyzer or something goofy like that). If you really want ricotta, it's pretty easy to make your own with this recipe!
Beat the egg. Mix it with about 8 oz. cottage cheese and the parmesan cheese. If using vegetables, mix those in as well. In an 8x8 inch cake pan (conveniently the same size as a piece of matzah), put down a thin layer of tomato sauce. Put a piece of matzah on top of that. Put a thin layer of tomato sauce on top of the matzah. Spread the cottage cheese mix over the matzah. Put a thin layer of sauce over the cottage cheese mix. Cover with the second piece of matzah. Cover with sauce and shredded mozzarella. Bake at 350 degrees until the mozzarella turns dark brown.
Elsewhere in this site, I have provided recipes for the following dishes which are (or can be made) Kosher for Passover:
...or review my Recipe Finder, which lists all of the Passover and non-Passover recipes I have posted on this site and on my blog.
Pesach: Passover
Passover Seder