Recipes Blog

Pumpkin Risotto

From Andrea Watman

This dish combines rice and pumpkin - two of my very favorite things. It can be made as a main course, you can add mushrooms or even sausage meat, it can be made vegetarian by replacing the chicken stock with vegetable stock. I have even made it using the water that the pumpkin was boiled in. It may sound complicated - but it really isn't. You can stuff a medium pumpkin instead of six small ones, you can stuff a Turban Squash ( ask your green grocer) or serve it family style in a beautiful bowl.

Date Honey Nut Cake

By Tori Avey

Recipe courtesy of Tori Avey, The Shiksa in the Kitchen. More free recipes can be found on her websites, TheShiksa.com and TheHistoryKitchen.com.

This tasty loaf cake is a unique take on a traditional Rosh Hashanah honey cake. Dates are actually a symbolic food for Rosh Hashanah, so it’s a great choice for the holiday. In Hebrew, a date is called a “tamar,” which is related to the word “tam” (meaning “to end”) and the word “sheyitamu” (meaning “to be consumed”). Dates are eaten in the hopes that our enemies will be consumed. They also happen to be naturally sweet, which is another good reason to eat them for Rosh Hashanah (as we hope for a sweet new year). And here’s another fun fact– biblical scholars believe that the honey repeatedly mentioned in the Torah likely came from dates (and other fruits), not bees. Yet another good reason to eat dates for Rosh Hashanah!

So, what better way to enjoy dates than in a sweet, delicious honey cake? The dates provide lots of moisture, which makes this a convenient make-ahead dessert—the cake will not dry out if you make it a day or two before the holiday begins. The walnuts add some nice texture and crunch. It’s naturally dairy free, but can be topped with cream cheese frosting for some extra decadence (if you’re not worried about keeping it pareve).

I hope this cake ends up on your holiday table. It will definitely be on mine. Yummy!

For step by step instructions and photos, click here.