Prickly pear juice makes a fabulous beverage with which to surprise and delight your Rosh Hashanah guests. If you want to get maximum enjoyment out of this fruit, it's most easily enjoyed in this form, with honey, lemon juice, water and a dash of salt.
Read MoreWhat are the culinary customs of Rosh Hashanah – and what are some healthful dishes to prepare and enjoy while adhering to the traditional simanim of the Rosh Hashanah Seder? These simanim symbolize our hopes and prayers for a sweet new year: apples, honey, pomegranate, beets, leeks, black-eyed peas, squash, dates and fish head.
Read MoreIt is a custom on Rosh Hashanah to eat new, seasonal fruits that have not been consumed since at least the year before. With so many exotic possibilities, how do you know which to choose? Here’s a guide to the most common new fruits.
Read MoreWhat is the difference between raw honey and regular honey? And why does it matter? The answer is more fascinating than you might think. David Jefferson, Founder of Bloom Honey, discusses the benefits of raw honey, the various honey varietals and which Rosh Hashanah foods to pair with the varietals.
Read MoreRosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is filled with well-known culinary customs like eating pomegranates. Read on to learn about the symbolism of pomegranates, their remarkable health and nutritional benefits, several different varieties and the best way to eat this fruit.
Read More
“A taste of honey, tasting much sweeter than wine…”
So goes a classic song from 1961, later covered by the Beatles.
Indeed, honey is a gustatory and sensory experience most powerfully perceived during Rosh Hashanah, as we dip apples in honey, swaddle our bread in honey and serve pastries made with honey.
One of the most pervasive customs around Rosh Hashanah is eating apples with honey. Apples are symbolic of the Garden of Eden and represent the sweet year that we hope to have. Honey symbolizes the sweetness of life and encapsulates our hopes for the new year. It is also a reminder of one of the Biblical attributes of the Land of Israel, a land “flowing with milk and honey.”
But ancient honey was very different from the commercial honey that we consume nowadays. A good-quality raw honey contains an abundance of amino acids, vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidant polyphenols, pollen, enzymes and probiotic bacteria such as acidophilus. Raw honey is a very rich food!
By contrast, honey that has been processed is much less nutritious than raw honey. Pasteurization extends shelf life, while filtration removes debris and air bubbles so the honey looks smoother. The heat treatment reduces the viscosity and make it easier to pour. It also destroys the beneficial enzymes and reduces the antibacterial and antimicrobial properties. Some honeys undergo an additional ultrafiltration step that removes pollen, enzymes and antioxidants. What is left is nutritionally sterile: refined sugar in liquid form. Additionally, it’s very likely that the fields that the bees pollinate have been sprayed with pesticides and other chemicals.
As if the sterilization and filtration are not enough, honey is often adulterated with glucose, high-fructose corn syrup or starch to make it cheaper. This particularly applies to honey imported from China. Since there is no reliable regulatory body safeguarding consumers from adulterated versions, I suggest avoiding cheap commercial honey altogether.
How does a consumer know that the honey is real? Buying raw local honey from actual beekeepers at farmer’s markets is one way to ensure you are getting real honey. Real unadulterated honey should contain the producer’s name and information on the product label. It should say “raw” and “unpasteurized” on the package. And it should be local, if possible. Short of buying it from a local vendor, trustworthy brands can be found at Whole Foods, Amazon or Costco. We buy our raw honey from Costco (the Kirkland brand) and YS Eco Bee Farms Raw Honey from Amazon.
Along with honey, apples are highly coveted during Rosh Hashanah. The custom to eat apples on this holiday may have begun in the Middle Ages, when apples became more widely cultivated.
But seasonality also plays a strong role in the apple being a Rosh Hashanah fruit: Popular apple varieties such as Fuji, Gala, McIntosh and Honeycrisp are first harvested during September.
In addition to the religious symbolism and seasonality, why are apples held in such esteem in our culture’s health consciousness? Apples are full of fiber, vitamin C and certain anti-oxidants, which makes them not only the perfect holiday fruit but also the perfect antidote to other not-so-savory food cravings at this time of year. As the ancient aphorism states, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”.
Not surprisingly, modern nutritional science is increasingly backing this up. According to Cornell University biochemist T. Colin Campbell, “it is now clear that there are hundreds, if not thousands of chemicals in apples, each of which in turn may affect thousands of reactions and metabolic systems. This enormous number and concentration of vitamin-C like chemicals in apples poses a serious challenge to the notion that a single chemical – vitamin C or anything else – is responsible for the major health-giving properties of apples.” This supports the contention that the whole food in its natural state is always more potent than any of its individual components.
