The Grand Passover Recipe Swap Swaps
I love playing in my kitchen. I first developed that pastime out of necessity, due to my own food sensitivities. From there, I moved on to working out solutions for countless clients with allergic, metabolic, or digestive dietary limitations, ultimately creating my line. By now it’s second nature for me to look at a recipe and see its potential healthy, Full ‘N Free makeover. Swaps
On Passover, we’re all spiritually “sensitive” to the contents of our food. It sure helps to be able to take a yummy-looking recipe and figure out how to revamp it. Here are some of the ingredients that I always switch out, and how. You can try these substitutions for Passover and see if you like them enough to carry over to the rest of the year, too. Swaps
Sugar. By default, when I see a recipe that calls for sugar, I automatically think of raw honey. Honey is the healthiest natural sweeter. — it contains the optimal balance of glucose, fructose, and sucrose to keep our blood sugar most even (unlike other natural sweeteners, whose balances are somewhat skewed one way or the other). Raw honey even offers some nutritional benefits. To sub honey for sugar, I usually halve the amount because it is so much sweeter than sugar and because it is liquid, not granulated.
In some cases, when I’d rather have a different flavor, I’ll use maple syrup or silan. But for those recipes that really need a granulated sweetener to create the right texture, I use coconut sugar; it’s natural, unrefined, and lower glycemic than cane sugar. I also find that just 3/4 of the amount of coconut sugar is sweet enough to make up for the omitted cane sugar. Swaps
Soy sauce. That’s an easy substitution – coconut aminos! (See CRC and OU websites for brands permitted on Passover.) It’s way lower in sodium, all-natural, and soy- and MSG-free. It’s milder than soy sauce, so I like to add 1 tsp. red wine vinegar to every 1/4 cup of coconut aminos for some kick. For an even bigger kick, I’ll add an additional 1/2 tsp. of balsamic vinegar. (Pro tip! Mix 1 cup coconut aminos with 4 tsp. red wine vinegar and 2 tsp. balsamic vinegar in a jar for on-hand use. For variety, add garlic powder, crushed fresh garlic, freshly grated ginger, or ginger powder. Add a little raw honey for a teriyaki sauce-like feel.)
Duck sauce. It’s processed and full of sugar, so when I see a recipe that calls for it, I usually sub it with naturally-sweetened apricot jam or even home-puréed dried apricots with or without a little honey. This works especially well in meat and chicken recipes. By the way – my all-time favorite sweet and sour sauce for anything you’d use duck sauce on and more is Esther Black’s, garlic-fermented honey. The recipe is on my Light Unfiltered Real & Raw Honey label. Swaps
Oils. Healthy fats are good for you, but refined fats are actually detrimental, so the swap is both health-promoting and harm-avoiding all at once! Instead of canola oil, I fry and bake with extra virgin unrefined avocado or olive oil – the same amounts. If a recipe calls for margarine, it’s a no-brainer to sub with an equal amount of unrefined coconut oil – it gives you that same chewy texture.
Potato starch. Potato starch is hard to digest for many people. It’s also high-glycemic, so it gives you that sugar rush and crash without ever really filling you up. I substitute it with arrowroot flour. Swaps
Almond flour. It’s healthy, but almond flour often makes for dense baked goods. Instead, use a grain-free flour, such as my Full ‘N Free Grain Free Flour Blend. It produces a really fluffy texture and works cup for cup to replace almond flour in most recipes. It’s a high-fiber, high-protein blend of arrowroot, coconut, and almond flour that keeps blood sugar even and actually fills you up. When I use it in place of white flour year-round, I lessen the amount of oil in whatever recipe I’m using to balance out its healthy fat content. Swaps
When you put on your Full ‘N Free glasses, you start seeing recipes less as directions and more as suggestions! I’m inviting you to take a fresh look at the recipes that call your name this season and see how you can up the game using high-quality ingredients. Makeovers are so much fun – especially when they make us feel so much better. Swaps
Wishing you a Passover that’s full, free, and fabulous! Swaps
Rorie Weisberg, CHC, is the author of the newly released cookbook, Food You Love: That Loves You Back. Her passion? Making a healthy lifestyle doable and delicious, favorite foods included. Rorie is the health ambassador of Kosher.com, popular health columnist, lecturer, and founder and CEO of Full ‘N Free, LLC, an exclusive line of better-for-you baking essentials. To learn more about Rorie’s story, product line, courses, and live demos, visit www.fullnfree.com or follow her on Instagram at @fullnfree.