This year I have lots of Passover-friendly recipes for the seder. But it gets difficult to plan meals for the rest of the week that aren’t boring or so chock full of matzo or matzo meal that we can barely move.
That’s where these surprising ingredients that are kosher for Passover come in.
I do love food we serve at the Seder. Of course, there is matzo in various forms. My favorite matzo dishes are matzo (Passover) rolls and matzo kugel (pudding). And the main course is always scrumptious. Typically we serve room temperature salmon or a variation on Silver Palate Chicken Marbella.
Vegetables are always on the seder table too. For example, Swiss chard and potatoes in various dishes. (Hint: The vegans in my family are likely to get this easy potato and onion casserole or hasselback potatoes.)
Chametz and Kitniyot
Anyway, back to permissible and forbidden foods. Or, as my friend Stacey would say, The Whole Kitniyot and Caboodle.
The forbidden foods, or chametz (sometimes spelled in transliteration from Hebrew as hametz, chametz, or chometz) are five specific grains in a fermented state.
- wheat
- barley
- oats
- rye
- spelt (By the way, farro is not spelt, as Pasta Grannies explain here.)
Matzo (also spelled matza, matzah, or matzoh, ) is allowed because the rule against chametz refers fermentation, which only takes place if the grain combines with liquid for more than 18 minutes. Kosher for Passover matzo bakes in no more than 18 minutes. Therefore, it is allowed even though its ingredients are wheat flour and water.
Sephardic Jews have always eaten rice and legumes during Passover. However, Ashkenazic Jews (like my family) traditionally avoided rice, split peas, and other legumes. We call those ingredients kitniyot. The tradition dates from the 13th Century. But now Reform and Conservative rabbinic authorities have decreed that there is no requirement to abstain from those ingredients. Yay!! By the way, Orthodox Ashkenazic Jews still abstain from kitniyot even as their Reform and Conservative brethren have dropped the prohbition.
Surprising Ingredients that are Kosher for Passover
Ingredients in this category include both kitniyot and a few that have always been fine, but which I never thought about using. In this latter category are baking soda, baking powder and yeast that is not made from wheat or barley.
Yeast? Yes, even yeast can be kosher for Passover. The Orthodox Union explains that for its purposes, as long as yeast does not contain any of the prohibited grains, it is OK. That means wheat-based yeast is not kosher for Passover, but corn-based yeast is. I did not check the ingredients of Fleischmann’s and use the photo of that company’s yeast only for purposes of the food group, not as a recommendation of that brand for Passover consumption.
While the concept of gluten-free rice bread with yeast might seem to violate the spirit of Passover, it also seems to be technically “legal.”
- Yeast
- Baking soda
- Baking powder
- Quinoa
- Rice and rice krispies
- Nuts & nut flours (eg. almond flour)
- Lentils, split peas & other legumes
- Corn & corn products (eg. cornstarch)
- Gluten free flour mixtures made without the forbidden grains
- Vanilla extract (made without alcohol or with alcohol not derived from forbidden grains)
Suddenly, the week of Passover doesn’t seem such a daunting challenge, food-wise.
There will be lots of choices.
I’m thinking about corn chowder as a light main course
or Crustless Spinach Quiche with quinoa
or perhaps lentil soup
I could do vegetarian chicken liver (with lentils) for an appetizer or snack
and even corn arepas for breakfast
And maybe, best of all (as I’m a dessert person), I can try my friend Molly’s Gluten-Free Crêpes with Almond Flour. during Passover.
photo by Molly/Vanilla Bean Cuisine
With the addition of rice, legumes and the other surprisingly kosher for Passover ingredients, my food horizons for Passover week are suddenly much broader.
Bonus tips for Passover Baking
- If you have a recipe with just a few tablespoons of flour, you can substitute matzo cake meal (finer texture than matzo meal, more like uncooked flour) and the recipe should turn out fine. That’s what I plan to do if I get a hankering for Dried Fruit and Nut Bars or No Butter or Shortening Date Nut Bars.
- Matzo meal lasts. Maybe not forever, but… If you have some from last year, don’t throw it out. Smell it. If it still smells good and it looks fine, you can use. it.
