Category: Rosh Hashanah

Savory Pomegranate Roast
with Garlic & Cipollini Onions

I’m not really one of those people that goes into the butcher knowing what type of roast I want to make for the holidays. I just look for what’s on sale, or which roast is going to give me the most bang for my buck and I take it home. Once you understand the basics to purchasing and preparing kosher meat, you don’t have to feel stuck on a certain cut and you can feel free to choose.

It was a few days before Rosh Hashanah when I unwrapped my square roast, wondering how I would prepare it. I had so many sweet side dishes that I wanted to go for something savory – but I also wanted to play on the Jewish New Year concept. I decided to work with pomegranate molasses – a tangy condiment that’s made by reducing pomegranate juice, and pair it with savory ingredients like garlic, onions and rosemary.

When you’re preparing a new recipe and testing it on a roast, it’s always a guessing game on just how tender it’s going to turn out. I usually like to use wine or tomatoes to help tenderize my meats, but I was shocked to see how soft and buttery this roast came out without it. It was so tender, you could eat it with a spoon! And the gravy – oh my! It was thick and delicious, with a hint of tang, filled with creamy pieces of garlic and cipollini onions that practically melted into the sauce. I’d definitely call this a winner, and that’s why I’m posting it! Chag Sameach!

Savory Pomegranate Roast with Garlic & Cipollini Onions

3-4 lb. Square Roast (a cut from the Chuck – you may substitute with French, Brick or Chuck Roast)
salt and pepper, to taste
2 tbsp olive oil
8 large cipollini onions, peeled (use more if they are small)
10 cloves of garlic, peeled
3 sprigs rosemary
1 1/4 cups beef or chicken stock
1/2 cup pomegranate molasses (I use Sadaf Pomegranate Concentrate)

Method:

Season the meat generously with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a dutch oven or oven-safe pot and sear the roast on all sides. Remove from the pot. Add additional oil, if needed, and saute the cipollini onions, until browned and caramelized in spots. Return the roast to the pot and deglaze with stock. Add garlic, rosemary and pomegranate molasses and season with salt and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil, cover the pot, and bake at 300 degrees for 2 hours. Turn the roast over and bake for an additional hour.

NOTE: You’ll have plenty of gravy, so feel free to serve this alongside mashed potatoes.

FREEZING: This roast freezes beautifully. To freeze, wait until the roast is completely cool and cut into slices. Double wrap the sliced roast in foil, label and freeze. Pour the gravy into a large container, label and freeze. The night before you’re ready to serve, place the roast and gravy in the refrigerator. Before serving, place the sliced roast in a pot or pan and pour gravy over it. Cook on the stovetop, or in the oven, until heated through.

Other Roast Recipes:

tzimmes roast
Rosh Hashanah roast
beer braised brisket with onion gravy
crockpot pulled BBQ brisket

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Zucchini Mechshie with Tamarind & Prunes

I’ve talked a lot about mechshie (a Syrian dish of stuffed vegetables) on my blog, especially around the holidays. I decided to keep up the tradition, and for the third year in a row, I’m sharing a stuffed vegetable recipe in honor of Sukkot. The tradition of eating stuffed foods on Succot is symbolic of an abundant harvest season. Since the wheat is harvested in Israel during the fall, we stuff foods to symbolize our desire for an overflowing harvest. This is popularly done with stuffed cabbage, or holipches, which some say are also made to resemble the scrolls of a Torah.


Ever since I married into a Sephardic family, I can’t get enough of my mother-in-laws delicious mechshie dishes! I’m slowly learning to cook different variations, adapting my favorite recipe with the additions of tamarind, pomegranate molasses and different types of vegetables and dried fruit.

When I spotted beautiful globe zucchini in the market, I just knew I had to turn it into some kind of mechshie. The small, round zucchini were perfect for filling, and I decided to work in some tamarind paste, an ingredient essential to Sephardic cooking. It adds a hint of sourness to the sweet dish, a perfect pairing with the plump dried prunes.

So let’s get stuffin’!

