PHOTO: ANDREW BUI; FOOD STYLING: LENA ABRAHAM
Anyone who has ever celebrated Passover knows it can sometimes be a bit of a, shall we say, rough time. Between keeping kosher specifically for Passover and avoiding chametz (or leavened grain products), some years we can’t wait for the week to be over, much less try and get creative with our meals. If you’re also eating a plant-based diet at the same time? Forget about it! We’re here to help. If you follow a vegetarian diet year-round, you know it’s less about what you can’t eat, and more about celebrating what you can. Same goes for a vegetarian Passover, and honestly, Passover in general—rather than rueing the lack of, say, pasta, instead celebrate all the alternatives you’ll get to try (or the freedom with which you can eat it with wild abandon the rest of the year). In the very least, we can definitely promise these 26 vegetarian Passover recipes are better than another matzo pizza. 😋
Speaking of pasta, it’s true that many a vegetarian dinner revolves around it, bread, and potatoes. We’re beyond pleased that potatoes are still on the table for Passover (check out our spinach & artichoke baked potatoes or our house latkes if you are too!), but what to do about the rest? Try swapping in alternatives made from zucchini, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, and more. Make our zucchini lattice lasagna, our cauliflower stuffing, our eggplant rollatini, or our sweet potato cacio e pepe for Passover, and we bet you’ll forget all about anything missing from your meal. These same ingredients also make for killer meat substitutes—check out our cabbage Parmesan, our whole roasted cauliflower, and our vegan shepherd’s pie, then get ready to bookmark these recipes for the rest of the year too.
A note: Some of these recipes (like the aforementioned shepherd’s pie) do include kitniyot, or legumes, an ingredient some Jewish families avoid during Passover. We’ll assume if that is you, you’ll be aware of it and will sub in or out of these recipes as needed. If you (and especially your kids) do eat an entirely vegetarian diet and rely on things like legumes for protein, please talk to your rabbi about potentially including kitniyot during Passover this year.
Want even more Passover ideas? Check out our favorite Passover dinners, our top Passover apps, and our best Passover desserts too.