Whether you celebrate Passover, Easter, Ramadan or none of them, I wish you a happy, healthy week. And if you’re cooking for a crowd, or just having a few people over and feel rusty as a host after too many months of isolation, just remember – it’s really about family, friendship, and being together. Don’t stress, just enjoy each other!
Linda Wolpert says
Excellent article, Laura. Thank you for explaining in such depth.
Molly Pisula says
These all look so good–I’ve got to try that quiche with the quinoa. So intriguing!
Laura says
Thanks Molly. BTW – the inspiration for the quinoa quiche comes from Wendy
Me says
Can walnuts be substituted for almonds in the Florentine cookies?
Laura says
I haven’t tried that substitution, but don’t see why it wouldn’t work. If you try it, let me know how you like it.
Isaac Silverstein says
Hi. Your article makes for interesting reading but yikes, you may not realize that there are people who will be completely misled!!
I’m not sure if you’re aware, but practically all of those items you list ARE still verbotten for any Ashkenazik Jew and are against the customs we have lived by and safeguarded for centuries, if not longer.
Any leavening agent (yeast) is most certainly 100% out of bounds, as it is THE leavening agent —and leavened foods— that we are commanded to avoid!
So Fleischmann’s yeast has absolutely no place here. It is the antithesis to what we celebrate, as it will produce leavened products by default. Baking powder requires Passover certification as do many products, and one cannot not just buy any off the shelf.
Just because there are those that have chosen to distort the age-old and honored traditions and customs to suit their taste (literally in this case!), does not change their status for Ashkenazik Jewry.
Would you tamper with the age old traditions of eating round challahs and blowing shofar with a ram’s horn on Rosh Hashana, eating hamantaschen and reading the Megillah from a parchment on Purim, enjoying latkes and lighting an 8 stemmed Menorah on Chanukah (or serving turkey as a main on Thanksgiving 😁)? I think not.
Certainly anything which is, or which will produce chometz, cannot be ruled permissible. To list Rice Krispies and Fleischmann’s yeast as acceptable is pure insanity. But in today’s world this has become common place and it’s wrong!
Following your lead, next up, regular bread will be (somehow) an acceptable substitute for matzah on Passover (as you appear heading on that road when cautiously giving the green light to “gluten free rice bread”.)
Do yourself a favor. Take a chill from all these “must haves”; relax and become a purist at heart for the holiday. Stick by the rules, traditions and customs that have been with, and define, the Jewish people.
You may just be surprised how enjoyable and invigorating a real Jewish Passover can be!
Laura says
Isaac, Many thanks for your thoughtful comment. Both the Reform and Conservative movements have approved kitniyot for Ashkenazic Jews and even the OU says corn-based yeast is OK https://www.ok.org/article/yeast/. Orthodox kosher certification agencies do certify baking powder and soda as kosher for Passover if it meets their standards in other ways. I do appreciate the desire to follow traditional rules but have decided that for me (and many others), modernizing the age-old traditions is appropriate.
Laura says
By the way, I take your point regarding use of Fleishmann’s yeast (as I did not check the ingredients of that brand), so I modified the post to be more specific about how the OU treats yeast.
Ron says
WOW not everyone is an Ashkenazi Jew! Sephardic Jews only forbid five grains and all else is allowed. It makes for a joyous holiday instead of one filled with you can’t eat this or that
Peter Stern says
After specifically (and correctly), listing barley as one of the five forbidden grains (chametz), you then throw in this sentence: Sephardic Jews have always eaten rice and legumes during Passover. However, Ashkenazic Jews (like my family) traditionally avoided rice, barley, split peas, and other legumes. We call those ingredients kitniyot.
Barley is most certainly not kitniyot (legumes) and your statement above is misleading.
Laura says
Peter – Ugh! You are so right and I can’t believe I made that mistake. I’ve corrected it now (by taking out the reference to barley in the list of kitniyot) and thank you for pointing it out. Chag Sameach,
Karen says
Corn is kitniyot, so according to the Orthodox Union, corn-based yeast is not kosher for Passover for Ashkenazi jews.
Laura says
You’re right and I’ve updated the post to reflect that Orthodox Ashkenazim still avoid kitniyot (including corn-based yeast) during Passover.