Stuffed Zucchini Mechshie with Tamarind & Prunes

8 globe zucchini or 2-3 large zucchini cut in thirds

Filling:

1 lb ground beef
1/3 cup basmati rice
3/4 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp water

Sauce:

1 15oz. can tomato sauce
1/2 can water
1/4 cup tamarind paste (available in Middle Eastern markets)
1/4 cup brown sugar
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 tsp allspice
1 tsp salt
1 10oz. container dried prunes

Method:

To prepare the filling, combine the meat, rice, allspice, salt and water in a bowl and mix well to combine (I like to do this by hand, using gloves). Try to handle the meat gently, don’t squeeze it too much as this tends to toughen it up.

Cut the tops off the zucchinis and scoop out some of the pulp with a spoon, leaving a thick border. Place all the pulp in the bottom of a greased wide saucepan.

If using regular zucchini, use a paring knife (or a long vegetable corer, known as a ma’vdeh), to core them.

Stuff the zucchini with the meat filling, taking care not to fill them too tightly as the rice will expand during cooking. Place the stuffed zucchini’s in the pot, and place prunes all around.

In a bowl, combine the sauce ingredients. Pour the sauce over the zucchini. Cover the pot and bring the liquid up to a boil over high heat. Lower the flame and simmer for 1-2 hours.

NOTE: If you have leftover meat filling, roll it into small meatballs and place in the pot alongside the zucchini.

More Mechshie Recipes:

stuffed baby eggplant mechshie
zucchini and tomato mechshie “ratatouille”

More “Stuffed” Recipes:

corned beef arancini
Passover stuffed cabbage (replace potatoes with rice)
collard stuffed sweet potatoes
sausage and apple stuffed butternut squash
spinach stuffed mushrooms
stuffed chicken roulade
Israeli stuffed eggplants

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Rosh Hashanah Simanim Roundup

If you’ve never been to Florida, you probably haven’t heard of Winn Dixie. Although if you have, you probably love the store as much as I do. Since my in-laws live down in the sunny State, I’m lucky enough to visit on occasion and try out the amazing array of kosher restaurants and supermarkets there. What I love so much about Winn Dixie is that it is both a general supermarket AND a kosher one. Which means, if you need a kosher ingredient 30 minutes before Shabbat, they’ll still be open, and they’ll definitely have what you’re looking for. Not only does Winn Dixie have over 1000 branded kosher products, they also boast a kosher deli and bakery.

Because I’m such a big fan of the store, I was so excited to promote their #FreshNewYear campaign with a Rosh Hashanah Simanim Roundup. What are simanim? They’re symbolic foods that are eaten on Rosh Hashanah to symbolize our hopes for a sweet New Year. The symbolic foods include leeks, pomegranate, gourds (includes squashes like acorn, butternut, delicata, kabocha, spaghetti and pumpkin), dates, black eyed peas (some use green beans), apples & honey, beets, carrots and fish head (some use ram’s head). These specific foods are eaten because their hebrew names are related to other Hebrew words that convey our wishes for the coming year. Jews of Sephardic decent actually host a seder where these foods are eaten and a blessing is made over each symbolic food. For a detailed list of the blessings and simanim, click here.

So without further ado, lets get started!

LEEKS:

fried leek rings with homemade ketchup
Greek-style leeks with prunes and cinnamon
steamed cod with leeks
olive oil braised leeks with thyme
cream of leek soup
cauliflower leek puree
veal scaloppine with leeks

POMEGRANATE:

how to deseed a pomegranate
carrots with pomegranate molasses glaze
salmon with pomegranate molasses glaze
pomegranate coleslaw
pomegranate brisket tacos
roasted lamb with pomegranate and wine
pomegranate glazed london broil 
pomegranate sorbet
mini promegranate pavlovas
mini pomegranate bundt cakes

GOURDS:

Syrian candied gourd
honey roasted squash
soy braised kabocha squash
quinoa stuffed acorn squash
roasted acorn squash and pomegranate farro salad
sausage and apple stuffed butternut squash
butternut squash chili fries
roasted butternut squash and apple soup
spaghetti squash with spinach, leeks and mushrooms
sweet spaghetti squash
pumpkin whoopie pies
pumpkin crisp
pumpkin pot pie
delicata squash muffins
delicata squash salad with spicy maple dressing

