Hanukkah is right around the corner and my family will be celebrating Festival of Lights in a way that would make the Maccabees proud: latkes, latkes and more latkes! (Okay, maybe they wouldn’t be proud exactly, but they’d understand.) In the Hanukkah story, a day’s supply of oil somehow lasted eight days, long enough to purify the Jewish Temple after it had been desecrated by Syrian-Greek soldiers. This is the miracle of Hanukkah. To celebrate, we get to eat a lot of fried foods. Sounds like a win! The fact that we can easily celebrate without compromising our vegan values is just the icing on the cake. Or the sour cream on the latke. Here are some delicious looking recipes that are ready and waiting for inclusion in your compassionate holiday meal, whether you are Jewish or not. This is the kind of Hanukkah food I grew up on: true comfort food. Traditional Askenazi food can lean heavily on fried simple carbs so a big green salad is a good addition to this meal.
Bread
Challah This is an excellent challah: I substitute agave for the brown rice syrup just for flavor preference.
Olive Oil Challah Less sweet than the above recipe.
Appetizers
Muhummara A delicious Middle Eastern red pepper and walnut dip.
Mock Chopped Liver Who needs organ meat when you can have this savoriness by Everyday Dish TV?
Knishes Baked potato dumplings from the Ukraine.
Main dishes
Seitan Brisket Oy gevult, I haven’t had brisket in about a bazillion years.
Seven-Vegetable Couscous with Chunk Onion Harissa Make this Sephardic dish with vegetable broth instead of chicken.
Kasha Varnishkes My grandmother called this Seashells and Kasha because she used shell-shaped pasta. Use tamari instead of soy sauce and this is a gluten-free dish.
Latkes by Nava Atlas
Latkes by Rhea Parsons Easily de-glutenized using chickpea flour for the wheat, she advises
Latkes by Robin Robertson
And a little homemade sour cream
Sweets
Hanukkah doughnuts The latkes of desserts for Hanukkah
Noodle Kugel by the Discerning Brute
Sweet Cherry Noodle Kugel by Marie Oser
Crescent-rolled Rugelach beautiful ones by the Discerning Brute
Don't let anyone tell you that you can't participate in the traditions you love just because you're vegan. Celebrate the miracle and maybe sing a little, dance a little, and let the latkes roll, vegan-style!
*Rugelach is a damn fine Eastern European cookie and I insist that you make it. If done well, you could even move someone to tears. My grandmother did when she brought rugelach to a party once and a man, a stranger to her, took one bite and was so genuinely flooded with emotion – his Proust’s Madeleine, as it were – that he took a deep breath, thanked her and kissed her cheek. I’m not saying that the same thing will happen to you but it very well could. On the other hand, maybe you don’t want that, so consider yourself warned.
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