35+ Best Hanukkah Recipes (2024)

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Sephardic Traditions During a Merenda

Some Sephardic Hanukkah food included delicacies like fried cheese balls and bumuelos, or light donuts fried in oil.

You could say Sephardic food is the original Mediterranean fusion cuisine. The kosher laws also impact what Jews eat. There is no pork or shellfish allowed, and Jews will not mix meat and dairy in the same meal, so if a chicken is on the table, you won't find butter or cheese.

Some traditional foods associated with Hanukkah include latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (jelly donuts). These foods are often fried in oil, a symbol of the miracle of the oil that burned in the Temple.

From crispy latkes to tangy brisket to jammy sufganiyot. From shallow-fried potato latkes to deep-fried jelly doughnuts, traditional Hanukkah foods hinge on oil. Typically falling in December, the Jewish holiday, also called the Festival of Lights, celebrates the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem.

Traditional foods include potato latkes, applesauce and brisket. Spinning the dreidel (a four-sided top) for “Hanukkah gelt” (gold-wrapped chocolate coins) is another part of the celebration. Your host might appreciate gifts of chocolate, gourmet applesauce, candles, books or board games.

Well, as with many cultures and religions, traditions keep stories alive and bring families together. Eating fried food like latkes and sufganiyot is a tradition that reminds us of the miracle of the oil, but to me, the best part about this tradition is that it brings my family together year after year.

We count cheese as a Hanukkah miracle.

Did you know that in addition to foods fried in oil, we also eat dairy on Hanukkah to commemorate the bravery of Judith? Her courage—fueled by bravery, salty cheese and wine—led to the Maccabee victory.

Can Jews eat dairy during Hanukkah? ›

A lesser-known Hanukkah custom is to eat dairy, to celebrate the heroism of Judith, slayer of the general Holofernes. Although Judith's defeat of Holofernes took place centuries before the Maccabees defeated the Romans, Jews in the medieval period began to associate Judith's bravery with the miracle of Hanukkah.

"By the 14th century, there's quite a strong tradition that people eat cheese on Hanukkah and it's associated with Judith giving cheese to the enemy to make him drunk," Weingarten says.

The custom of eating dairy foods for Hanukkah dates back to the Middle Ages, when the Book of Judith played an important role in the Hanukkah narrative. Judith was a celebrated Jewish heroine who saved her village from an invading Assyrian army.

To celebrate this miracle, Jewish people eat a number of foods fried in oil, the most well-known of which are potato latkes and jelly donuts called sufganiyot.

The most traditional gift for Hanukkah is gelt, which is Yiddish for “money” — given either in the form of real money or wrapped chocolate coins. These can be used to play the popular Hanukkah game, dreidel.

Sufganiyah (Hebrew: סופגנייה or סופגניה, Hebrew: [ˌsufɡaniˈja]; pl. : sufganiyot, Hebrew: סופגניות, Hebrew: [ˌsufɡaniˈjot], or in Yiddish pontshke פּאָנטשקע) is a round jelly doughnut eaten in Israel and around the world on the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

"By the 14th century, there's quite a strong tradition that people eat cheese on Hanukkah and it's associated with Judith giving cheese to the enemy to make him drunk," Weingarten says.