Passover...HELP!!!

[kaleidoscopeeyes]

:eek: I just receieved this email from my stepmother:

"We are going on Sunday for Passover---I agreed to do a salad, and we are "assigned" a vegan potato dish. Can you come up with a dairy free recipe? Would you like to help make it? I need to know the recipe and the ingredients by Saturday and we can make it on Sunday. Also would like your input on the salad ingredients and dressing."

My dad's side of the family knows I am vegan and gluten free but does not know I am raw. WHAT DO I DO?!?! Salad is easy, I just need to find a killer dressing from Alissa's book, but WHERE ON EARTH am I to find a raw potato dish!?

I really cannot eat cooked food. I just can't. Last time I did to keep the peace, I fell back into the addiction cycle and was miserable for TWO MONTHS.

PLEASE, HELP! What do I do?!

Lots of love,

KALEidoscope Eyes.

[beckx]

you can't eat raw potato...

why can't you send a recipe for a cooked potato dish and just make a really good salad that you'll be able to have? it doesn't even sound like you have to help cook it. and maybe bring a raw dessert as well? maybe i'm missing something.

[shashibala]

I would say, put in your requests for a fabulous salad, and let your step mother know that you won't be eating the potatoes so she can make them as she wishes. (thank her for asking for your input if it feels right.)If you feel like it, make a dish that you like to share that will compliment your salad, or just stuff some snacks in you pockets.;) Maybe you can take a nice smoothie or juice to sip while you are there. Would that cause a ruckus? GOOD LUCK!!!!

[shashibala]

I just remembered a recipe for "potato" salad in Alissa's book.(p.447)
It uses jicama instead of potatoes. I haven't made it but it sounds yummy.
Just a thought!:)

[Tirza]

I sympathize, believe me! I am also going to have to "take a pekel" to the Seders and YomTov meals too, as we are invited to different places for all of them.
As for the potato dish, are they asking you to bring it because they think that is what you will want to eat, or is it pot luck for everyone? I'd just make it and take it, and then pass it by. With all the food that is likely to be on the Pesach table, one always has to pick and choose anyway. You should be able to get around it without eating anything that will make you feel horrible. Just bring enough of what you can eat to make it nice for yourself too. Good luck! Chag Sameach!

[Clare]

I hope you don't mind me asking, but don't you have to eat lamb if you go to a Seder? I was taught by someone that it was essential that everyone there eat lamb and that there be none leftover...is that not really required anymore? I am just curious now, since I know of course there aren't animal sacrifices anymore, thanks be...

[Conscious Midwife]

make a raw sweet potato pie and call it a day

or give them the recipe for a cooked potato dish and skip it

[Tirza]

That is the way it was done in Biblical times. Nowadays, we don't use any roasted meat, lamb, chicken, or....

http://judaism.about.com/library/3_askrabbi_c/bl_pesachlamb.htm

FYI "ONLY" and NOT meant to start a religious discussion, as per the guidelines for this forum.

[kaleidoscopeeyes]

I hope you don't mind me asking, but don't you have to eat lamb if you go to a Seder? I was taught by someone that it was essential that everyone there eat lamb and that there be none leftover...is that not really required anymore? I am just curious now, since I know of course there aren't animal sacrifices anymore, thanks be...

I have been a vegetarian my entire life and have never been made to eat the lamb :]

Just so you all know, I might just not go. I'm not very religious anyway, much more spiritual.

[Revvell]

It is absolutely yummy. Had it recently.



I just remembered a recipe for "potato" salad in Alissa's book.(p.447)
It uses jicama instead of potatoes. I haven't made it but it sounds yummy.
Just a thought!:)

[Marin Mom]

I've made the Jicama Potato Salad and it was really good, but the rest of my family didn't like it, just isn't the same as real potato. I don't have a problem making vegetarian meals for others but that's just me.

My family has adjusted to my diet by now and when I go to my parents' on Passover this Saturday, I will just bring my own salad like I always do (and happily pass on the Gefilte Fish!::D ).

[mattshor]

bumping this up as passover is coming soon, anyone have any favorite pesach recipes? Don't know how observant anyone here is but also if anyone knows about the chametz status of sprouted/soaked wheat that would be super helpful as well.

[rawstrength]

Maybe you could say that you don't really like potatoes, and suggest that they make a fruit salad for you instead of the potatoes? Everyone likes fruit salad.

[mel_s12]

There's a really good Jicama Potato Salad in Matthew Kenney's book Everyday Raw, as well as Alissa's of course!!

[Tirza]

... chametz status of sprouted/soaked wheat...and recipes...

Hi mattshor,
I asked about wheatgrass as I juice it for my health. I guess it's a No-No. I sort of don't see why, but since I don't understand all the issues I can't make the rules I guess :)

I have been doing up an Excel sheet with a menu for the whole time over Pesach. Most of the raw recipes work since they don't use many grains or legumes. If you're trying to do a pretty typical Pesach meal, you can get fairly close. We do use conventional matzah for the Seders-you know, the big round ones - I figure I have to excuse that much anyway. But for the rest of the week we do crackers like that recipe that is sort of like Ritz. It calls for walnuts and zucchini, so no conflict there. The original recipe calls for a little golden flaxseed and hemp, but I left it out and added some sprouted quinoa instead and it was fine. There is also that recipe for "Chewy Crunchy Garlic Toasts" that works, plus various crepes and wraps recipes.

