BWW Cooks: New Ideas For Those Meals During Passover

So, you survived both Passover seders, and you evaded both heartburn and constipation. Good job. You used up the leftover turkey/brisket/salmon/strange allegedly vegetarian thing your mother-in-law made. Now, you've only got... six days of Passover to go, a lot of matzah, and no clue what to eat. Chances are good you don't want to see another matzah ball, potato kugel, roasted fowl, or other hunk of roast beast for at least a while. So what do you make for the next six days of Passover? If you're Ashkenazic - of European descent - and you don't hold with the recent Conservative Jewish ruling that legumes and other kitnyos (if you don't know what this is, this article probably isn't altogether relevant to you) being allowed at Passover, you're going "matzah lasagna again, matzah kugel again, matzah brei again..." in an endless chant of things that you love, and you only eat once a year, but you're still tired of eating. What else can you make that uses up your oversized stash of matzah and isn't just the same old thing?

Try mina, a Sephardic pie made from a bottom crust and top crust of slightly dampened, egg-coated matzah. On top of the top crust, there's usually a layer of mashed potato and beaten egg mixed. You can use a spinach and cheese filling - consider ricotta, which is easy to find in kosher-for-Passover form at most groceries. Season with pepper and a dash of nutmeg. Be sure to throw in a little parmesan cheese and to mix a little into the topping. Or make a meat one (vegetarian ground beef is iffy at best at Passover) and add onion, a few raisins, and season it with pepper and cinnamon, or ras al hanout, for a Moroccan version. No cheese, thank you.

Kosher vegan celebrity Mayim Biyalik proposes a dairy-free variation of Eggplant Parmesan for your middle-days-of-Passover delight. Saute a medium eggplant, cubed up, with chopped onions and green peppers. Add an 11-ounce can of Manischewitz or Rokeach tomato sauce with mushrooms, or roughtly 11/2 cups of any Passover tomato sauce or pasta sauce (hello, Blanchard). Simmer for about 15 minutes until the eggplant is tender. Then stir in two diced tomatoes. Now you need 11/2 to 2 cups of matzah farfel or finely broken matzah: alternate layers of veggies and farfel in a 2-quart casserole, beginning and ending with the veggies. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. If you're not vegan, you may hear some Miller's mozzarella or Parmesan cheese calling you. It's similar to lasagna, but it in fact is not one more matzah lasagna; it's cheese, glorious cheese.

Do you like eggs for dinner? Make shakshuka, an Israeli delicacy of eggs simmering away in a seasoned tomato-vegetable sauce with Mediterranean flavors. There's also a spinach version of shakshuka. There are several different recipes, all of which are easy to find on line if you look. Many print cookbooks haven't yet gotten to shakshuka, though the Israeli cooking trend has made it popular at a number of American restaurants now. The flavors are big, bold, and mouthwatering.

Then there's macaroni and cheese. Say what? Well, first off, the concept of Passover noodles has been invented - potato-starch based and gluten free, they're great to make dishes you know and love the rest of the year. If, to you, that's cheating, there's a recipe about for a matzah-farfel based mock mac and cheese casserole that's an alternative to the matzah lasagna you make every. Single. Year. The recipe is HERE, so give it a shot.

That raises other ideas, of course, for Passover noodles, whether of the pasta or flat noodle variety, in your favorite casseroles that would be suitable for Passover otherwise... or of, if you don't like the idea of the Passover noodle, of trying farfel as a substitute. Please note: if you have gluten-free friends, stock up on some Passover noodles and other "non-gebrokts" products if you have access to a great Passover kosher section at your grocery. You (or they) will want these all year once they're discovered, but they're not normally available at the market. Your gluten-free friends will thank you. The gluten-free matzah ball mix is a life-saver for many. (It makes great coatings for fried foods and can also be a binder like matzah meal.)

Did you - if you're a meat lover - consider the meat loaf option? My mother used matzah meal as binder for meat loaf and other foods all year 'round. Passover tomato mushroom sauce, or Passover ketchup or barbecue sauce, works wonders for topping it while cooking. And matzah meal is the single greatest binder on the planet, even in non-kosher dishes (yes, crab cakes, I'm looking at you).

Cauliflower is the wonder vegetable of the universe. Tired of "matzah pizza" with tomato sauce and cheese on the crunchy bread of affliction? Cauliflower pizza crust is a thing, made popular by the paleo gang. Make pizza on cauliflower pizza crust. Or make cauliflower flat breads to make sandwiches. Or make cauliflower "rice," if your kashruth background prohibits the real grain, to serve with a Chinese stir fry (use potato starch instead of corn starch to thicken sauces, and try one of the many Passover-friendly non-soy Asian stir-fry sauces made by kosher companies if soy is off your Passover diet). Or just roast cauliflower, cover it with tomato mushroom sauce and some kosher chese, and heat in the oven til the cheese is melted and everything's hot. Mix in some ricotta or mozzarella to up the protein and the flavor.

Meat eaters, another alert: shepherd's pie is the bomb. Mashed potatoes are a Passover staple. Use a Passover gravy mix, or use potato starch to thicken your beef (or pareve beef-flavor) broth to make the gravy for the shepherd's pie. Sautee your onions in olive oil, as well as any mushrooms you might use, and if you're kitnyos-free, don't add peas or corn to the vegetables.

Quinoa has been accepted by the big kashruth agencies as Kosher For Passover, at least when processed by the right companies. A quinoa pilaf, or quinoa salad, or quinoa as the base for your savory dish with sauce, could be just what you need to pick up your meal. Mushroom stroganoff on quinoa, anyone? Just use mushrooms instead of meat so you can use real dairy (vegetarian meat substitutes don't come Kosher For Passover yet), and if you need to thicken, use potato starch. A fluffy bed of quinoa will substitute nicely for rice or noodles. And you can use quinoa to stuff zucchini or eggplant, which may be the noblest use of any grain or grain substitute. Plus, there are recipes for quinoa risotto, to which may be added mushrooms, preferably wild mushrooms, and cheese, and - just make risotto. Just make quinoa risotto immediately and invite me.

And then there's the infinitely resourceful kugel. If you're not vegan, the eggs provide protein. Use matzo meal or matzo farfel, or go gluten free. Carrots, zucchini, sweet potatoes, broccoli, spinach, the white potato - all can be used as the basis of a great kugel. Add more dairy if you want - cottage cheese, kosher hard cheeses, and so on, if they suit the vegetable mix. Onions and garlic, of course. If you use Passover noodles, you can make a traditional noodle kugel - or add shredded vegetables to your noodle kugel, too.

Matzah lasagna (again?) and matzah kugel aren't your only casserole possibilities any more, and potatoes are no longer the only starchy or starch-like vegetable or grain-type substitute that can go on the plate during Passover. Serve shakshuka with your favorite Passover roll recipe on the side, or a vegetable stroganoff on quinoa, or a crustless or matzah-crusted vegetable quiche. There's no way to go wrong, except not to cook.

Whatever you cook at Passover, try at least one new idea this year. With eight days, there's no excuse to do only the same old standbys, especially with the increased number of Passover-compliant foods. If you're Ashkenazic and feel brave, and if you're Conservative or Reform, the now-permitted addition of rice, peanuts, and beans to the Passover diet makes Passover cooking simpler than ever, and much more interesting. So... gut Pesach, and ess gesundt!

Photo credits: Freeimages.com

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