DATES:

how to make your own silan (date honey)
date honey cake
Rosh Hashanah roast
silan roasted chicken with squash and dates
couscous with dried dates
bacon wrapped dates (use kosher bacon)
medjool date pecan pie
gingerbread date truffles
chewy date granola bars
sticky date pudding

BLACK EYED PEAS OR GREEN BEANS:

black eyed pea hummus
black eyed pea salsa
black eyed peas salad
black eyed pea cakes
black eyed pea fritters
Egyptian black eyed peas
Brazilian rice with black eyed peas
black eyed peas with meatballs
black eyed peas and green beans
crunchy garlic shriveled green beans
honey ginger green beans
sauteed green beans with mushrooms and cipollini onions
grilled green beans with harissa
pickled green beans

APPLE & HONEY:

holiday salad with apple and honey vinaigrette (watch me make a variation here!)
apple and honey BBQ sauce
apple honey drumsticks
apple and honey challah
honey roasted za’atar chicken with fruit
chicken and apples in honey mustard sauce
apple and honey baklava
apple rose pie bites
honey cake with caramelized apples
apple and honey bread pudding
apple and honey tart
apple and honey muffins
apple and honey trifle

BEETS:

roasted beet and orange salad
beet pomegranate salad
roasted beet salsa
angel hair pasta salad with golden beets
beet soup with beet green pesto
rainbow Anna potatoes with beets
beet pickled deviled eggs
beet latkes
beet rugelach
moist chocolate beet cake
red velvet cupcakes

CARROTS:

carrot salad with honey lemon dressing
Moroccan carrot salad
creamy carrot and leek soup
roasted carrots with tahini harissa sauce
whiskey glazed carrots
tzimmes roast
carrot risotto
rice with carrots and raisins
carrot muffins
carrot cake sandwich cookies
carrot cake pudding
carrot truffles

FISH OR RAM’S HEAD:

fish head curry
fish head soup
Vietnamese fish head soup
gefilte stuffed salmon head (scroll to the bottom)
baked lambs head with potatoes

For more Rosh Hashanah recipes, check out the Winn Dixie holiday ebook below! It’s packed with lots of Jamie Geller’s amazing holiday recipes that you’ll want to make again and again!

NOTE: All photos (besides the ones with the BIB watermark) are from 123RF Photo.

This post is sponsored by Winn Dixie

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Angel Hair Pasta Salad


I’ve really got to start cooking from cookbooks again. It’s literally been years since I’ve made something from a cookbook. And it’s not because I don’t have any – trust me. I’ve got more cookbooks than I have room for in my small Brooklyn home. They’re all just sitting there on the shelf, like figurines on display, looking pretty!

I usually only take my cookbooks out on Shabbos, when I browse through them like an old photo album. I drool over the good recipes, sigh over the bad ones, and then return them to the bookshelf. Once in a while I promise myself to try a recipe, but I usually forget or don’t get around to it.

Recently, my Shabbos guest was looking though my cookbook collection and she asked me what my favorite recipes were from some of my cookbooks. It made me realize that cookbooks are not just for browsing – some of them have really good recipes that I should actually be cooking. She told me some of her favorites dishes from the cookbooks we had in common (like Smitten Kitchen, Jerusalem, Plenty, The Kosher Palette, Kosher by Design and others) and I promised myself I would give them a try.

It really hit home this week because for the first time in a while, I was stumped. I had planned on an apple and honey dessert for the blog, but sadly, it flopped (yes, that happens to me!) and I couldn’t think of anything else that I wanted to post. Until, I was speaking to my friend and she mentioned a recipe for angel hair pasta that she was making for dinner. She said it had mushrooms and leeks – and when I heard leeks, I was all over it. My mind started racing, thinking about all the ways I could turn it into a Simanim salad – filled with lots symbolic foods that we eat on Rosh Hashanah.

I went straight for some of my favorite Rosh Hashanah foods – beets and pomegranates – keeping things mess-free with golden beets. The pomegranates add great crunch, and the honey rounds it all out with a hint of sweetness.

