Holiday

46 Celebratory Recipes to Make for Rosh Hashanah This Year

Think: fluffy challah, saucy brisket, and ultra-moist apple cake.

August 12, 2020
Photo by Bobbi Lin

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is a time to reflect on the past year—and look forward to the coming one.

The holiday's celebratory meal can include favorites like yeasty challah, matzo ball soup, and apples dipped in honey. What do these things have in common? Their friendly circular shape, which symbolizes the ongoing nature of time, the round-and-round-ness of the year. Similarly, sweet foods are favored for a sweet new year.

Here are 46 of our favorite Rosh Hashanah recipes to check out as you plan your own feast.


Appetizers

1. Pickled Deviled Eggs With Smoked Salmon

Deviled eggs are wonderful, and pickled deviled eggs? Even more so. Add smoked salmon and dill on top for bonus points.

2. Anchovy Puffs

A bite-size nod to the traditional fish head, which symbolizes being on top of things in the new year. A cream cheese dough makes these extra flaky.

3. Crudités With Feta-Pistachio Dip

This dip gets its bright green color from pistachios and fresh dill. Feta and Greek yogurt keep it creamy, perfect for snappy raw vegetables.

4. Sautéed Dates

Plump, sweet dates are a popular ingredient at Rosh Hashanah—and this is one of our favorite preparations. Just sauté in olive oil and sprinkle with a big pinch of flaky salt. Done.

5. Fig & Blue Cheese Savories

Savory cookies? They're a thing. These feature fig preserves and funky blue cheese—and we can never eat just one.

6. Basic Hummus

It's hard to beat a perfect hummus—and this is just that. Serve with crispy pita chips, oven-toasted challah slices, or a bunch of fresh vegetables.

7. Romanian Eggplant Spread

A classic Romanian spread. All you have to do is roast an eggplant and bell pepper until they're soft and caramelized, then mix with olive oil, red wine vinegar, and raw onion and garlic.

8. Ricotta With Honeyed Grapes

Instead of honey and apples: honey and grapes. This jammy mixture is perfect to spoon on ricotta toasts.


Meat & Fish

9. Milk-Braised Brisket With Potato & Onion

Note: This milk-braised brisket is not kosher by any means. But it is incredibly tender, with a hearty, dreamy sauce perfect for challah-dunking.

10. Sweet & Smoky Brisket

This brisket by cookbook author Leah Koenig is a nod to Texas BBQ. It's sweet, smoky, and very saucy thanks to tomato sauce, brown sugar, and smoked paprika.

11. Simplest Roast Chicken

A fuss-free roast chicken that's sure to deliver crispy skin. Estimate 10 minutes per pound at 500°F, untrussed.

12. Pomegranate-Braised Lamb Shanks

Pomegranates are an especially beloved fruit during Rosh Hashanah. This lamb shank recipe uses the juice with balsamic vinegar and rosemary sprigs.

13. Quick-Braised Fish With Baby Potatoes & Greens

Anchovies, garlic, and toasted almonds are the power trio behind this sauce—wonderful for firm fish like halibut. Throw in some tiny potatoes and whatever greens grab your attention.

14. Gefilte Fish

Our test kitchen director Josh Cohen's take on classic gefilte fish. Serve with plenty of spicy horseradish.

15. Ruth's Brisket

This brisket recipe was passed down to longtime Food52er Marian by her mother, who typically served it with green peas, freshly made rye bread, butter, and sliced kosher pickles. The stovetop method calls for a Dutch oven, but commenters have noted it can easily be made in the oven, too.


Vegetables & Salads

16. Yogurt & Beet Salad

Beets, yogurt, olive oil, and fresh mint. Look at that—you just memorized the ingredient list.

17. Broccoli Salad With Pesto, Apples & Walnuts

Apples don't have to be dipped in honey for Rosh Hashanah. Here, they shine in a broccoli-pesto slaw with toasted walnuts.

18. Roasted Apple & Fennel Salad With Toasted Hazelnuts & Goat Cheese

Another apple salad. This time, it gets roasted with fennel, then topped with hazelnuts and soft, tangy goat cheese.

19. Pomegranate-Roasted Carrots

Cookbook author Melissa Clark's roasted carrots stand out thanks to a special ingredient: sweet, tangy pomegranate molasses. You can find it at many supermarkets, or learn how to make your own here.

20. Brussels Sprouts & Apple Salad With Cheddar & Rye Bread Crumbs

Brussels sprouts, apples, and cheddar are all great in a salad. But it's the rye bread crumbs that really send this one over the top.

21. Lentil Salad With Mint, Roasted Peppers & Feta Cheese

"By chopping your vegetables up finely before throwing them into the pot, they cook just as quickly as the lentils do (about 20 minutes), without turning to mush," Kristen Miglore writes. "This means they also get to stay put to become part of the salad."

