There are certain traditional holiday foods that instantly transport me back to my childhood, and charoset is one of them. Every year when I was young, as Passover approached, our kitchen would fill with the sweet aroma of apples and cinnamon as we prepared the ritualistic foods for the Passover Seder.
I can still picture my mother at the kitchen table, carefully chopping the apples and walnuts by hand, insisting that the texture had to be just right before she added the spices, honey and drops of sweet Manishewitz wine. (For the children she added grape juice).
Charoset is one of the 6 symbolic foods on the Passover Seder plate.
It is a symbol of our ancestors’ hard work and resilience passed down from generations before us. No Passover Seder is complete without it, and to this day, I still make it the same way my family always has using the same worn recipe card passed down from my mother.
Every delicious bite of this Eastern European recipe carries the warmth of tradition, the comfort of home, and the reminder that no matter where life takes us, our traditions always go with you.
This year, I want to share our family’s easy charoset recipe with you, so that you, too, can bring this sweet tradition to your own table.
Basic Recipe:
6 red apples, washed, cored, and finely chopped (diced small is good)
2 cups finely chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons of cinnamon
4 tablespoons of sweet red kosher wine (such as Manishewitz)
or substitue kosher purple grape juice
Optional: 4 tablespoons of honey to hold the mixture together
Directions:
Mix chopped apples, chopped walnuts, cinnamon, and wine (or grape juice) in a large bowl and mix well. (Add honey if you want it to stick together more). Store in the refrigerator until ready to use. Enjoy on matzah.
My Notes:
1, The beauty of Charoset (or sometimes pronounced Charoses) is that it is gluten-free and plant-based.
2. Recipes for Charoset differ from country to country. Jews from Middle countries such as Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Jordan, and North Africa are often referred to as Sephardic Jews (as opposed to Jews of Eastern European origin who are referred to as Askenazi Jews).
My husband is originally from Egypt and their Charoset is made entirely differently using dates, raisins, nuts, etc. I is more of a paste, spreads beautifully on matzah and is really delicious.
My late Mother-in-Law, Toni’s, Sephardic Charoset Recipe
Ingredients:
2 cups dark raisins, soaked overnight
2 cups pitted dates, soaked overnight
Gound walnuts for a topping (optional)
Directions:
Soak raisins in a bowl overnight
Soak pitted dates in a bowl overnight
Drain well in the morning
Put raisins and dates in a food processor and process a few times until mixture is well mixed and forms a paste.
Eat on matzah
My little Passover Humor :
This is a great recipe to help keep everyone “regular” during the eight days of Passover matzah eating. Matzah can be very constipating and brings a whole new meaning to the Hagaddah phrase of “let my people go”
Sephadic Choroset made of dates and raisins is a great equalizer.
Passover is celebrated this year April 12-April 20 2025
