20 Savory Hanukkah Recipes to Light Up Every Night (2024)

With most holiday meals, you're pressured to go all out on a single day. Hanukkah has the benefit of lasting for eight days, which gives you over a week to eat your fill. After the crazy stress of Thanksgiving (and this year), it's nice to slow down and try a variety of dishes at a slower pace. To keep you satisfied through all eight nights of Hanukkah, we've gathered 20 savory recipes, from festive mains like sous vide rack of lamb and whole roasted fish, to parve soups, salads, and sides.

Mains

Red Wine–Braised Beef Short Ribs

For a restaurant-quality meal at your Hanukkah table, turn to this short ribs recipe. We cook the beef low and slow in the oven to ensure juicy results. The sauce gets a boost from reduced port wine, which deepens the wine flavor while balancing out the acidity of the dry red wine. A packet of gelatin helps the sauce achieve glossy results. You're left with glazed, fork-tender meat that's perfect alongside a bed of mashed potatoes. And if you're looking for a way to speed up the process, try our pressure cooker version.

Sous Vide Rack of Lamb

Lamb is a fairly lean meat, which makes it susceptible to overcooking. Rather than risk ruining a nice rack of lamb on the stove, we recommend cooking it sous vide to guarantee that it comes out perfectly medium-rare. Don't have a sous vide circulator? You can get results that are just as good with a beer cooler and a thermometer.

Slow-Roasted Boneless Leg of Lamb With Garlic, Rosemary, and Lemon

If you've read our feature on holiday roasts, you know that we're big believers in the reverse sear. One of the most surefire ways to properly cook a big piece of meat is to roast it at a very low temperature until it's just about done and then sear it in an oven cranked up as hot as you can get it. The technique is perfect for this leg of lamb stuffed with garlic, rosemary, and lemon zest.

Chicken Schnitzel

If you're not in the mood to make lamb, our chicken schnitzel is always a crowd-pleaser, and it's pretty simple. All you have to do is pound chicken breasts, brine them for maximum juiciness, and fry them in a coating of homemade breadcrumbs. You might be tempted to deep-fry the chicken, but pan-frying is easier, and flipping the schnitzel more than once ensures even browning.

Whole Roasted Fish With Oregano, Parsley, and Lemon

Whole roasted fish is a Hanukkah classic that seems much more intimidating to prepare than it actually is. Pick out a fresh fish and have your fishmonger clean it for you—after that it's just a matter of brining it in salt water, stuffing the cavity with aromatics, and roasting for about 25 minutes. Take a look at our carving guide to make sure the fish ends up looking as good as it tastes.

Lemon-Marinated Tuscan-Jewish Fried Chicken

Hailing from the Jewish community of Tuscany, this recipes offers a bright, lemony flavor to balance out the rich juiciness of typical fried chicken. A quick brine in lemon juice, along with garlic and spices, helps flavor the meat without making it tough from the lemon's acidity. Then, the chicken gets a simple coating of flour and egg before frying. It's an easy Hanukkah main that still feels bright and special.

Jewish-Style Braised Brisket With Onions and Carrots

No need to choose between Jewish brisket that's tender or moist—our recipe gives you both. The technique involves browning the brisket first, then slicing the meat thinly and braising it covered, making sure the meat is completely submerged in the liquid—this helps to trap moisture and reinfuse the brisket with juices. Our pressure cooker brisket offers similar results while cutting down on braising time.

Parve Soups, Salads, and Sides

Old-Fashioned Latkes

You absolutely can't celebrate Hanukkah without latkes. A perfect latke should have a plump center that tapers down to wispy edges and a deeply browned crust. This classic recipe is made with russet potatoes, onion, eggs, and matzo meal. If you're willing to break with tradition, try some of our unusual latke variations.

The Best Applesauce

You're going to need some applesauce to serve with those latkes. You could go with the stuff from a jar, but perfect latkes deserve the best homemade applesauce. Cinnamon and orange peel compliment the apple flavor without getting in the way, and an optional dash of rosewater ups the sauce's floral taste.

