Rosh Hashanah Recipes for a Green, Seasonal Jewish New Year Celebration

Honey Cake

Photo: Stuart Brill / Istock

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The Jewish New Year Rosh Hashanah is a celebration filled with traditional and symbolic foods. Here are a few ideas for making this year's celebration seasonal, green and delicious:

Organic wine for the kiddush

Say kiddush with a glass of organic, fair trade or biodynamic wine to get the year off to a sustainable start.

Say a blessing with organic, local honey

The traditional dipping of a round challah bread into honey comes with a new year blessing. Local honey, derived from the pollen of plants in your region, can help boost immune systems and decrease allergies. Organic, local apples are a great choice for the next honey-dipped request for a sweet year to come, too. (And if you have leftover challah, try some challah toast for a morning-after breakfast.)

Try a seasonal fruit for the shehechiyanu blessing

Early apple varieties are now available at many farmers' markets, so you can try a new variety for the shehechiyanu blessing. Or, go with a fig, pomegranate or a pear -- all in season now.

Choose a sustainable fish

If you mark the new year by eating the head of a fish -- symbolizing the head or "Rosh" of a new year, and leadership at home and in the world -- then choose a sustainable fish that isn't being depleted by overfishing, and isn't contaminated with harmful levels of toxic chemicals. Since fish is also a symbol of fertility, pregnant women should take particular care to choose only low-contaminant fish.

Rosh Hashanah recipes and foods

Try some of these recipes, with simple real foods, for traditional nutritious Rosh Hashanah fare:

• Honey Cake, to welcome a sweet new year
• Plum Brisket
• Mushroom Brisket
• Brocoli and Cheddar Kugel

Spinach symbolizes a green and abundantly fruitful year of food. Try one of these spinach recipes, and appreciate this superfood (a top source of iron, Vitamin K, Vitamin A and beta carotene):

• Spinach Strata
• Grapefruit and Spinach Salad
• Asparagus and Spinach Pesto
• Spinach and Tangerine Salad

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