31 Delicious Recipes for Your Passover Seder Menu
No question, this night will be different from all other nights. Pour yourself a glass — or make that four — and gather everyone around the table for these classic and modern Passover Seder recipes.
Grandma's Matzo Ball Soup from Love & Olive Oil
Passover is a weeklong Jewish holiday in spring that celebrates the Jewish people’s exodus from slavery in Egypt. The holiday kicks off with a memorable and lengthy Seder meal. The seder features lively storytelling, an obligatory four cups of wine (or grape juice), and a 15-step ritual as described in the Passover haggadah booklet. The whole family gets involved, and the kids even get to perform a song and play a game. You might say it requires endurance to get through this festive meal!
From preparing recipes that go on the symbolic Seder plate, to prepping dishes that are part of the feast, Passover is undoubtedly a food holiday.
To that end, here are 31 Passover dishes to enjoy at your Seder table — including some bonus treats to finish off the fête. And if you've not had the good fortune to attend a Seder before, we include a brief look at the story behind the dishes.
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What’s on the Passover Seder plate? >>
Recipes for the Seder plate:
Chocolate Passover desserts >>
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What’s on the Passover Seder plate?
The Passover Seder is rooted in storytelling and symbolism. The event features a retelling of the Jewish exodus from Egypt with the purpose of passing down the story to the younger generations. In fact, parents hide the middle matzah, called the afikomen, and then the children go looking for it around the house. The story is accompanied by a Seder plate containing six symbolic Passover foods:
Horseradish (maror)
Bitter greens (chazeret)
Fruit and nut paste (charoset)
Parsley or celery with salt water (karpas)
Roasted lamb shank (zeroah)
A shell-on roasted hard-boiled egg (beitzah)
Three pieces of matzoh and a ceremonial glass of wine for the prophet Elijah are also laid out for the ritual. Seder is the Hebrew word for "order," and each of these items is eaten during a specific part of the story.
Bitter herbs and greens (maror and chazeret)
Learn to make your own maror, and how to tame it
How to Prepare Horseradish
The story of Passover begins with the bitterness of slavery that the Hebrew people experienced in Egypt under Pharaoh’s rule. This is expressed during Passover dinner with a small portion of white horseradish sauce, made fresh from the root — which doesn't look very promising, but yields pungent and delicious results.
Beet Maror
To add color and soften the intensity of straight horseradish for younger palates, pulse fresh horseradish root with cubed beets and apple cider vinegar in a food processor. Be careful not to hover too close to the container when it's done, or you could blast yourself with the horseradish fumes: Wait a minute and try not to breathe directly over the bowl.
Ridiculously Easy Grilled Romaine Salad
To further illustrate the harshness of the story, chazeret is an additional bitter green (sometimes called a bitter herb) that Jews eat during the Seder. Traditionally, it can be a simple leaf of romaine lettuce. In this recipe for shredded romaine salad, scallions and lemon temper bitterness, while dill gives it a fresh aroma.
There are many other bitter greens you can feature in your meal for a change: endive, dandelion, or escarole (for a zero-waste option, try substituting turnip or radish tops in the last recipe).
Fruit and nut paste (charoset)
This symbolic paste is sweet and delicious. You'll want to make it year-round.
Charoset with Apples, Dates, and Walnuts
Charoset represents the mortar and adobe bricks Israelites used to build Egyptian pyramids. It’s a sweet paste of fresh or dried fruits with nuts. Change up the variety of apples for a new spin. Try a combination of sweet Gala and tart Granny Smith.
Whole Orange Sephardic Charoset
Depending on which Jewish tradition you practice, the mixture can vary. The Ashkenazi use apples, walnuts, cinnamon, and a small amount of wine. Sephardi use dates, as in this Whole Orange Sephardic Charoset, while Yemenites may add sesame seeds and spices like ginger and coriander.
Vegetables in salt water (karpas)
There are many ways to represent this portion of the Seder plate. Offer a few different veggies to please all your guests' tastebuds.
Celery Parsley Salad
Karpas is a vegetable to contrast the previous horseradish and bitter greens. On the Seder plate, it’s usually plain celery, parsley, or potato dipped in salt water to exemplify hope and renewal. To bring all of these ideas together, try serving a celery and parsley salad. It’s refreshing and salty with the addition of Parmesan cheese, though for a kosher meal, omit the cheese if you'll also be serving meat.
Boiled Potatoes with Parsley
If you want more heft with your meal, boil potatoes in briny water and drain. Then toss them with olive oil and parsley.
