Just ten days until Rosh Hashana! Are you feeling ready? Overwhelmed? In total denial?
As I do every year, I’m sharing our Rosh Hashana menu plan —as much as for you as for myself (see why below!).
First Night of Rosh Hashana (8 people)
As has become our family tradition, we eat fish Erev Rosh Hashana — not meat — as our main dish. (I know it doesn’t work for everyone, but it works for us!) Also, you will notice that everything on the menu for this night is a siman — which I love doing!
Do you have my simanim card? Download it HERE.
Apple Stuffed Challah
Round Braided Challah
Pomegranate Spritzers (pomegranate juice + bubbly Moscato wine, floated pomegranate seeds on top)
Apples & Honey
Carrot ginger soup
Honey-Mustard Salmon
Leek patties
Butter Squash Kugel
Colorful Beet Salad with Quinoa, Edamame & Carrots (we’re using edamame in place of black-eyed peas) – I made this year and it was so delicious!
Honey Cookies, Chocolate Date Balls
Fish gummies (we bite off just the heads as our “fish heads”…. and then the kids eat the rest 😉 )
First Day of Rosh Hashana (14 people)
Apple Stuffed Challah and Round Braided Challah, Apples & Honey
Sweet & Sour Meatballs (the uber-simple recipe is in my Stress-Free Passover Book)
Grilled honey mustard chicken cutlets
Roasted potatoes & sweet potoates
Roasted green beans with caramelized onions
Tahina glazed carrots
Apple cake with brown sugar glaze
Fruit salad
Second Day of Rosh Hashana, Dinner: Soup & Salad (6 people)
I make a very light dinner for the second night — usually just soup and salad. I’m going to make my life easier by freezing chicken soup so all I have to do Monday night is put together the salad.
Challah, Apples & Honey
New Fruit
Chicken soup with matzah balls (from the freezer)
Green salad with roasted vegetables, cherry tomatoes, crispy chickpeas and Balsamic vinaigrette
Pumpkin muffins (I use this recipe, but make it in muffin tins – adjust bake time down a bit. These freeze really well.)
Second Day of Rosh Hashana, Lunch (12 people)
Apple Stuffed Challah
Round Braided Challah with Sweet Crumb Topping
Sweet brisket (I think I’m going to try this recipe, but may end up sticking to my tried-and-true Coca Cola brisket)
Mashed potatoes
Leek patties
Butternut Squash Kugel
Green salad
Honey cake (not sure yet what I’m making), fruit salad
A few thoughts on making yomtov menu planning & cooking easier
(Or, perhaps, more accurately, less cumbersome)
Selfishly speaking, having this blog makes menu planning for the chagim so much easier for me. When I sat down to plan this year’s menu, I just looked up the last several year’s worth of plans and tweaked them slightly as necessary.
I know that not everyone can search the archives of their blog, but if you can write your menus in an “archive-able” way — whether in Google docs, or a notes app on your phone, or an old school binder with hand-written menus — it definitely makes menu planning much faster.
In my 20s, I loved to spend hours pouring over cookbooks and planning multiple courses filled with all new-t0-me dishes. The older I get, however, the more I appreciate not having to make too many complicated dishes or culinary decisions.
I like knowing what works (and what doesn’t) for my family — and sticking to those recipes. Each year, I try to make a mix of yomtov-only recipes — like the honey cookies that I’ve been making for a decade now, but only for Rosh Hashana, so they stay “special” — and tried-and-true recipes that even the pickiest eater in our family will like — such as my easy-peasy sweet and sour meatballs, or mashed potatoes as a side dish for lunch.
I’ve also discovered the importance of setting up replicable systems to reduce some of my workload this time of year. One such system is my grocery order. After I made my menu this year, I immediately created an online grocery order, which took me about 45 minutes. Then I used the app’s handy list feature to archive my order as a “list” in my account. (I’d imagine most grocery apps have a similar feature.) Next year, I can save myself those 45 minutes of “shopping” by simply adding my archived Rosh Hashana list to my order. (Of course, I’ll need to edit it to accommodate changes to my menu, but it’s so much easier to start with a “pre-populated” list than to work from scratch).
Another time saving (and sanity saving) tip I’ve started using is making my to do list in the Notes app on my iPhone. Especially since Erev Rosh Hashana falls out on a Sunday, I want to block out time the week before to get as much done as possible in advance. If I leave everything to Saturday night and Sunday, I’ll go insane.
You’ll see that on my note, I have a section for foods that I’ll make-ahead-and-freeze. Freezer space provided, I will double or triple recipes, so I may even have a bit of food “left over” for Sukkot.
I would love to hear what’s on your Rosh Hashana menu plan! Please share below in the comments.
And don’t forget to download my Rosh Hashana Simanim Guide!
Shana Tova!
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