So thanks to Dina (and whoever came up with the original recipe), for getting my creative juices flowing again.I can’t wait to dust off my cookbooks and open my eyes (and palate) to a new range of recipes! Shall we call it a New Year’s Resolution?

What are some of your favorite cookbook recipes? Share them in the comments below!

Angel Hair Pasta Salad

1 medium golden beet
1 box angel hair pasta
1 pkg baby bella mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
2 large leeks, white and pale green parts only, cleaned and sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
1/3 cup pomegranate seeds, for garnish
fresh parsley, for garnish

Dressing:

scant 1/2 cup extra light olive oil
1/4 cup chopped parsley
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 heaping tbsp honey
1 tsp lemon juice

Method:

Scrub the beet clean and wrap in foil. Bake at 400 degrees until fork-tender, about 45 minutes. While the beet is cooking, prepare the dressing by adding all the ingredients to a bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add the angel hair pasta. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally and drain. Place the pasta in a large mixing bowl and toss with the dressing. Peel and dice the beet into small cubes and stir into the pasta.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet and add leeks and mushrooms. Saute until soft and caramelized and add to the pasta.

Place the pasta in a serving bowl and garnish with pomegranate seeds and parsley sprigs.

NOTE: this salad may be served warm, cold or at room temperature.

VARIATION: For a healthier option, use spaghetti squash in place of the angel hair pasta and reduce the amount of oil in the dressing.

Related Recipes:

Israeli couscous salad with roasted beets, carrots and parsnips
holiday salad with apple and honey vinagrette

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Farm Fresh Apple & Honey Gift

I may be one of the only nerds out there who still uses a Cuttlebug. Call me old-fashioned but there’s something really nice about the art of a homemade gift. Sure you can buy a beautiful glass honey dish at the gift shop, or a delicious honey cake at the bakery, but it doesn’t compare to a basket of hand-picked apples or a thoughtful package that you wrapped yourself.

With summer coming to an end, there’s no better time to hand-pick some apples. The dropping temperatures and falling leaves just beg for some warm apple pie, and there’s shortage of apple recipes you can make, especially around the holidays. With Rosh Hashanah just around the bend, you’ll need plenty to dip into sweet sticky honey, and more to caramelize for my delicious honey cake.

If you’ve never been to a U-Pick farm (Kelder’s is one of my favorites) , it’s a must for the family! There’s nothing quite like teaching your children where their food comes from, and having them pick it with their own two hands. The beauty of nature and it’s bounty is a precious gift!

The end of summer is the perfect time for apple picking, with a variety of apples ripe for choosing. I love to showcase a variety of apples at my Rosh Hashanah meal, passing them around the table with an assortment of honey. It takes apple-dipped-in-honey to a whole ‘nother level, especially when you’ve picked the apples yourselves.

Of course you can also showcase your apples in an apple & honey salad, in an apple and honey tart, in sweet apple turnovers , or even on apple napkins!

Best of all, you can give some of those hand-picked apples away in a thoughtful gift to teachers, neighbors or friends. If you don’t have a cuttlebug machine (why would you?), you can just make the little card by hand – no muss, no fuss!

If you’re not much of a crafter, and you want to go the easy-way-out, just tie a big red ribbon on a bag of apples, stick in a honey bear and you’re all set for a sweet New Year.

P.S. I’m called dibs on my kid’s classes this year – so if you’re kid is in the same class, go buy some honey cake! :)

Farm Fresh Apple & Honey Gift

farm fresh apples
creamed honey or any fancy gourmet honey
cellophane bags
raffia
red cardstock
cuttlebug with apple die cut, optional

How To:

Place the creamed honey on the bottom of a cellophane bag and top with a hand-picked apple. Wrap the bag with raffia. Using red cardstock, cut an apple shape by hand or with a cuttlebug machine. Write a personal note and attach to the raffia with double sided table or glue dots.

Related Posts:

apple napkins
easy crochet apple trivet
picture perfect teacher’s gift
DIY teacher’s gift

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