I'm trying to find out if psyllium is okay to use since some of the wrap and crepe recipes have it. Maybe they'd work without it, but there has to be something to bind it I would think, since we can't use flax. I saw on one site that guar gum was being debated but I didn't get into it since I was hot on the trail of the psyllium question. Didn't find a definitive answer yet. Does anyone know what the Ashkenazic Orthodox position is on that? Either that or suggest something else with the gummy qualities of those things that would be okay - I can't think of anything offhand.

I love logic and discussion and debate, but on these issues I want to know the halachic position and then I take it from there.

[rawlight]

I love logic and discussion and debate, but on these issues I want to know the halachic position and then I take it from there.

Matt and Tirza, Here is a great site that talks about the differences between Sephardic and Ashkenazic Passover practices, since I'm not sure which you are. As you probably know, each community treats some foods differently during this time. And this site also includes rabbinic opinions. From this, you can decide how you would handle it raw.
http://www.angelfire.com/pa2/passover/sephardicandashkenazicpassover.html

For the 'meat' of the discussion, read the paragraph that starts with: Sephardic and Ashkenazic Passover differences

Wow, how excellent to do a totally raw Seder!!

[Tirza]

...I'm not sure which you are

...(Tirza)...Ashkenazic / Chassidic, actually, but sometimes a secret wanna-be Sephardic. Love the Middle Eastern foods, WAY better than the Eastern European. Love the Sephardic shuls and customs. When I am in Jerusalem I just LAP it all up!

...Sephardic and Ashkenazic Passover differences

...(Tirza)...Yes, I was just on that site! It's kind of heavy reading though, the way it is formatted.

...Wow, how excellent to do a totally raw Seder!!

...(Tirza)...Yes, a totally raw Seder would be great. I hope to do better this year. So far I have caved and eaten some of the cooked foods, but each time I add much more raw and crowd out more of the cooked. Although, by the time we actually even get to the meal itself, it's usually going on to 1-2 am. and NO ONE feels like eating. It's so funny, the women spend weeks preparing the food ahead in their Pesach kitchens, then the Seder meal ends up being served on bread'n'butter plates because no one is hungry by then.

I'll never forget the year we were guests at the Toledot Aharon Rebbe's Seder. I sure wasn't making any issues about food there, I'll tell you! My mouth would hardly close long enough to chew anyway, just from the AWE of it all.

Going to Jerusalem for Purim!! YAY!! Now THAT is a time I will have to exercise some heavy discipline on myself for eating. (Not mentioning the drinking.)

[mattshor]

Sephardic here (bnei anussim from Spain via PR and Cuba). I'm going to be visiting a family that holds gebrokts for yuntiff and the first part of chol hamoed.
I'll be eating Matza—it's the bread of affliction after all, it isn't supposed to be "good" for you.
Tirza, would you mind sharing some of your recipes and even that excel list? I'm mostly looking for things that I can take with me ahead of time already prepared, crackers, maybe I'll make some nut butters.
Are flax seeds kitniyot? That's news to me. I'm 90% certain that psyllium is not, but then again, as I am sfaradi I don't pay a lot of attention to that.
Incidentally, if you really want kitniyot you can do hatarat nedarim and "convert" to sfardiut. At least according to rav Ovadia.

[mattshor]

Oh and Tirza, Alissa has a recipe for hamantashen in her book, do you have it? have you seen it? Have you tried it? If I have time I am going to try and make some and if I do, I'll report back.

[rawlight]

Going to Jerusalem for Purim!! YAY!! Now THAT is a time I will have to exercise some heavy discipline on myself for eating. (Not mentioning the drinking.)
[/COLOR]


Wow, it must be really crazy in Jerusalem at Purim :D

[Tirza]

Oh and Tirza, Alissa has a recipe for hamantashen in her book, do you have it? have you seen it? Have you tried it? If I have time I am going to try and make some and if I do, I'll report back.

Yes, I just did a search for Purim and found a thread from 2005 and bumped it up. You might have seen it already. No, I haven't yet tried the hamentaschen.

That's a cute idea about "converting" to Sephardic. Yay, Rav Ovadia!

Yes, I have the same view about eating matzah, ..that it's kind of one of those things you shouldn't try to get around.

I think there are mixed opinions among Ashkenazim about flax, but I think that most hold that it is kitniyot.

We keep gebrockts too, which is terribly easy if we aren't using matzah anyway for the whole week.

As far as my menu plan, it's still in process. Some of the recipes I have on there aren't yet totally "tweaked" for Pesach, (as I'm waiting to get info on those other issues) but are just on there as a framework. If you want to send me a private email through my profile on this forum, I could send a reply with the menu as long as you understand that it is not my ideal yet.

[Tirza]

Wow, it must be really crazy in Jerusalem at Purim :D

OH YEAH! :D

Crazy hardly says it! :eek:

But the really charming thing is seeing those thousands of children all costumed up, swarming all over the streets, delivering Shaloach Manot. Absolutely yummy-delightful!!!

The music pumping out of loudspeakers all over...singing...dancing....

You must know that Jerusalem and a few other places (the walled cities...Tiveria, Tzfat, Hevron...) hold their Purim (Shushan Purim) a day later than we do outside Israel. People in Jerusalem often travel out to other communities/cities on the "normal" Purim day, do the whole thing there, then hurry back into Jerusalem in time to hear the Megilla (again) at the start of Shushan Purim and go at it all over again! :cool:

I can hardly wait!