30 Easy, Festive, and Delicious Hanukkah Recipes That Are Absolutely Worth Making (2024)

FAQs

What is a good Hanukkah 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.

Throughout the eight days of Hanukkah, Jewish families like mine celebrate by eating latkes (fried potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (fried jelly doughnuts). Notice a theme? Traditional Hanukkah foods are often fried because they're reminders of the oil in the legendary Hanukkah story.

While the Hanukkah menorah is usually lit after sunset, a lazy weekend morning is also a great time to celebrate the Jewish holiday. So many traditional Jewish foods double as brunch favorites, from potato latkes (hash browns, anyone?) to doughnuts and challah.

Hanukkah foods don't get more iconic than latkes. This bite-size iteration of the crispy potato pancakes makes a great holiday appetizer, and you can top them however you want (say, with sour cream and applesauce, or cream cheese and smoked fish).

Fried foods, like potato pancakes and jelly doughnuts, are prepared and eaten throughout the holiday to celebrate the miracle of Hanukkah: oil that kept the menorah (an ancient lamp) lit for 8 days instead of the 1 day it was supposed to last.

Hanukkah doesn't have any dietary restrictions, but make sure not to bring food items that aren't kosher. Even if your hosts aren't observant, it's best to stick with kosher items out of politeness. You never know if the host might have invited observant guests!

If you are looking for a gift to give the host or hostess, it would be pretty much the same as any other party (flowers, alcohol, boxed candies). If you want to be themed, and because Hanukkah isn't a particularly religous holiday, it wouldn't be offensive to give a Hanukkah-related gift.

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.

What is forbidden during Hanukkah? ›

Other related laws and customs

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.

Meaty Main Dishes

The star dish for many Hanukkah dinner tables is brisket. It's a show-stopping centerpiece that's as classic as it gets, which is why we love it. For something a little different but equally as fitting, we also love a wintery braise filled with semolina dumplings.

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.

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.