food & dining
Passover Foods with Fiber — Is That Possible?
LINDA MOREL | SPECIAL TO THE
EXPONENT 2 split chicken breasts, 4 pieces
in all (with bones; and with or
without skin)
6 carrots
6 celery stalks
1 large parsnip
1 large onion
2 tablespoon fresh dill, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh parsley,
chopped 5 chicken bouillon cubes
Kosher salt to taste
M ost Jews look forward every
Passover to their family’s tra-
ditional foods: matzah balls,
briskets, kugels and rich desserts.

They enjoy matzah with a myriad of
delicious toppings for breakfast, lunch
and dinner.

However, the religious prohibition
against eating any leavened wheat, bar-
ley, rye, spelt or oats essentially elimi-
nates much of the fiber from the typical
American diet. Jews of Eastern European
descent also avoid legumes, cutting out
even more fiber. But this change in diet
presents many people with a situation
they rarely discuss —constipation.

To complicate matters, the foods many
American Jews use to replace these grain-
based staples aren’t high-fiber fruits and
vegetables but rather starchy, fiber-free
packaged foods.

Matzah is made from fiber-free white
flour and water. But the Bread of Affliction
is also a digestive system blocker.

Constipation is a normal side effect of
eating refined white-flour products with
practically no fiber, explained Danielle
Zolotnitsky, a dietitian in Philadelphia,
in a Diet and Nutrition article.

She suggested the best thing to do to
counteract matzah-induced constipation
is to eat lots of fiber-rich vegetables and
fruits. Drinking lots of water can also
reverse the slowing effect of gluey carbs.

Here are some ways to increase fiber in
your diet during Passover:
Eat whole wheat matzah, which has
three grams of fiber per sheet. Include
fruit in your breakfast, such as berries,
melon and citrus.

Snack on raw vegetables. Add veggies
and fruit to kugels. Serve side dishes
brimming with produce. Eat fruit for
dessert, or bake it into pastries. Dip
strawberries or dried apricots in melted
chocolate, and refrigerate it until serving.

Reaching for fruits and vegetables
instead of packaged foods will encourage
your digestive system to run smoothly
during Passover and throughout the year.

Chicken Vegetable Soup | Meat
Serves 8
1 small cabbage, 2-3 pounds
40 Cut the cabbage in half. Remove
and discard the core. Slice the leaves
into ribbons, and then chop them.

Place the cabbage in a large pot. Peel
and dice the carrots, celery, parsnip
and onion. Add them to the pot, along
with the remaining ingredients.

Pour in enough water to cover the
ingredients by 2 inches. Place the lid
on the pot, and bring it to a boil on a
high flame. Then lower the flame to
medium so that the soup simmers. If
the water is boiling off too fast, lower
the flame. Simmer for 90 minutes,
stirring occasionally, until the chicken
is cooked through.

With a slotted spoon utensil,
remove the pieces of chicken. Cool
them down to warm. Discard the skin.

Pull the chicken off the bones and cut
it into bite-sized pieces. Return the
chicken to the pot and stir.

Serve immediately, or cover the pot
and refrigerate until serving. This can
be made 2 days in advance.

Kale and Strawberry Salad | Pareve
Serves 8
1 bunch kale, any variety
2 (16-ounce) containers of
strawberries 3 Granny Smith apples
⅓ cup raisins
Kosher salt to taste
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Rinse the kale under cold water
and drain it on paper towels or in a
salad spinner. Remove the spines
of each kale leaf. Chop the kale into
bite-sized pieces. Move it to a large
salad bowl.

Rinse the strawberries under cold
water and drain them on paper tow-
MARCH 31, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
els. Cut off the leaves. Slice the straw-
berries into bite-sized pieces, about
4-6 pieces per strawberry.

Peel and core the apples. Dice
them into bite-sized pieces. Add the
strawberries and apples to the salad
bowl. The salad can be made to this
point several hours ahead if covered
with plastic wrap and refrigerated.

Sprinkle on the salt. Drizzle on the
oil and lemon juice. Toss the ingre-
dients together until well-combined.

Serve immediately.

Thyme Roasted Zucchini and
Yellow Squash | Pareve
Serves 8
Equipment: 2 large skillets, an
11-inch-by-7-inch baking pan, such
as Pyrex
Nonstick vegetable spray
2 zucchini
2 yellow squash
2 extra-large onions
4 tablespoon olive oil, or more
if needed to sauté, plus oil for
drizzling Kosher salt to taste
½ teaspoon thyme
Coat the baking pan with non-
stick spray. Preheat the oven to 350
degrees F.

Slice the zucchini and yellow
squash thinly. Place them on separate
plates and reserve. Slice the onions
thinly. Coat each skillet with 2 table-
spoons of olive oil. Place the skillets
on medium-low flames until warm.

