Friday, April 6, 2012

Passover! Excited. :)

Ok, so this is cutting it close to the wire, but I wanted to be sure to get this out while it still has potential to be helpful this year.  This will be my first year keeping Passover vegan, and I have to say I'm extremely excited.  In prior years I allowed myself dairy and eggs for this one week, because I just couldn't figure out how I would do it otherwise, especially given that I am Ashkenazi and do not eat kitniyot for the holiday.  However, this year I can't figure out how on earth I didn't think it was possible before - I have more things to make than I could possible eat in a month, let alone in a week!  :)  I am hoping to pass on some of that excitement to you and encourage you that anything is possible once you really put your mind to it.  (So cliche I know... but it's true!)  I can't believe that I am actually excited for Passover.  The creative spark it has lit feels so wonderful and I'm ready to get cooking!

Vegetarian seder plate, courtesy of Creative Commons here

So a quick sampling of possible Passover dishes, and links where I have them...
  • My lunch today - some sort of quinoa salad / stir fry, most likely topped with some sort of cashew dill sauce, similar to here.
  • Spinach pancakes, that I wrote about here.
  • Want to try veganizing these banana almond butter pancakes with a flax egg for breakfast tomorrow
  • MUST make these "Reese's" peanut butter eggs immediately
  • And also from Chocolate-Covered Katie - I never thought I would miss macaroons, but now that I can't have the store-bought ones (because they all have eggs in them), I feel like I will miss them for Passover!  So I will make my own and they will be awesome.
  • All sorts of dips potentially for spreading on matzah - roasted red pepper based ones, cauliflower and pumpkin based ones, and maybe this raw broccoli "hummus"
  • I'm sure eggplant will figure prominently (now that I've learned to like it!).  Potentially like I wrote about here as a baked dish, here as baba ganoush, or trying this recipe for marinated eggplant that sounds divine.  
  • Some sort of potato kugel, like these simple mini ones, or perhaps something a little more fancy with leeks
  • Here there is another eggplant possibility, for "nutty baked eggplant" and a cashew horseradish cream sauce.  Yes please!  
Suffice it to say that this is just the beginning of the possibilities, and I can't wait to get started! I hope this gives you some places to start too.  Please let me know if you have any favorite Passover recipes that I should try - I'm excited to gather as many as possible.

Hag Sameach!