Recipes

Woman with dark hair in a bun holdng a plate with a pile of pita one on side; on other side book cover with title Dinner Party Project: A No-Stress Guide to Food with Friends

7 Questions For Natasha Feldman

Sarah Groustra

JWA chats with Natasha Feldman, author of the new book The Dinner Party Project. 

Topics: Recipes
Karina Urbach and the Cover of her Book

Reclaiming Europe’s Jewish Past and Present

Savoy Curry

The Nazis stole Alice Urbach’s cookbook. In her new book, her granddaughter, Karina, reclaims Alice’s story—and Jews’ rightful place in European life.

Plate of cheese latkes

This Hanukkah, Try Latkes With a Dairy Twist

Savoy Curry

Swap the traditional potatoes for cheese to honor Judith, a badass biblical woman.

Topics: Hanukkah, Recipes
A charcuterie board with cheese and fruit

Charcuterie: More Jewish Than You Think!

Catherine Horowitz

Here’s how to put a distinctly Jewish spin on the charcuterie trend.

Fritzie Fritzshall Headshot

A Tale of Kindness and Survival

Marissa Wojcik

The women in Auschwitz helped Fritzie survive. She repaid them by telling their stories.

Topics: Holocaust, Recipes
Collage of old photo of author's grandmother and her brisket recipe in a frame

A Recipe That Defies Time—Just Like Passover Itself

Savoy Curry

The ingredients are simple, but the connections to my family and to Jewish history run deep.

Savoy Curry holding Orecchie di Amon in each hand

This Purim, Make Foods That Celebrate Your Unique Cultural Heritage

Savoy Curry

With the holidays falling on the same day this year, I’m celebrating my Irish-Jewish heritage.

Topics: Recipes, Purim
Photo of writer's grandmother as a child on left; grandmother and writer on right

My Jewish Grandma’s Christmas Pierogis

Marissa Wojcik

With each handcrafted pierogi, my grandma honors her husband's traditions while holding on to her strong Jewish identity. 

Savoy Curry Making Cholent

Love Your Crockpot? You Have Cholent to Thank for its Existence.

Savoy Curry

Without cholent, the crockpot might never have been invented.

Emily Axelrod’s homemade cheese bourekas

Reclaiming the Kitchen as a Jewish, Feminist Space

Emily Axelrod

Two of JWA's Rising Voices alumnae reclaim the kitchen through cooking traditional Jewish dishes.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

How to Pull Off Passover

Justine Orlovsky-Schnitzler

A first-time Seder host shares her journey to prep for Passover, and a recipe for flourless chocolate cake with ganache.

Topics: Recipes, Passover
Justine's Babka

Baking Babka, Taking in Tragedy

Justine Orlovsky-Schnitzler

My pocket buzzes again. “Did you not see the news?” I feel my entire body tense, my fingers shaking as I struggle to open Twitter. In a moment, I am inundated—11 dead, maybe more.

When I wake up, I decide to make a babka.

Sweet Pumpkin Coils

Recipe: Sweet Pumpkin Coils for Fall

Paola Gavin

Exclusively for JWA, Paola Gavin shares the perfect autumn recipe for sweet pumpkin coils from her cookbook, Hazana: Jewish Vegetarian Cooking.

Fritter Final Plating Photo

Espresso Ricotta Fritters for Shavuot

Lisa Yelsey

In this recipe, I’ve mixed espresso into a dairy Ricotta Fritter recipe to blend the caffeine sometimes needed for the all-night studying with the traditional Shavuot practice of eating a lot of dairy.

Topics: Recipes, Shavuot
Grandma Goldberg's Honey Cake

In Search of a Remembered Treat

Marilynn Brass

My sister, Sheila, and I had been searching for the recipe for the Honey Cake our mother, Dorothy, baked for us. Always the star of our Jewish holiday celebrations, the handwritten recipe had been lost, and no matter how many times we tried to substitute and translate other recipes for the Honey Cake, most of them fell short.

