Good morning, everyone! It’s Monday, a holiday, and I’m still nestled in my bed. It’s raining outside, I’ve got my pot of tea and I’m not really planning on moving any time soon! Some days you need that, don’t you think? (I’ve been learning a lot about balance and finding and creating time for everything in my life, not just work/yoga…but that’s a whole other post!).
This weekend we had a Passover Seder. This is the first year since I was a young child that we’ve done it. My mom was raised in the Jewish faith, so when I was young, we (her side of the family) had Passover dinners at my grandparents place. I did not grow up “religious” in any way, but knew about the seder. My experience of the seder was always that we got to drink yummy grape juice and hide the afikomen (matzo) and then get money as a ransom to bring it back.
This year, however, my mom decided that she wanted to do a Passover Seder (instead of just having a generic “easter dinner”). Now, I’m a raw foodie. My mom is now mostly vegan and quite raw as well. My brother and his wife are vegetarians, and the rest of my family (my sister-cousin and her family) are omnivores ;). So, you can see that the menu was going to pose a certain finesse if we were going to all be able to enjoy the food, as well as the company.
Traditionally, Passover fare is quite meat-heavy (chopped liver, lamb, fish, etc). However, what my mom was able to do (with a little help from yours truly) is take the essence of the traditional food and what it represents, and make “substitutions” (perhaps, “new incarnations” is a better term for it in this case).
Check out the bottom of this post for our version of the traditional Passover Seder Plate. (As well as a couple others).
After a bit of brain-storming, a bit of googling and web surfing, we came up with a fabulous menu, all vegan and mostly raw! It even included raw mock chopped liver, raw mock gefilte fish, raw tsimmis, raw matzo (that was un-edible, we had to throw it out!) and raw borscht. Some of the recipes were inspired from this site. Everyone loved all the food and enjoyed breaking matzo together…I think it was our best family dinner yet!
This weekend we were able to create some new traditions in my family. I cannot tell you how happy it made me that my family was willing to share in an “alternative” style meal as a whole (rather than me making one or two things to serve along side a large bird or something). Again, I am shown that forcing people into something that I believe will never make them believe it too…I have to live my life as I believe, and eventually hope to inspire the people around me by who I’m being…and allow them to find their own path.
Happy Passover, Eater and whatever else you may be celebrating at this time…maybe you’re just celebrating a day off, as I am!
Raw Tsimmis
Raw Borscht!
Raw Passover Seder Plate
Ida Ripley 