Passover (April 5 to April 13, 2023) is ALL about tradition, and there are some long-established menu items that must be on your Seder dinner table. Because of that, there are some ingredients (ahem, matzo) that require a little creativity to incorporate them into the rest of your meals that week. We’ve found that apps and starters are great opportunities for innovation, so we’ve rounded up our fave Passover-inspired ones here. Whether you’ve been celebrating your whole life or are new to the Jewish holiday, we hope these recipes can be an inspiration.
If you’re unfamiliar, Passover refers to the biblical stories of the 10 plagues sent by God to convince the Egyptian pharaoh to “let the Jewish people go” and the eventual exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt. As the story goes, they packed in such a hurry that they didn’t have enough time to even let their bread rise and only were able to bring unleavened, cracker-like bread called matzo with them. To celebrate this exodus, Jewish people today continue to remove chametz (or any leavened flour product) from their diets for the duration of Passover, as well as make sure all other ingredients they’re using are specified Kosher for Passover.
They also have a special seder dinner (or Pesach) with specific ingredients meant to represent various aspects of the exodus. We’ve incorporated some of them here, like the horseradish in our house latkes, the hard-boiled eggs in our harissa deviled eggs, and the lettuce in our chicken salad lettuce wraps. Feel free to get creative and make these starters your own.
Since general kosher rules prevent the consumption of dairy and meat in the same meal, we’ve included a number of our favorite vegan apps here too. Our vegan spinach & artichoke dip, our chipotle vegan queso, and our coconut ranch kale salad all make for great starters and apps and keep with the halachah (or Jewish laws).
Want more Passover inspiration? Check out all our favorite Passover recipes, and our best Passover desserts too (we’ve got a flourless chocolate coconut cake you’ll flip over).