By: Elisheva Blumberg, Lubicom Marketing Staff
Want to hear something crazy?
We. Love. Cookbooks.
Sure, we’re a recipe site. Our bread and butter is online recipes. But the truth is, if it weren’t for the many dedicated cookbook authors out there, our treasure trove of online recipes would be nowhere near as extensive as it is.
So while having your recipes at your digital fingertips is awesome, there’s just something special about cooking from an actual cookbook. Turning through the pages of well-planned recipes and gorgeous photography is endlessly inspiring to us as cooks. And when a recipe makes it to a cookbook, it’s been tried-and-tested multiple times, so you know you can count on it.
For our list of the 105 Best-Ever Passover recipes, click here.
Compared to online recipes that we use and forget in a flash, cookbooks are heirlooms that can stay in the family for generations.
And when Passover comes around, cookbooks become even more important considering all the food preparation we do on the holiday itself.
So, if you’re looking to upgrade your cookbook repertoire, here are some of our all-time favorite Passover cookbooks, and why we love them.
- Perfect for Pesach by Naomi Nachman
A professional caterer, host of Kosher.com’s Sunny Side Up, and the pioneer of the Kosher Chopped competition, Naomi Nachman knows good food. In fact, as her cookbook tagline says, Perfect for Pesach includes “Passover recipes you’ll want to make all year”.
With 120 gluten-free, non-gebrochts recipes and prep-ahead tips, this Passover cookbook is one you’ll use over and over again.
- The New Passover Menu by Paula Shoyer
With five kosher cookbooks to her credit, Paula Shoyer, or “The Kosher Baker,” offers up contemporary Passover creations in her cookbook, The New Passover Menu.
With creative culinary twists on traditional Passover cuisine, Paula Shoyer’s cookbook features globally-inspired recipes such as Banana Charoset, Peruvian Roast Chicken with Salsa Verde, and true to The Kosher Baker’s specialty, unique desserts like Opera Cake and Pear Frangipane Tarts.
- Vegan Start Passover Cookbook by Rena Reich
With the many dietary restrictions of Passover, many kosher-for-Passover recipes end up relying on animal products. For vegans and those wishing for a more plant-based Passover, Rena Reich’s Vegan Start Passover Cookbook brings something new to the kosher-for-Passover table. This cookbook features vegan and non-kitniyot recipes for staples like almond milk, mayonnaise, and crackers, as well as recipes for “Jewish soul food” like kneidlach and kishka. - Passover Made Easy by Leah Schapira and Victoria Dweck
Leah Schapira and Victoria Dwek are the prolific duo behind Artscroll’s Made Easy series of cookbooks. In Passover Made Easy, you’ll find innovative and reliable Passover recipes along with full-color photos for every dish, a wine guide, and plating suggestions. Recipes you can look forward to trying are Brisket Eggrolls, Matzaroni and Cheese, and (non-gebrochts) Banana French Toast. - The Heimishe Pesach Kitchen by Nitra Ladies Auxiliary
While we’re all for experimentation, there’s always room for the classics — especially on Passover, when ingredients — and the time to play around in the kitchen — can be hard to come by. To that end, The Heimishe Pesach Kitchen lives up to its name, offering tried-and-true comfort recipes everyone in the family will appreciate. - Pesach While You Sleep by Julie Hauser
Far from billing herself as a gourmet chef or foodie, Julie Hauser is all about the everywoman. Her main message? “Pesach does not equal panic.” As such, Pesach While You Sleep details the author’s ingenious Passover cooking method, which makes use of slow cookers to prepare hearty and tasty Passover dishes in advance of the holiday — no Passover kitchen required.
**This book has been recently updated to include more recipes and a pressure cooker section, to add even more efficiency to your Passover cooking fest.
- Too Good to Passover by Jennifer Felicia Abadi
Looking for a change from the traditional Passover matzah ball soup and potato kugel?
Part history book, part cookbook, Too Good to Passover is a one-of-a-kind compilation of “Sephardic & Judeo-Arabic Seder Menus and Memories from Africa, Asia and Europe”. With Passover recipes, customs, and personal stories from ancient Jewish communities in North Africa, Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East, this book offers the reader a truly global Passover experience.
- A Taste of Pesach and A Taste of Pesach 2 by Yeshiva Me’on Hatorah and Artscroll
What began as a humble fundraiser of mini cookbook mailers became a Passover sensation. The stunning success of the first A Taste of Pesach cookbook led to its sequel, A Taste of Pesach 2. Both of these cookbook compilations include a fantastic variety of Passover recipes that are both delicious and doable! - Passover by Design by Susie Fishbein
Susie Fishbein is one of the biggest household names in kosher home cooking, so it’s no surprise to find her Passover cookbook on this list. This one is full of your favorites from her popular cookbooks, all reformulated for Passover use. - The No-Potato Passover by Aviva Kanoff
Though one of our editors claims this one goes “against her personal beliefs,” we know there are plenty of us who have just had enough of the potato dishes. This award winning gem takes you on a culinary journey of inspiring and delicious—and non-potato—Passover recipes. - Pesach-Anything’s Possible by Tamar Ansh
This one seems especially appropriate for this year, when so many of our readers will be making Passover unexpectedly for the first time. Not only does this cookbook come with a built-in encouragement mantra for when you start getting overwhelmed (Say it with us, “Anything’s Possible!”), it also has over 350 non-gebrochts, gluten free recipes. - My Pesach Kitchen by Faigy Murray
When planning your Passover menu this year, these cookbooks will help you through. Whether you need kosher-for-Passover recipes that are perfectly traditional, insanely easy, or exquisitely unique, you’re sure to find it in one of our Passover cookbook picks!
