Eating plant based food during Passover is one way to take care of your body during the holiday.
During Passover*, we can center your plate and your diet predominately with plant foods (fruits, vegetables, starchy vegetables, roots/tubers, intact whole grains, and legumes such as beans, peas and lentils (depending on if you Kinyot or not during the holiday).
Here are 17 plant based recipes to enjoy during Passover.
Quinoa Cranberry Mandarin Salad
If you missed this delicious protein-packed salad earlier this month, have no fear! This high protein salad has it all: crunchy celery, sweet oranges and tangy cranberries. Its colorful appearance makes it a lovely addition to the meal. It is inspired by my cousin Jenny’s salad.
Vegan Rum Raisin Tapioca Pudding
This“old-fashioned” food is perfect for Passover breakfast or dessert because it is comforting and versatile. Tapioca is a lifelong food that can be enjoyed by everyone – from babyhood to old age. It is a gooey, creamy mouth food that is eaten by the spoonful. The added rum soaked raisins makes the dessert fancy and reminds me of my grandmother’s favorite ice cream flavor.
Sarah’s Apple and Fennel Stuffed Squash
Sarah’s Apple and Fennel Stuffed Squash Recipe is a year-round winner. The Autumnal flavour of squash and apple is brightened with the spring-like taste of fennel. The base is juicy, fibrous squash stuffed with protein-packed beans. The ingredients make this a satiating and healthy plant-based meal. If you do not eat beans during Passover, you can use mushrooms instead.
Twice Baked Sweet Potato Tzimmes
Tzimmes is often part of the Rosh Hashanah meal when it is traditional to eat sweet dishes. I’ve adapted a traditional tzimmes recipe with healthy ingredients that are all plant based.
Easy No-Mayo Coleslaw
A refreshing coleslaw that is colorful and delicious. This coleslaw is healthy, as it is oil-free and mayo-free. Serve as as a side dish for lunch or dinner meals. It is a perfect salad to add to your Shabbat and holiday table. Serve cold. This salad can be made 24 hours in advance.
Jackie’s Creamy Vegan Celery Soup
This Creamy Vegan Celery Soup is just the right balance of light and healthy but creamy and delicious. With strong flavors and a full texture, nobody associates this food with all the tired old stereotypes about healthy, vegan food. This is a strictly vegetable based soup, so it’s also Kosher for Passover
Mushroom and Walnut Gardener’s Pie with Butternut Squash Topping
This plant-based Mushroom and Walnut Gardener’s Pie with Butternut Squash Topping Recipe is healthy take on a shepherd’s or cottage pie. This hearty and nourishing pie is filled with a bounty of vegetables. Even carnivores will be happy to eat this dish because it is full of bold flavour and plant-based protein. Better yet, it takes just 15 minutes to prepare the ingredients. This recipe is from the cookbook Feeding Women of the Bible, Feeding Ourselves.
Vegan Spinach and Potato Patties
My maternal grandmother used to make these from day old mashed potatoes. I wanted a healthier potato and spinach patty recipe soI’ve adapted my grandmother’s traditional recipe with healthy ingredients that are all plant based.
There is a related recipe called “Sfongo” featured inthe cookbook The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York It is a potato and spinach layered pie (rather than a patty) that is served as a dairy meal during the week of Passover.
Double Baked Sweet Potato Tzimmes
A new twist on classic tzimmes: a twice baked sweet potato tzimmes version. Almost everybody loves sweet potatoes and this tzimmes is more satisfying than the normally sweet stew version.
Simple Tomato Sauce (oil free)
This tomato sauce is fresh and light tasting as it is oil free and uses all fresh ingredients. It is so simple to make that you can enjoy it with a starch and vegetables during Passover.
Eileen’s Hawaij Vegetable Soup.
This Jewish Food Hero Community Recipe is Eileen’s Hawaij Vegetable Soup. This is a Mediterranean inspired, Yemeni spiced soup, packed with satiating squash and potato. If you do not eat beans during Passover, add skitake mushrooms to this recipe instead.
Oil-Free Healthy Baked Potato Fries
The good news about potato fries is that they are made using potatoes. Most of us love potatoes because they are a satiating starch with lots of vitamin C, B6, and a fiber rich food. I call potatoes my “happy food” because they are a good source of vitamin B6. Regularly eating minimally processed potatoes or sweet potatoes without oil/butter/margarine or cheese does the body and mind good.
Georgian Beet Chickpea Walnut Salad
I created this Beet Walnut Salad for Hanukkah after reading about the Georgian Jewish community (Georgia the Baltic state) in Gil Mark’s cookbook, Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World. According to Mark’s, popular plant-based foods in Georgian Jewish communities include beets and walnuts. The preferred Georgia taste is sour.
Beet Fennel and Orange Salad with Maple Mustard Dressing
This salad is filled with winter vegetables. It has a crunch from the cucumber and fennel and sweetness from the beets and oranges. The maple-mustard salad dressing is delicious and oil free. It looks lovely served over a bed of baby arugula or another green leafy vegetable of your choice.
Detox Chocolate “Milk”
This satisfying and healthy chocolate “milk” can be made with plant based milk during Passover. It is so simple and pleases children and adults.
Nutty Chocolate Chip Cookie
Everyone from your kids to your husband to your mother and mother-in-law won’t be able to keep their hands off these. These cookies are Pesach friendly* and you can make them with either white beans or sweet potatoes (trust me on this) depending on your dietary preference.
The recipe below yields a dozen cookies—which I can tell you from experience will go quickly—so make two or three batches for the holiday, depending on how many guests you’ll be hosting.
If you are looking for a vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe for all year around, here is Benjamin’s Sea Salt Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Jacqueline’s Raw Raspberry Lemon Meltaways
This recipe switches out these usual ingredients for healthier alternatives. Rather than saturated fat in the form of butter, these meltaways are packed with natural, plant-based protein and healthy fat in the form of almond flour and shredded coconut, meaning they will provide longer lasting energy too.
If you like the above 17 recipes, you’ll love the Jewish Food Hero Cookbook: 50 Plant-Based Recipes
Your Turn: Which plant based passover recipe will you try this year?
*Pesach traditions vary widely, and some foods are eaten only in some communities on the holiday. This menu assumes the broadest definition of Kosher for Pesach ingredients.
Passover resources from Jewish Food Hero
The holidays are a special time, and also a busy time. So many times, I find myself so busy preparing food and getting ready to welcome guests. Oftentimes, I have felt disappointed with how our holiday table looks. This is what inspired me to work with a graphic designer to create these two Passover products from the Jewish Food Hero.
Passover Seder Place Cards
These printable Passover Seder Place Cards add an elegant, decorative design element to your table. Place cards also allow you to intentionally place guests at your Passover table. All you need is a printer and a pair of scissors. You can even get family involved in helping to prepare these cards. Children will love to add their own extras too!
Click here to purchase the Passover Seder Place Cards from Jewish Food Hero’s Etsy Shop.
Passover Seder Cheat Sheets
I made these printable Passover Cheat Sheets to add a beautiful design element to our Passover table and to be help all our guests feel comfortable and included. Some of us remember all the details and symbolism of the Passover ritual. For others, having these simple and stylishly designed cards on hand will help them relax and enjoy the experience.
Click here to purchase these Passover Cheat Sheets from Jewish Food Hero’s Etsy Shop.
