Post Passover…My Favorite Passover Foods

                One of my readers asked me to write about my favorite Passover foods. For starters, I will say that I have never gone hungry on Passover. There has always been an overabundance of food. The only thing I may have missed was pretzels. Actually, I definitely miss pretzels over Passover, but one week without them has always been more than fine. Especially when I am surrounded with such good cooks!

                I love my mother’s tongue that she serves for the Seder. This is the one time of the year that she makes this dish. Nothing says Seder meal to me more than this meat. Well, maybe the applesauce she serves for dessert can tie it as being ultimate Seder food.

                I always look forward to having matza lasagna during Passover. Instead of using lasagna noodles, square matza sheets are soaked in water and used as the pasta. This year I had matza lasagna twice! I was doubly fortunate. Maybe it makes up for the Passover a few years back when I did not have matza lasagna once.

                Because we are limited in the ingredients we can use for sides, I love that on Passover we tend to go overboard with the salads and vegetable dishes. I love having an entire course of salads at the meal before the entrée. My sisters make the most delicious and creative salads combining salad greens, fresh vegetables, sautéed vegetables, roasted vegetables, fresh fruit, dried fruit, nuts, dressings, and vinaigrettes. Of course we can eat salads year-round, but they are always exciting on Passover.

                What are some of your favorite Passover foods?

Dinner idea: salad, marinated beans, and hard boiled eggs

                My favorite supper might be lettuce salad with marinated beans and hard boiled eggs. It is so yummy, fairly cheap, and packed with nutritious ingredients. It does take some prep time for cutting all the vegetables, but that can be done while the eggs are boiling. And of course it always is nice to recruit someone to help with the prep….

1. Boil eggs. I have found that the best way to do this is to bring the pot of eggs to boil, and set the timer for 10 minutes once the water is boiling. When the timer rings, spill out the water and refill the pot with cold water and let sit. The yolks should be perfectly cooked and still yellow.
2. Next is the lettuce salad. wash and tear a head of romaine lettuce, chop some tomato, cucumber, mushrooms, carrots, or whatever other vegetables you like. (Save your peppers for the marinated beans.)
3. The beans. Open and rinse 4 assorted cans of beans. I usually use chickpeas along with some combination of black beans, pink beans, kidney beans, black eyed peas, or whichever other beans I have on my shelf. Pour the rinsed beans into a large bowl, and add a small diced red onion, and half each of red, orange, and green peppers. The dressing is about 2 parts oil to 1 parts vinegar. I never quite measure these. I just pour from the bottles into the bowl with the beans. I use either olive oil or canola oil, and regular vinegar. Then, season with some salt, and a bit more generously with pepper. Mix well. The beans taste best once they have marinated for an hour at least, but they are also fine right away.
4. To assemble: place some lettuce salad on your plate. Place 1-2 spoons of the marinated beans on top. Finally, top with a hard-boiled egg sliced in half.

                There you have it. A work of art!

yummy supper!

                This meal is full of vitamin, mineral, fiber, and also a nice portion of protein to help keep you full.