It is no coincidence that Passover arrives right on the cusp of spring. The joyous holiday, which is alternately calledchag ha'aviv("spring festival" in Hebrew) is a celebration of the fresh, the hopeful, and the new. This year, let your seder menu embrace the season in all of its riotous glory by packing it with vibrant, leafy vegetables and bright, briny flavor. Don't worry—you don't have to give up time-honored classics like matzo ball soup or kugel. Just a few tweaks and a heap of gleaming produce will have you seeing (and celebrating) green.
One of the items on the seder plate,"karpas,"usually represented by parsley, is Passover's most blatant nod to springtime. Bring this seder ritual to the meal by offering asimple appetizer of crisp radishesdipped in fruity olive oil and a lemon-herb sea salt.
People tend to get a little protective of matzo ball soup. Too many changes, and it just doesn't taste like Passover. Stick with aclassic, brothy versionthat comes packed with extra touches: soft, sweet fennel, ribbons of kale, and matzo balls dressed up with tons of dill.
Contrasting colors are usually the name of the salad game. But filling your bowl with a million shades of the same color (hint: green) makes a salad that is as visually striking as it is delicious. In thisspring salad, creamy cubes of avocado and crisp cucumber half moons meet steamed asparagus, snap peas, and a jumble of fresh herbs.
With all due respect to brisket, it hardly captures the essence of spring. Swap inpan-roasted chickenbrightened with spring's current poster child: ramps. The garlicky spring onions lend the chicken a bit of wild flavor that gets amplified by tart lemon slices and briny green olives.
Potato leek soup is one of the most brilliantly seasonal dishes because it bridges the last of winter's vegetables with one of spring's first. Apply that logic to kugel and you get atraditional dish that still surprises.
Fight the temptation to recreate a flour-filled cake or cookies with matzo meal—the results are too often heavy and unsatisfying. Instead, focus on a dessert that is naturally flour-free, like arich coconut custardtopped with spring's most classic sweet-tart duo: strawberries and rhubarb.
Leah Koenig is the author of the new cookbook,Modern Jewish Cooking: Recipes & Customs for Today's Kitchen