Roman-Jewish Fried Artichokes (Carciofi alla Giudia) Recipe

These crispy, golden-brown fried artichokes are a gorgeous, festive appetizer or side dish which highlights the ingenuity and cooking skill of Rome's Jews, who were confined to the city's ghetto between the 16th and 19th centuries. Serve them piping hot with lemon wedges on the side.

Beet and Wheat Berry Salad With Pickled Apples and Pecans

This vegetarian salad is hearty enough to be a whole meal thanks to the combination of chewy wheat berries, tender roasted beets, and crunchy pecans. In addition to the roasted beet root, we also sauté the leaves and stems and mix them in. Bright pickled apples keep the salad from feeling too heavy.

Make-Ahead Roasted Squash and Kale Salad With Spiced Nuts, Cranberries, and Maple Vinaigrette

Another make-ahead option, this salad combines roasted butternut squash with roasted kale in a sweet maple vinaigrette. Crunchy pecans and chewy dried cranberries add some textural contrast. Feel free to eat this right after making it, but it will get even better if it sits in the fridge for a night.

Roasted Cauliflower With Pine Nut, Raisin, and Caper Vinaigrette

When roasting cauliflower we like to use high heat, which caramelizes the brassica and brings out its sweet, nutty flavor. It's a good idea to cut the cauliflower into thick wedges to maximize the contrast between crisp edges and tender interior. You could finish it with a drizzle of olive oil and call it a day, but for something more festive, try a vinaigrette made with pine nuts, raisins, and capers.

Fried Brussels Sprouts With Shallots, Honey, and Balsamic Vinegar

Like cauliflower, Brussels sprouts should be cooked hot and fast. A hot oven will make them wonderfully sweet and nutty, but deep-frying them is even better. The edges of the leaves get super crispy—perfect for catching a sweet-tart dressing made with honey and balsamic vinegar.

Beet and Citrus Salad With Pine Nut Vinaigrette

We love the earthy flavor of roasted beets, but they take forever to cook. Wrapping the beets in foil before throwing them in the oven makes them steam and cook faster. There are tons of ways to serve beets—here we make them into a refreshing salad with grapefruit and orange segments, pine nuts, and a sherry vinaigrette.

Vegan Cream of Mushroom Soup With Crispy Shiitake Chips

This mushroom soup is so creamy that you might not believe it's parve. The trick to the texture is bulking up the porcini, shiitake, and white mushroom base with white bread, which serves as an emulsifier. Be careful at the supermarket, though—a lot of shelf-stable white bread contains either milk solids or whey.

Easy Lentil Soup With Lemon Zest, Garlic, and Parsley

Lentil soup can sometimes be a little boring, but this version has plenty of flavor thanks to gremolata, an Italian condiment made with lemon zest, parsley, and garlic. We sauté some of the gremolata with the vegetables and drizzle the rest on top of the finished soup.

Roasted Sweet Potato Soup With Pistachio, Orange, and Mint Salsa

The secret to this soup is a sauce similar to gremolata that we make with crushed pistachios, orange zest, scallions, mint, and olive oil. It adds brightness and tons of depth to an already-tasty sweet potato soup. The soup can be made with chicken or vegetable stock—if you go with the latter, the recipe is parve.

Roasted Squash and Raw Carrot Soup

We wanted to get the most intense vegetable flavor possible for this soup, so instead of using water as the base for a roasted squash soup, we used bright raw carrot juice instead. The soup gets a simple garnish of fresh chopped parsley and crunchy toasted pumpkin seeds.

Roasted Carrots With Black Sesame Dressing

These sweet roasted carrots are paired with black sesame paste for a nutty, earthy boost. The carrots are blanched before roasting to help them achieve more tender, sweeter results. Meanwhile, the black sesame paste needs little more than lemon juice and olive oil to transform into a dressing. Drizzle over the roasted veggies and garnish with parsley and grated lemon zest before serving.