22. Braised Leeks

Leeks are another symbolic ingredient often found on Rosh Hashanah tables. Here, they're simply braised with broth, butter, and thyme.


Soups

23. Matzo Ball Soup

The secret to this super-comforting matzo ball soup: the matzo balls are made with drippings from a roast chicken.

24. Chosen Matzo Ball Soup

Joan Nathan's matzo ball soup is as minimalist as it gets—full-flavored chicken broth, fluffy matzo balls, and an optional sprinkle of fresh herbs on top.


Potatoes, Noodles & Breads

25. Parsnip Latkes With Apple Chutney & Horseradish Yogurt

While potato latkes often show up at Hanukkah, these parsnip ones are wonderful all fall and winter. You can serve with apple chutney or horseradish yogurt, but they're best with both.

26. Beet & Carrot Fritters With Dill & Yogurt Sauce

These vegetable fritters get their bright color from beets. Serve with a no-fuss yogurt sauce, or even this lemony tahini one.

27. Roasted Potatoes With Za'atar & Aleppo Pepper

Za'atar is a traditional Middle Eastern spice mixture; this version includes thyme, sesame seeds, and sumac. Combine with olive oil for dipping challah, or use as a zesty coating for these roasted potatoes.

28. Kasha Varnishkes

This Jewish comfort-food dish features pasta tossed with nutty buckwheat, caramelized onions, and mushrooms. Don't skimp on the parsley.

29. Noodle Kugel With Caramelized Onions & Brown Butter

Many noodle kugels are dessert-sweet, with sugar and raisins, but this one takes a savory path instead: caramelized onions, brown butter, and sage.

30. Five-Fold Challah

If you find making challah from scratch intimidating, this is the recipe that will hold your hand and tell you everything is going to be okay.

31. Scallion Pancake Challah

Molly Yeh introduces challah to scallion pancakes, and the holidays become even happier.

32. Savory Potato & Onion Knishes

These savory knishes (with potatoes and onions!) boast a topping inspired by an everything bagel: sesame seeds, poppy seeds, and onion flakes.

33. My Great-Grandmother's Challah

This beloved challah recipe is all about the texture: soft and light, yet with a structurally sound crumb that holds up to slicing well (it's also great for French toast, egg-in-the-hole, stuffing, and the like). Plus the taste is worth writing home about: not too sweet but with the honey clearly shining through.


Desserts!

34. Heavenly Apple Cake

This apple cake stays moist and tender for days, so feel free to bake it in advance, wrap it well, and check one more thing off your list in advance. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream, Greek yogurt, or crème fraîche.

35. Lemon, Poppy Seed & Olive Oil Cake

Olive oil cake gets the lemon–poppy seed treatment. Use a dramatic Bundt pan that will make everyone ooh and aah when you carry it out.

36. Pomegranate Passion Cake

A sticky almond cake becomes even more addictive, thanks to pomegranate molasses, with a yogurty frosting and fresh pomegranate seeds on top.

37. Babka Au Chocolat Brioche

For a never-dry chocolate babka, do as Alice Medrich does, and start with a brioche dough.

38. Apple Dumplings

Honeycrisp apples get swaddled in flaky, buttery pie dough, baked until tender, then doused in cider caramel.

39. Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Coffee Cake With Apples

This tangy chocolate chip cake has a layer of spiced apples running through the middle, which amps up the flavor while keeping everything extra moist.

40. Fennel Honey Cake

This fennel seed–speckled layer cake gets doused in a honey syrup, then slathered in cream cheese frosting.

41. New Classic Coconut Macaroons

Sweetened, shredded coconut—move over for unsweetened coconut flakes. As Alice Medrich figured out, these make for an even better macaroon.

42. Prune & Chocolate Rugelach

Get ready for the inevitable "Hey, can I have another?" reactions to these pretty pinwheel rugelach, featuring prune jam and fudge sauce. Oh yeah.

43. Cinnamon-Raisin Rugelach

Just like cinnamon-raisin bread, but—dare we say it?—even better. The result is flaky, sweet, and perfect for celebrating the holiday.

44. Cider Caramel Apple Pie

This tart, caramelly tart twist on classic apple pie has a lot going for it: a bright, apple-forward flavor; a dreamy crust that's both flaky and tender; and a creamy richness to the filling (thanks, butter).

45. Rustic French Honey Cake

This just-the-right-amount-of-sweet honey cake keeps exceptionally well wrapped up for a few days, and it actually gets even better over time (if you can keep it around).

46. Rosh Hashanah Apple Cake

This Rosh Hashanah cake is a consistent hit with our community. Peruse the comments section and you'll find words like "great," "perfect," and "amazingly easy" throughout.

