19 Hanukkah Dinner Recipes the Whole Family Will Love (2024)

FAQs

What is a traditional Hanukkah dinner menu? ›

The eight days of Hanukkah are observed with the lighting of a menorah after sundown and meals featuring foods challah bread, kugel, potato latkes, jelly doughnuts called sufganiyot, and festive drinks. Fried foods recall the miracle at the Temple of Jerusalem, when a day's worth of oil lasted eight nights.

Latkes. These fried potato pancakes are possibly the best-known Hanukkah food. The oil used to fry them is a commemoration of the oil in the temple lamps. Made of shredded potatoes and onions much like hash browns, they're traditionally topped with applesauce and served as a side dish.

From latkes to sufganiyot, we eat fried food on Hanukkah to remember the ancient oil miracle. Throughout the eight days of Hanukkah, Jewish families like mine celebrate by eating latkes (fried potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (fried jelly doughnuts).

A perfect Hanukkah meal might start with matzoh ball soup, have a traditional brisket at the center and a stack of potato latkes on the side. If brisket is not your thing, a simple roasted chicken would serve very nicely, too.

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.

"Among other rules, eating certain animals, primarily pigs and shellfish, is forbidden; meat must be ritually and humanely slaughtered; and dairy and meat aren't to be eaten at the same meal." Fish and plant foods are "neutral" (parve) and can be eaten with either meat or dairy.

It is customary for women not to work for at least the first half-hour of the candles' burning, and some have the custom not to work for the entire time of burning. It is also forbidden to fast or to eulogize during Hanukkah.

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.

"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.

In America, Hanukkah food typically refers to two things: latkes, Eastern European fried potato pancakes, and sufganiyot, jelly-filled doughnuts that are favored in Israel and increasingly popular here.

Can you eat dairy on 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.

Did Jesus Celebrate Hanukkah? In the first century, you can imagine the excitement and festive atmosphere in the land, as the Temple stood in Jerusalem. Even Yeshua showed up for the celebration of this Feast of Dedication. It was the season of remembering a victory of a righteous priestly deliverer.

because Hanukkah is a holiday in remembrance of the miracle of oil burning for eight days, it is traditional to eat fried foods to celebrate. Sephardic tradition calls for donuts, while Ashkenazi families are more likely to have latkes of various sorts.

In the Orthodox Jewish world, the formal attire for males of a suit and tie, and for females a dress or skirt/blouse combination would always be appropriate, whether the celebration is at a shul (synagogue) or at a private home. The same thing you would wear to an other religion's holiday celebration.

"Among other rules, eating certain animals, primarily pigs and shellfish, is forbidden; meat must be ritually and humanely slaughtered; and dairy and meat aren't to be eaten at the same meal." Fish and plant foods are "neutral" (parve) and can be eaten with either meat or dairy.