The Brass Sisters (Cropped)

Recipes for Life

Rachel King

Chatting with Marilynn and Sheila, it struck me how often the word “nurture” and “nourish” came up in our conversation. The Brass Sisters certainly recognize the importance of nurturing others, through food, compassion, and acquired wisdom. I myself felt nourished—by the delicious cake they served me and by their warm, funny stories.

Final Plating Photo For Kuku

Vegetarian Kuku for Passover

Lisa Yelsey

I offer a nutritious, delicious dinner recipe to stave off the Passover madness. It is easily made parve, so you can have it with your meat or dairy meals. It works great for large or small seder gatherings, and with vegetarians and meat-eaters alike. Kuku is an Iranian/Persian egg dish that I would describe as frittata-like.

Topics: Recipes, Passover
Chocolate Tahini Hamentaschen (Final Photo)

Hamentaschen with Strawberry Balsalmic and Chocolate Tahini Fillings

Lisa Yelsey

Celebrating Purim involves listening to the reading of the scroll of Esther and donating to charity. It also, crucially, involves eating hamentaschen. These recipes, inspired by my favorite fillings as a child, are a combination of sweet and savory, cutting the often overly-sweet jam and chocolate fillings with a little bit more depth of flavor.

Topics: Recipes, Purim
Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Chocolate and Jam (plated).

Hanukkah Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Lisa Yelsey

In honor of a vital, but less well-known, woman taking charge, I’ll be teaching you how to make a dairy dessert. Specifically, a warm and delicious coffee cake to share with your friends and family.

Topics: Recipes, Hanukkah
Final Stuffed Pepper Photo

Sukkot Stuffed Peppers

Lisa Yelsey

Stuffed foods are traditional for Sukkot, and represent a time of plenty. This immediately made me want to tackle a stuffed pepper situation. Stuffed peppers are great because it allows you to basically put together all your favorite vegetables in unusually fancy packaging.

Topics: Recipes, Sukkot
Plated Spaghetti Squash

Rosh Hashanah Spaghetti Squash

Lisa Yelsey

It’s been a tough year, and 5777 perhaps didn’t bring with it all the promise and renewal we thought it would. I hope that, in this new year, we all have opportunities for positive change and growth. May we also have the strength and opportunity to create change in the world at large.

Final Sabich Salad Plating Photo (dressed)

Sabich-Style Summer Salad

Lisa Yelsey

I am not that into hot weather but love taking the summer as a time to hike without having to worry about ice, leave the house without having to strategically layer, and wear Tevas.

Summer is a great time to eat a lot of light, cooler meals. Here is a recipe that incorporates roasted vegetables and a tahini-based dressing.

Topics: Recipes
Vegetarian Matzoh Ball Soup Final

Vegetarian Matzoh Ball Soup

Lisa Yelsey

I have been a vegetarian for about seven years now, and one of the only foods I regret giving up is good matzoh ball soup. My mom has made it for holidays my whole life, and I miss it. Nothing’s better than eating matzoh ball soup, loaded with chicken and vegetables, and sitting with your family during the holidays.

Topics: Recipes, Passover
Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Challah Roles, Plated photo

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Challah Rolls

Lisa Yelsey

Recently, instead of lying on the floor feeling impending doom, I’ve been trying to do positive things, one of which is baking challah. Here’s a recipe that has cheered me up, and I hope will cheer you, too––or at least give you something to do while you watch the horrible/amazing new CW drama Riverdale and wonder when Betty and Veronica will get together.

Topics: Recipes
Main Image: Sufganiyot Powdered Donuts

Sufganiyot (Jelly-Filled Donuts)

Lisa Yelsey

Many American Jews are surprised to discover that donuts—specifically, jelly donuts—are a traditional Hanukkah food. Eating donuts at Hanukkah dates back several centuries in Europe, and is associated with the holiday for the same reason latkes are—foods fried in oil are symbolic of the Hanukkah miracle of a small amount of oil lasting for eight days. Jelly donuts, or sufganiyot, as they’re called in Hebrew, are known today as an Israeli treat (the Labor Federation in then-Palestine declared them the “official” food of Hanukkah in the 1920s), and Americans have happily adopted the custom. Below, JWA food writer Lisa Yelsey shares her own recipe for sufganiyot:

Topics: Recipes

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