This article was originally published for Rosh Hashanah 2016. We refreshed it with lots of new recipes for the upcoming year. What's on your Rosh Hashanah table? Share the menu with us in the comments.
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14 Comments

Rosalind P. September 24, 2022
I was about to write about the baking recipes that include dairy ingredients and suggest that recipes for Jewish holidays please respect the kosher requirements: NO DAIRY WITH MEAT MEALS. Then I saw that others had written expressing the same point -- and very eloquently. Please, Food 52, show you pay attention. I know that some of your principals are Jewish, and are probably familiar with this most basic rule, even if they don't follow it. It is severely disappointing that you continue to perpetuate your mis-step. Nothing wrong with a clever "oops" and a correction. Please?
 
Marya K. September 24, 2022
No one at Food 52 cares. Otherwise they’d have responded and changed in the past few years. So disappointing.
 
[email protected] September 24, 2022
It’s pretty upsetting to read the article, see the comments (from as much as 3 years back) explaining why milk braised brisket is an affront to our culture, our religion. The simple note of “this is not kosher by any means” is insulting at the least. A recipe like that shouldn’t be in an article that is specific to the observation and celebration of our highest holy days, period. I love cheeseburgers and I don’t mind having a sip of a milkshake when I do, but I’d never serve it to my family on a holiday…or make the suggestion. For such a wonderful food publication this is such a huge disappointment.
 
seahorse1340 November 29, 2021
I thought Yon Kippur was the Jewish New Year, not Rosh Hashanah?
 
[email protected] September 24, 2022
The Jewish New Year starts with the observation of Rosh Hashanah. It follows through the observation of Yom Kippur.
 
[email protected] September 2, 2021
A year later, after multiple requests to remove the milk-braised brisket recipe, it’s still here. Excellent job at listening to feedback. It almost seems that someone really wants to be contrary to the very community they’re pretending to serve with this list. Super asshole move.
 
creamtea September 8, 2021
Fully agree with you. This is not boundary-pushing as Marya K. suggests below, it's culturally disrespectful. F52 would not commit this sort of aggression with any other community. There is beauty in our traditions. F42 needs to respect that.
 
Hannah September 19, 2020
I’ve realized that food 52 doesn’t have a kosher section in their “special considerations” options when looking for recipes. This really should be remediated for any future Jewish Holiday compilations.
 
Marya K. September 19, 2020
How could your lovely staff include a milk-braised brisket on a list of Jewish holiday recipes? This isn’t just a cultural boundary-pusher, it’s equivalent to offering a beef recipe for a Hindu holiday, or drinks recipes for Latter Day Saints and Baptists. Others have expressed distress over this recipe. Please take it down from this list. Not every brisket recipe is Jewish. Some may eat cheeseburgers, but to flout the exact wording of the prohibition? On a religious holiday? No. I love your recipes, and your lists for holidays, but this eroded my trust in Food52. Please do the right thing and substitute another recipe.
 
amyinCT September 15, 2020
Milk braised Brisket??? Anchovy puffs? You need to do some research on foods that are acceptable in a kosher household. While not everyone is strictly kosher, recommending menu items that are glaringly in violation of the rules smacks of cultural insensitivity.
 
creamtea August 12, 2020
While it's nice to have a heads up for R"H ideas, I feel there's no real need to provide a recipe combining milk and meat for this most traditional of holidays, when so many other great options exist, whether meat-based or vegetarian, traditional or adventurous. It just feels off....
 
Ruth A. July 16, 2019
It's too early to think about what I'm making for Rosh Hashanah, which starts on September 29. Also too hot.

But I'm hoping to make Samin Nosrat's Russian Honey Cake from the New York Times that I didn't get around to last year.

Or at least the slightly less involved recipe for something similar that I recently saw on Smitten Kitchen.
 
Nancy September 28, 2016
Lovely concept (the round things) and article.
Here are 3 dishes in my rotation for these meals:
Rosh Hashanah SEDER (as in this thread):
https://food52.com/blog/8002-the-rosh-hashanah-seder-plate
Pierre Herme Pain d'epices (FRENCH HONEY CAKE that is very edible), using Dorie Greenspan's reprint of his recipe
Gateau de patates douces (SWEET POTATO CAKE with a lovely chocolate topping)...delicious, old, traditional Algerian recipe, now also useful for guests who need or want to eat gluten free.
 
Nancy September 9, 2021
Thanks for Amy, Christy, Creamtea, Hannah, Marya and Ruth for pointing out the inept recommendation first time around (and callous continued inclusion) of foods combining milk and meat for a major Jewish holiday.
Dear food52 editor (Caroline Lange or whoever handles this article since 2016). Please do a better job Jewish holiday articles...editorial content should be appropriate and timing more useful (neither two-three months in advance, nor merely the day of the holiday). Better timing would be about two weeks in advance.