Roasted lamb shank (zeroah)
While lamb is most traditional, we offer you a chicken option and even a vegetarian-friendly roasted potato option
Crispy Baked Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings
A chicken wing or lamb shankbone is the zeroah, or visual representation, of the sacrificial lamb. Since the temple was destroyed, many believe that they should not eat lamb for this part of the Seder. These Crispy Baked Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings are made with just 5 ingredients and can be baked in a single sheet tray in the oven.
Garlic Herb Lamb Chops
If your family does eat lamb, may we suggest these garlic lamb chops? They’re small enough for little ones to grab and the cooking time is lightning fast. Just swap out the butter for margarine or olive oil to keep it kosher.
Sweet and Salty Hasselback Sweet Potatoes
Vegetarians at the table can feast on gorgeous Hasselback sweet potatoes; again, with a sub for the butter if you’re keeping kosher.
Hard-boiled egg (beitzah)
Prepare the hard-boiled egg. Then, with the shell still on, roast it over a flame
Instant Pot Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs
Make a dozen hard-boiled eggs quickly using a pressure cooker for the beitzah, a roasted hard-boiled egg. Eggs represent the circle of life and they are “roasted” still in the shell on the stovetop — harkening back to festival sacrifices. Don’t forget to shock the eggs in ice water to avoid the sulfuric green ring around the yolk.
Matzoh recipes
Curious how to make matzoh from scratch? Learn with the recipe below, and try several more recipes that doctor up the overflowing abundance of matzoh you probably have on hand.
Homemade Matzoh
Maybe this will be the year you try making matzoh from scratch. Skip the resting step in this Homemade Matzoh: It needs to be made within 18 minutes, from start to finish, to be considered unleavened bread and kosher for Passover. Any longer triggers fermentation, which may cause bubbles and leavening (rising!).
Once you’ve made your own matzoh (or if you have a package of it), there are so many ways to enjoy it outside of its ceremonial place in the Seder. Break up pieces for matzo brei, a cross between French toast and a scramble. Grind up the matzoh into meal for your own matzo ball soup. A friend of mind recommends using seltzer and a dash of cayenne pepper instead of boiling water to make the matzo balls in this chicken soup airy and flavorful.
For those fond of sweets, whip up ice cream cake or honey brittle to follow a meatless meal. Or make a classic Passover treat of chocolate-covered caramel matzoh crunch.
Gefilte fish recipes
Gefilte fish might elicit a polarizing reaction from your guests, but when done well, and especially from scratch, it's downright delicious
Spiced Gefilte Fish
Though gefilte fish is not a required item at the Passover table, it’s a time-honored tradition in many households. Add flair to your store-bought gefilte fish by baking it with herbs, spices, and vegetables, then chilling it for the flavors to meld.
Wise Sons’ Gefilte Fish
If you have extra hands to help in the kitchen, go for gefilte fish from scratch.
Brisket recipes
Serve a beautiful brisket as your featured entree during the Seder
Oven-Braised Beef Brisket
Brisket doesn’t require many ingredients, and it’s rich in collagen, which makes it great for long cooking times in a braise. Simply prepared Oven-Braised Beef Brisket cooks low and slow with flavorful vegetables and herbs. Add a homemade pan gravy, and this tender beef will be the star of your Passover meal.
Springtime is perfect for dusting off the smoker, if you have one — another way to cook the meat slowly to tenderness. If you’d rather stick to the oven, this easy Passover Brisket uses French onion soup mix for extra umami (just be sure to find a mix marked as kosher for Passover). Melt In Your Mouth Slow Cooker Beef Brisket cooks on low heat for 8 to 16 hours while you’re busy doing other things.
Chocolate Passover desserts
Passover desserts often get a bad rap, but they deserve a little more love when things like decadent chocolate soufflé are possibilities
Sunken Chocolate Soufflé Cake
Here’s a miracle for you: a flourless Sunken Chocolate Soufflé Cake with a lusciously runny center and crackly top. The egg whites are whipped to medium-soft peaks to give the cake height and the illusion of rising like a soufflé. I don’t attempt to cut it into slices, but instead serve it with spoons. While gluten-free, the recipe does contain dairy. To stay kosher replace the butter with margarine if you’re having meat with dinner, or try this dairy-free cake instead.
More chocolate passover treats await you:
More Passover recipes
Passover lasts an entire week, so if you need more ideas to get you through this ingredient-restrictive holiday, we have thousands more Passover recipes on Yummly. And don't miss our other Passover-related articles.