Before you go shopping for your Rosh Hashanah apples, consider buying organic. Conventional apples are doused with a heavy amount of synthetic pesticides (ranking fifth on the EWG’s list of most contaminated fruits and vegetables). But if you can’t buy organic, then you can clean the apples with a mixture of baking soda (1 tsp) and water (2 cups). This hopefully removes more of the pesticide residue than simply rinsing with water.
Have a sweet and consciously kosher New Year! Shana Tova u’Metuka!
ACTIVE PREP TIME: 5 MIN
It’s almost autumn and grapes are in season again!
Drinking fresh grape juice on Shabbat is absolutely divine. I load up on the grapes starting in the late summer/early autumn when they come into season and make tons of juice. Then I freeze it in 16-ounce jars. I’ve found that drinking a cup of homemade juice is so much more pleasurable than consuming the treacly store-bought grape juice. In addition to high amounts of sugar (34g/8 oz.), the conventional Kedem grape juice contains sulfites, which I can’t tolerate. But even the organic (and sulfite-free) Kedem (35g/8 oz.) and Lakewood (36g/8 oz.) juices are intolerably sweet, although we always have a bottle or two on hand as a backup.
I switched over to homemade grape juice about two years ago. It’s tough to go back. And, like making your own Shabbat challah, it adds a lovely personal touch to the Shabbat meals that the kids look forward to each week. In contrast to the never-changing flavor of Kedem or Lakewood, making your own juice means that each batch has a slightly different flavor profile: some are more tangy, some are milder. Some are sweeter, some are lighter. You choose the grapes that you like best. Oftentimes, I let my kids decide which grapes they want in their juice.
Grape juice, when fresh, unsweetened and unfiltered, is incredibly nutritious: it contains high amounts of antioxidant compounds resveratrol and flavonoids, as well as providing dietary fiber via the seeds and the skin. Typically, the darker the grape, the more antioxidants are present. These factors contribute to maintaining healthy blood pressure and reducing LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. Grape juice is also a good source of vitamins B6, C and thiamin, in addition to manganese and potassium.
However, these same benefits are not conferred by store-bought grape juice. The grapes in that juice are mostly pulp, and have been filtered, with skin and seeds removed. Similarly, eating grapes is not the same as crushing them into grape juice. On the other hand, the high-speed blending process of making your own juice pulverizes the skin and crushes the seeds, releasing the flavonoids that are otherwise less likely to get properly metabolized.
Homemade grape juice is shockingly easy to make. It requires just three ingredients: grapes, citrus and water.
First, procure a good source of fresh grapes. The grapes should preferably be organic, the redder the better, with seeds, skins and even small pieces of stem. The variety doesn’t matter. I’ve used Concord, Thomcord (a hybrid of Thompson seedless and seeded Concord), Scarlet Royal, Autumn Royal, Thompson and Flame.
Wash about 1.5 pounds of grapes well in a glass bowl to remove all the dirt, then add the grapes to a 64-ounce high-speed blender container.
Toss in a Meyer lemon (preferably organic, because you will use some rind). This adds flavor and retards oxidation. Rinse the lemon well, then cut a 1/8-inch-thick slice and toss (rind and all) into the blender with the grapes.
Throw 1.5 cups of filtered water into the blender. The water dilutes the grapes so they aren’t so shockingly sweet. The water also makes the juice go a lot further.
Run the blender on high for 45-60 seconds.
Homemade grape juice requires just three ingredients:
1.5 pounds grapes (washed well)
A slice of Meyer lemon (with rind)
1.5 cups filtered water
Homemade grape juice is a guilty pleasure. Your family will love it. It will taste delicious, refreshing and fruity. And the blessing before the wine on Friday night and Saturday afternoon – “Blessed are You, L-rd our G‑d, King of the universe, Who creates the fruit of the vine” – will be more meaningful.
Have you ever made your own grape juice at home? What's your favorite grape juice blend?
Revised on September 17, 2020
Kosher food can be both tasty and nutritious. It need not be filled with cheap refined carbs, sugar, salt, preservatives or filler. The purpose of Consciously Kosher is to teach people how to eat a kosher diet rich in nutritious, predominantly unprocessed whole foods. The recipes and meal hacks are simple and quick, to accommodate parents juggling careers and multiple kids.
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