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If you’re Jewish—or are a relative or friend of the tribe—you’ll be stuffing yourself silly with delicious traditional dishes next week. Unfortunately for vegetarians, the customary Passover menu is loaded with beef, poultry, and fish. My grandmother always made her famous brisket for
In putting together this veggie stew, I took a few things into consideration. I wanted to come up with something that would go well with the rest of the dinner, that would (at least seem to) have some relevance, and that would be incredibly easy to make. A potato-based vegetable stew seemed like a good match for a meaty dinner. And I tossed in some Mediterranean ingredients, as well as some springtime ingredients, for the relevance part. For the easiness, I made sure the entire dish could be made in one single pot—a critical quality for one of the kitchen’s busiest nights of the year.
Now, a word about the optional chickpeas: Ashkenazi Jews (whose roots trace back to Germany and neighboring countries) abstain not only from bread and leavened products during Passover, but also from rice, corn, legumes, and seeds, like sesame and poppy. On the other hand, Sephardic Jews (whose roots trace back to Spain and Portugal) don’t share the custom of those secondary restrictions. I decided to go Sephardic for this stew, and include chickpeas to add some protein—but you can certainly leave them out if you are a strict non-legume-consumer.
p.s. Leave out the optional Parmesan cheese, and you’ve got yourself a genuine vegan Passover entree.
More Jewish holiday recipes you’ll love
- Honey Cake
- Honey Cookies
- Lemon Coconut Macaroons
- Jewish Beef Brisket
- Meat-Filled Borekas or Pastelicos
- Passover Orange Sponge Cake
- Passover Potato, Tomato, and Olive Stew
- Hamentashen
- Kreplach with Beef Filling
- Sufganiyot or Jelly Donuts for Hanukkah
- Potato Latkes for Hanukkah
- Classic Chopped Liver
- Vegetarian Chopped Liver
- Check out all of my Jewish Recipes!
Potato, Tomato, and Olive Stew
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1 large onion chopped
- 4 cloves garlic lightly crushed
- 1½ pounds small red potatoes halved or quartered
- ½ pound carrots sliced ½-inch thick
- 2 15-ounce cans diced tomatoes, including juice
- 1 cup red wine
- 1 cup raisins
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary chopped
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme
- 1 15-ounce can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained (optional)
- 8 ounces frozen or canned artichoke hearts thawed or drained and cut in half
- ¾ cup pitted green olives
- 2 tablespoons capers
- freshly grated Parmesan cheese for optional non-vegan garnish
Instructions
- In a large stockpot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. When oil is hot but not smoking, add onions and stir until onions are soft and translucent, 5 to 7 minutes.
- Add garlic, potatoes, and carrots and stir for an additional 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add diced tomatoes and juice, wine, raisins, salt, pepper, rosemary, and thyme. Bring liquid to a boil, then lower heat and simmer, covered, until potatoes and carrots begin to soften (10 to 15 minutes).
- Add chickpeas, artichoke hearts, olives, and capers, and continue to simmer for another 10 minutes, until potatoes and carrots are soft.
- Taste, and add additional salt and pepper if needed.
- Serve with freshly grated Parmesan (optional).
Oh, how I love this article. History and all. So glad you mentioned your grandmother since the whole celebration is so much about grandmothers and what they cooked, may you remember it forever. The recipe sounds scrumptious.
Well, I tried this tonight, although I was caught short on an item or two. I ended up stupidly buying crushed tomatoes with puree and decided to use fresh Romas that I had instead. They were going to go bad, so this seemed like a good solution. I also didn’t have raisins, but then, I’m not really a raisin girl. I’m at the tail end of the final simmer, so I’ll report back in once I’ve dug in to a bowl. It looks delicious. Yay Lazy Gourmets!!