Vegan Jewish Recipes

Rosh Hashanah is a time for reflection, tradition, and sharing symbolic foods that represent hope and renewal, which as a people, is something we should be praying for with all of our hearts!

A vegan menu can highlight these themes beautifully with dishes centered around apples, pomegranates, root vegetables, and sweet flavors. Some great starters include a bulgur and pomegranate salad, beet cucumber salad with pistachios, or a warm carrot lentil soup. For mains, consider stuffed acorn squash with lentils and dried fruits, a sweet potato and chickpea tagine, or rice stuffed cabbage rolls in a tomato-based sauce (try my Turkish stuffed cabbage recipe).


Side dishes like tzimmes, harissa roasted carrots with apricots, and vegan apple kugel keep the meal grounded in seasonal produce. A round challah-plain or studded with apples and pomegranate seeds- is great with a drizzle of date or pomegranate syrup in place of honey.

Creating a vegan Seder meal is fully possible and deeply meaningful, allowing you to honor the traditions of Passover while aligning with nonviolence, which is ultimately the essence of all spirituality.

During Passover, leavened foods made from wheat, barley, rye, oats, or spelt that have been allowed to ferment or rise-known as chametz-are avoided. This means no bread, pasta, flour-based baked goods (unless we are talking about ones made with matzo meal), or anything containing yeast or traditional leavening agents. Very surprisingly, there is Kosher for Passover baking powder, which is why you can make things like vegan matzo meal pancakes!

Start with a traditional Seder plate, replacing the egg with a roasted beet and the shank bone with a roasted mushroom or a small piece of charred parsnip. Include charoset, parsley dipped in salt water, horseradish, romaine, and a vegetable like celery.

Begin with vegan matzo ball soup, or a bowl of borscht. For mains, vegan potato kugel is a must at my family's seder! It's probably the one time of the year a giant kinda-greasy potato thing is the center of the meal, and boy is it good!

Add color and texture with tzimmes, pickles, apple sauce, sauerkraut, and all the fixings like vegan sour cream. Finish with vegan flourless chocolate cake, baked apples, or vegan coconut macaroons.

Shabbat dinner doesn't need to be a 12-hour kitchen marathon leading up to sundown. You can go full cozy mode without the stress-and yes, keep it all plant-based without missing the point.

Start strong with challah (obviously). My braided vegan challah or round challah for special occasions is soft, golden, and braid-ready, no eggs required.

For mains, you've got options that basically cook themselves: vegan cholent is a slow-simmering stew of dreams, and vegan yapchik (aka potato kugel layered with seitan) is pure comfort in a casserole. Add a side of kasha varnishkes, vegan knishes, or vegan lokshen kugel might be just the thing, since they are all fine to eat at room temperature if you aren't touching the stove.

And don't forget dessert-vegan cinnamon babka, and vegan rugelach, are both Shabbat-worthy treats with zero dairy drama. Light the candles, bless the wine (get the kosher kind for goodness sake!), and relax and connect with Hashem-you nailed it. ❤️

Look, just because it's vegan doesn't mean it automatically passes the kosher test. There's a whole underworld of sneaky stuff that can disqualify your plant-based faves even though theres no combining of meat and dairy going on.

Think wine and grape products (balsamic vinegar is a good example) that weren't made under kosher supervision, or vegan cheese with sketchy enzymes that partied once upon a time with non-kosher cultures. Sauces and condiments? Store bought processed ingredients? Yeah, they might be hiding non-kosher vinegar, or in the case of manufacturers who use co-packing facilities, made on dairy-meat crossover equipment.

Even your go-to snack foods and baked goods might've shared equipment with animal products-or be rockin' emulsifiers and dough conditioners that don't meet kosher standards. If it's not certified, it's anyone's guess. So if you're cooking for someone who keeps kosher (or you're trying to), always double-check the label. Kosher isn't just about the ingredients-it's about how and where they came to be.