Happy Passover: Festival of Spring

My dear friend and angel on earth Brigitte hosted the most chic Passover Seder I've had the pleasure to experience. It was lovely to share stories and traditions from our variating cultural experience, like how my Persian Sephardic family will whip the bobkes out of each other for fun during Dayenu, while Brigitte's Moroccan Sephardic family angelically orbs the matzo tray over guests heads with song and prayer for Bebelouya, singing "may next year's Seder be in Israel". In all traditions, it's asked that you drink your whole glass of wine with every page and sit further back in your chair (relax) each time you turn the page to a new prayer to celebrate the Israelites liberation from slavery.

For those of you that know me well, I'm not religious but highly spiritual and enjoy any reason to gather and celebrate together with family and friends. I also love rituals and there's a symbolic purpose to each food represented on the iconic Passover Seder plate that you're welcome to explore via google if you're interested to learn more. While I may not eat everything on the plate, I do love how it looks and the meanings.

"Now drink it all up."

Bebelouya

Charoset with Celery

"do you need a yamaka?"

 Challenge: Try reading each passage in one breath!

 Ponyo <3

Brigitte and I divided and concurred the recipes–while I made the Apple-Walnut Charoset that I'll share a recipe for and what to do with all the leftovers below, she made everything else. Hope you enjoy taking a peek of this tradition and my healthier, whole-food, plant-base, sugar-free version of Chcaroset below! 

Charoset for The Seder

Charoset Leftovers, Warm Quinoa Cereal or Cake Bars

Sugar-Free Raspberry Apple-Walnut Charoset

by Sarah Farsh April 8, 2020

• 2 pink lady apple, diced
• 1 cup fresh raspberries, chopped
• 1 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1/2 cup good red wine
• 1/4 cup maple syrup or date syrup
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp fresh ginger, peeled/minced (optional)

Apple-Walnut Charoset Leftover Quinoa Coffee Cake or Warm Cereal Breakfast Bowl

by Sarah Farsh April 9, 2020

• 2 cups cooked quinoa
• 1/2 cup fresh squeezed grapefruit or orange juice (about 2 oranges and 1 grapefruit mixed with water)
• 1 cup Leftover Charoset (more or less depending how much you have)
• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 3 tbsp flax meal + 8 tbsp water (let sit for 5min to gel into "vegan egg")
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract (read ingredients, should just say vanilla and no sugar or oil)
• splash of water if needed to help mix batter (it should be thick/crumbly so don't over water)

Preheat oven to 350º. Combine all ingredients together in a large bowl and mix well, batter should be thick and crumbly–almost like a jumble cookie batter. You can enjoy the batter at this point as a breakfast quinoa cereal to eat warm or room temp. To make cake squares, scoop and spread batter into a oven safe vessel–glass or non stick is fine (you can even poor them into muffin tins for cupcakes!). Bake cake for 40-45min and let cool before slicing in.