No Meat/Not Sweet Passover Dish Ideas, Anyone?

[WaturMama]

Our yearly passover menu is getting tired.

We do a vegetarian (i.e. dairy) seder.

We never tire of matzo ball soup. I love having asparagus. But too many of our other dishes are sweet for my taste--sweet kugels and tsimmes (or however you spell that). The savory kugel we've done I'm not wild about. Any non-meat/not sweet favorites to share?

[philomom]

My mil does thick yam slices baked. She sprinkles them with a tad of sugar and cinnamon. Yum. We do hard boiled eggs with the salt water and bitter herbs. A salad comes with the main meat to the table.

I don't care for the noodle koogel things, either. I guess the liver pate' stuff is out for you. What about the horseradish/apple spread? I forget the name.

[russsk]

My MIL usually does an eggplant dish as a vegetarian option instead of chopped liver. In years past she's simply fried eggplant slices in olive oil, then topped with parsley and lemon. It's really good. I've recently tried a dish that I think would work there, too: Grill eggplant slices in grill pan. Top with a salsa (can make ahead) of quartered cherry tomatoes, red onion, capers and olives tossed with red wine vinegar, olive oil and pepper. Both are good hot or at room temp, and since you're all dairy you could top with a cheese if you like.

We also do a vegetable kugel that's pretty good. Grate some vegetables (whatever kinds you like, but carrots, zucchini and potato work well). Let drain over a colander while you finish grating. Toss with herbs, eggs and matzo meal. Bake. You could also top with Parmesan, which would be nice.

[knittinanny]

This only works if you do kitniyot, but every year I make a saute of green beans, tamari, and black mustard seeds. It's good warm or cold, and everyone loves it! It takes about 5 minutes to make.

There's also Mollie Katzen's veggie cheesecake (recipe on her website) if you do cheese and eggs. It's mighty good!

[umsami]

I have a Vegetarian Middle Eastern Jewish cookbook, that I'll check for you when I get home (off to get DS2). Another book I'd recommend is Poppa Dweck's book... it's a Syrian Jewish cookbook (beautiful coffee table book too)... and everything I've made in it has been delicious. I borrowed it from my library.

[umsami]

O.K. This comes from "Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World" which is one of the Jewish Vegetarian cookbook I was talking about. (Won a James Beard Award. ) My Lebanese/Middle Eastern one is on loan to a friend.

Passover Ideas From Them Include:
Ukranian Beet Soup (Borscht)
Italian Fried Artichokes (Carciofi Fritti)
Turkish Sweet and Sour Artichokes (Anjinaras)
Sephardic Sweet and Sour Celery (Apio)
Turkish Leek Patties (Keftes de Prassa)
Moroccan Mashed Potato Casserole (Batata bil Firan)
Calcutta Curried Vegetables (Subzi)

It mentions that Ashkenazim don't eat legumes, rice, millet, and some seeds... but Sephardim do eat rice and legumes at Passover. So, depending on which community you follow, there may be lots of more recipes. If you do rice and lentils... there are some great recipes for mashi (stuffed veggies, etc.)

If you want any recipes, let me know.

[umsami]

You also may find inspiration among the NYTimes' Passover Recipe collection....

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/refere...tml?ref=dining

This article, in particular, is about a dairy sede
r....
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/di...feed.html?_r=1

[anj_rn]

My 2 favorite passover veggie dishes are fried eggplant (rolled in matzo meal & spices), you can serve it with a greek yogurt sauce, or prepare it with marinara sauce and make eggplant parmesan.

The second is artichoke, just steamed with italian seaoninss & olive oil.

Also, you can do a pareve fish (unless your vegetarian not just kosher).

My mom alternates dairy & meat for family passover dinners.

[WaturMama]

Thanks so much for all the wonderful ideas, everyone! I'll get many years of ideas from this. This year we are going for the Mollie Katzen vegetable cheescake. I loved finding that web site, thinking of the middle eastern/eggplant notions, the New York times articles, and the why-didn't-I-think-of-that artichoke idea.

Pesach Sameach!

[Sweetjane]

spinach potato kugel

boil and mash some potatoes
Sautee onion, salt and pepper in oil
mix with the potato
stir in some spinach (frozen or fresh)
put it all in a baking dish, dot with oil and bake until it is brown on top.

You can even use butter since you are doing dairy!

[umsami]

Another website that came to mind was the "Jewish Cooking in America with Joan Nathan" one on PBS. Tons of recipes.

http://www.pbs.org/mpt/jewishcooking/