Passover Recipes
The foods of the biblical Passover meal: roasted lamb, unleavened bread, bitter herbs and sweet charoset, each with its own place in the story of the exodus.
Passover recipes recreate the foods of the biblical Passover meal. According to Exodus 12:8, Israel ate lamb roasted over the fire with bitter herbs and bread made without yeast. The traditional Seder plate adds charoset, a sweet apple and nut paste. Together these dishes tell the story of the exodus from Egypt.
"That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs and bread made without yeast."Exodus 12:8
Passover remembers the night Israel was freed from slavery in Egypt. The meal itself is the memory: every food on the table points back to the exodus, from the roasted lamb to the flat, hurried bread and the sharp taste of bitter herbs.
The Foods of the Passover Meal
The original Passover, set out in Exodus 12, was a whole meal with meaning built into every dish. A lamb was roasted over the fire, eaten with bitter herbs and with bread made without yeast, and nothing was to be left until morning. In later Jewish tradition the Seder plate gathered these and other symbolic foods together, adding charoset, a green vegetable and a roasted egg, so the story could be told course by course. The recipes below bring the central foods to a modern table.
Recipes
The Passover Table
Three dishes at the heart of the meal: the roasted lamb, the unleavened bread of the exodus, and the sweet charoset of the Seder plate.
Bitter Herbs (Maror)
The fourth food of the meal needs no recipe, only a little preparation. Bitter herbs, called maror, are eaten at Passover as a reminder of how bitter the years of slavery were, "they made their lives bitter with harsh labour" (Exodus 1:14). Today they are usually fresh or prepared horseradish, or the pale hearts and darker leaves of romaine lettuce. Serve a small amount alongside the lamb and unleavened bread, or dip it lightly in charoset so the sweetness and the bitterness meet on the same bite, exactly as the Seder intends.
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Passover Questions
What foods are eaten at Passover?
The heart of the biblical Passover was roasted lamb, unleavened bread and bitter herbs, described in Exodus 12:8. The traditional Seder plate also includes charoset, a sweet apple and nut paste, along with other symbolic foods.
What is on the Seder plate?
A Passover Seder plate holds symbolic foods: a roasted shank bone for the lamb, bitter herbs (maror), charoset, a green vegetable, and often a roasted egg. Each one recalls part of the exodus story.
What are the bitter herbs at Passover?
Bitter herbs, or maror, are sharp greens such as horseradish or romaine lettuce eaten at Passover. Exodus 12:8 commands them alongside the lamb and unleavened bread, as a reminder of the bitterness of slavery in Egypt.
Why is unleavened bread eaten at Passover?
Because Israel left Egypt in haste and their dough had no time to rise (Exodus 12:39). God commanded unleavened bread each year at Passover and through the Feast of Unleavened Bread in memory of the exodus.
What is charoset?
Charoset is a sweet paste of chopped apples, nuts, wine and cinnamon eaten at the Seder. Its coarse, brown texture recalls the mortar the Israelites used as slaves in Egypt.