An encyclopedia of Jewish life
Jewish cuisine
Traditional recipes for holidays and everyday – with method, history and tips.
Recipes: 18
Cheese blintzes
Thin crêpes filled with sweet farmer cheese, folded into parcels and fried golden in butter. A Shavuot classic.
75 minmoderatedairy
Bourekas
Savory puff-pastry turnovers filled with cheese and sprinkled with sesame. A Sephardi pastry of Ottoman origin.
55 minmoderatedairy
Challah
Braided festive bread for Shabbat and holidays. A soft yeast dough with eggs and oil; parve, with no milk or butter.
75 minmoderatepareve
Charoset
A sweet paste of apples, nuts and wine for the seder plate. Its color and thickness recall the mortar of slavery in Egypt.
15 mineasypareve
Cholent
A hearty stew of meat, beans, barley and potatoes that finishes cooking slowly overnight and is served for Saturday lunch.
750 minmoderatemeat
Tzimmes
Carrots braised sweet with prunes, sweet potatoes and honey. A traditional side dish of the Ashkenazi Rosh Hashanah.
80 mineasypareve
Dafina
A Moroccan Shabbat dish of beef, chickpeas, potatoes, wheat and eggs that stews overnight until Saturday lunch.
760 mindemandingmeat
Gefilte fish
Dumplings of ground freshwater fish poached in vegetable broth. A typical first course of the Ashkenazi Shabbat and holidays.
135 mindemandingpareve
Hamantaschen
Three-cornered cookies filled with poppy seeds, plum butter or nuts, typical of Purim. Crumbly butter pastry with a poppy-seed filling.
65 minmoderatedairy
Kubbeh hamusta
A sour lemon soup with zucchini and Swiss chard and semolina dumplings stuffed with ground meat. Iraqi-Kurdish Jewish cuisine.
105 mindemandingmeat
Latkes
Fried potato pancakes, a typical Hanukkah dish of Ashkenazi Jews. The oil recalls the miracle of the oil in the Temple.
55 mineasypareve
Lekach (honey cake)
A moist spiced honey cake for Rosh Hashanah, a symbol of the wish for a sweet new year. Parve, with no milk or butter.
75 mineasypareve
Lokshen kugel
Baked wide noodles with farmer cheese, sour cream, eggs and raisins. A dairy version popular on Shavuot.
80 mineasydairy
Matzah brei
Soaked matzah fried with eggs in butter: a quick Passover breakfast, sweet or savory.
15 mineasydairy
Shakshuka
Eggs poached in a spicy sauce of tomatoes and peppers with cumin. A North African dish, today a symbol of the Israeli breakfast.
45 mineasypareve
Chicken soup with matzah balls
Clear chicken broth with root vegetables and fluffy matzah-meal dumplings. A Shabbat and Passover classic.
210 minmoderatemeat
Šoulet (Czech cholent)
The Czech form of Shabbat cholent: peas or beans with barley and goose meat, baked slowly until Saturday lunch.
630 minmoderatemeat
Sufganiyot
Yeast doughnuts fried in oil and filled with jam. In Israel, the best-known Hanukkah treat.
70 mindemandingdairy