Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday that lasts 8 days and is known as the festival of lights. With Hanukkah approaching fast, what better way to start off this holiday season than to learn about the most popular Hanukkah foods! The best Hanukkah dishes featured in this story have been determined thanks to our own Carrollwood Day School student bodies’ opinions.
Arguably the most popular dish is Latkes. Latkes are a small potato pancake that is typically eaten during Hanukkah. Latkes are the most popular dish in the Jewish culture and can be eaten with sour cream, or even applesauce. Not sure how to make them? Look here.
It wouldn’t be Hanukkah without Challah, a loaf of bread that is usually braided and can be eaten plain or with butter. During Hanukkah, a blessing is said over the bread and then everyone takes a piece of the challah and eats it. If you and your family would like to try your hand at this delicious bread, we found a recipe for you here.
Another very flavorful dish is matzo ball soup. Matzo ball soup is chicken soup filled with delicious matzo balls. Matzo balls are made of matzah meal, egg, water, oil or margarine and represent the unleavened bread that the jews ate when they fled Egypt. Find the recipe here.
Hanukkah is all about the small jar of oil that miraculously lasted 8 nights and saved the Jewish people from religious persecution. Therefore, many of the traditional Hanukkah desserts are fried. The most famous dessert eaten on Hanukkah is Sufganiyot, or better known as jelly filled donuts. Jelly doughnuts are fried to represent the oil and filled with a sweet jelly to represent the “sweet new year.”
The next Hanukkah dessert is rugelach. Rugelach is a bite size pastry made with cream-cheese dough and rolled around in assorted nuts, poppy seed paste, and either chocolate or jam. The meaning behind rugelach is the dough is made with cream-cheese and dairy is also often eaten during jewish holidays. Food Network has a recipe that is melt-in- your-mouth good.
The last Hanukkah food is Hanukkah gelt which are little chocolate coins that are given as presents during this holiday. Gelt means “money” in Hebrew and Yiddish, hence why they look like little chocolate coins.
These Hanukkah dishes hold lots of importance and meaning to the Jewish people during Hanukkah. No matter what your religion is, everyone can enjoy a slice of Hanukkah!