Not everything has to be turned upside down and inside out for Passover. Plenty of everyday recipes are perfectly acceptable, but we don’t realise because we’re so worried about staying kosher. When we get out the Passover cookbooks we can limit our diets for a week, and we often end up starving for half the day at work or completely overdosing on eggs.
This year, try my guide to getting you through the working day by simply adapting a few gorgeous Jamie Oliver recipes.
Breakfast at the desk
Last year I got through my mornings with a jar of readymade kosher-for-Passover granola. It didn’t taste that great, so this year I decided to make my own.
You can make one week’s worth of Passover-friendly granola that will last for about three weeks (slightly less than normal granola because matzah goes soft after a while and you really want a crunch). You can eat it with different fruit toppings and yoghurt, which makes the mornings feel like just another normal day rather than full of worry about not being full or having a stomach ache from too much fried Passover food.
I use Jamie’s granola recipe as a base, as it is really simple – just swap the oats for the same weight of smashed up matzah, and leave out the seeds. It’s a purse-friendly recipe, which is welcome at this time of year with all the extra expenditure on Passover foods. Simply go to your kosher shop and buy a pack of dried fruits, a pack of nuts, a box of matzah and a jar or bottle of honey and those ingredients will make your entire week’s breakfast. The fruit compote is delicious and very easy to make, and you can even make a couple different ones for the week and box them up to go with you to work.
Another great breakfast for when you have a little more time is Jamie’s Mexican breakfast recipe, which is colourful and bursting with beautiful spicy flavours.
Passover packed lunch
Most recipes just need a little adaptation to become kosher, but some need nothing at all. My plan for this year is based around leftover lunches. A great one is Jamie’s Hit ‘n’ run traybaked chicken, which you can cook the night before and use in your lunchbox the next day with some salad. No frying, no eggs, and a full stomach, as well as lots of flavour, which is amazing at this time of year when everything tends to taste the same. What a Passover win!
Another near-perfect Passover recipe is Jamie’s Quick salmon and potato al forno. Admittedly you will have to take out the fennel and probably the Parmesan (unless you have a really good Passover shop that stocks Parmesan, in which case lucky you!). Salmon doesn’t smell too fishy, so it is another recipe that you can box up the next day for lunch.
They don’t have to be leftovers – you can cook these dishes the night before for the sole purpose of making a few packed lunches for the next day. Because these recipes don’t take much effort you can just sling them into the oven while you’re eating dinner the night before.
Here are some more meal ideas for Passover:
Blanched asparagus – poached egg – fresh smoked salmon
Fish in a bag (minus the fennel)
Snack time
We all know that feeling of looking at the clock with a rumbling stomach and realising you still have a few hours left. This is where the right snack can save the day
One of my favourite snacks for Passover takes inspiration from this simple guide to chocolate bark. I still look forward to Passover chocolate – it’s so different to normal chocolate; so creamy and rich. Obviously, you don’t want to scoff an entire bar as a snack; so use it to make some bark – as in the guide above – and take a couple of pieces with you to give a nice hit of energy and keep you going until dinner.
By Ella Miller