Put 1 sliced onion into each skillet.

Sprinkle the onions with salt. Sauté,
turning every few minutes until car-
amelized. The onion slices will break
into rings. Lower the flame if the
onions brown too quickly. Add more
oil, if needed. When caramelized, dis-
tribute the onions evenly across the
bottom of the prepared pan.

Layer the zucchini slices over the
onions. Drizzle a small amount of oil
over the top. Sprinkle on the salt and
¼ teaspoon of thyme. Repeat with the
yellow squash. Cover the vegetables
with parchment paper or loosely with
aluminum foil.

Place them in the oven. Remove
the parchment or foil after 20 minutes
and continue roasting for another 40
minutes, or until the zucchini and yel-
low squash are cooked through and
the yellow squash is browned on top.

Baked Pears with Cinnamon and
Chocolate | Dairy or Pareve
Serves 8
Nonstick vegetable spray
4 ripe Bosc pears
1 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons unsalted butter; or
unsalted, dairy-free margarine
4 ounces semisweet chocolate
(Glicks brand is kosher-for
Passover and dairy-free)
Optional accompaniment: vanilla ice
cream or coconut sorbet
With a chef’s knife, cut the pears in
half lengthwise. Cut off a small slice from
the rounded part of the pear halves, so
they will rest evenly while baking. With
a paring knife, remove the cores, seeds
and any trace of the stems.

Sprinkle each half evenly with
sugar and cinnamon. Dot each cavity
with ¼ teaspoon of butter or mar-
garine. Bake for 1 hour, or until the
centers are softened. Remove them
from the oven and cool them to room
temperature. Set up a double boiler with an inch
or so of water in the bottom part.

Place the chocolate in the top part
and cover it with the lid. (Or rig up a
double boiler by placing a heatproof
bowl over a pot of water and use alu-
minum foil as a lid.)
Bring the water to a rolling boil.

Stir occasionally until the chocolate
melts. Remove the top pot (or bowl)
from the boiling water, and cool the
chocolate briefly.

Using a dinner fork, stir the choco-
late. Drizzle the chocolate a little at a
time over the pear halves, creating hap-
hazard but attractive lines of chocolate.

Serve immediately, or refrigerate
them until the chocolate hardens.

Cover the pears loosely with alumi-
num foil.

Bring the pears to room tempera-
ture before serving. They can be
served with vanilla ice cream or coco-
nut sorbet. JE



arts & culture
New Play
Explores Israel-Palestine
Confl ict
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
P hiladelphia’s InterAct Th eatre
Co. produces plays that “pro-
voke conversation” about sensi-
tive topics, according to a recent press
release. Beginning on April 1, it will take on
perhaps the most diffi cult conversa-
tion in Jewish life: the Israel-Palestine
confl ict.

“Settlements,” written by Seth Rozin,
a Jewish playwright and InterAct’s pro-
ducing artistic director, is about “a res-
ident theater at a Jewish Community
Center which fi nds itself pulled in con-
fl icting directions when it commissions
a new play about the Israeli-Palestinian
confl ict,” according to a press release
detailing the show.

Rozin wrote the play over several
years aft er reading a 2014 Washington
Post story about a similar incident,
in which a Washington, D.C., theater
director was dismissed from his JCC
home aft er commissioning a play about
Israeli soldiers killing Palestinians.

Rozin said he feels it’s important to
explore not who’s right and who’s
wrong in the confl ict, but why it’s so
diffi cult to discuss.

He summed up “Settlements” as a
meditation on society losing its politi-
cal center of gravity.

“If we can’t have civil, construc-
tive conversation about the insoluble
problem, how do we ever hope to get
anywhere?” he asked.

It’s a question Rozin asks in his
personal life, too.

During Donald Trump’s fi rst presi-
dential run in 2016 and his presidency
over the ensuing four years, Rozin grew
apart from his oldest friend. Th e friend
was a Trump supporter, while the
playwright was not.

Th e two became friends in second
grade, and it wasn’t until college that
Rozin learned of his buddy’s conserva-
tive political leanings. But at the time,
he found their ideological diff erences
stimulating. He described his friend
as “a Liz Cheney conservative” and “a
principled conservative.”
“We could disagree,” Rozin said.

“But I respected there were principles.”
But aft er Trump rode down the
golden escalator at Trump Tower in
2015 and announced his candidacy,
the playwright’s friend jumped on the
bandwagon. Th en, throughout Trump’s
presidency, they started fi ghting via text.

Th ey disagreed on everything from
Seth Rozin
Courtesy of Seth Rozin
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& Two women,
one shared mission
JANE GOLDEN
TUESDAY, MAY 10, 2022
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celebrating two phenomenal women who
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