Rosh Hashanah traditions evolve to be healthier, lighter – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Ringing in the New Year involves self-reflection, resolutions and possibly excessive drinking.

Ringing in the Jewish New Year, known as Rosh Hashanah, also includes the self-reflection, often the resolutions, but excessive drinking? Nope.

Jews celebrate this holiday, as we do most others, with prayers, family and, of course, food. On Sunday night, Jewish people around the world will welcome the year 5776 by sitting down and sharing a celebratory Rosh Hashanah meal.

Food and what it symbolizes are central elements of Jewish holiday celebrations. Rosh Hashanah meals have traditionally incorporated foods that symbolize the hope for a sweet New Year and celebrate the cycle of the seasons. Contemporary Jewish cooks are finding new ways to add healthy recipes to their menus.

Dipping apples into honey is a longstanding Rosh Hashanah tradition.

“Apples are round and symbolize the cycle of the year, and honey symbolizes hope for a sweet New Year,” said Rabbi Hannah Greenstein, vice president of outreach for the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.

Hannah Sattler is the catering manager for Kehillah Catering, at Congregation Beth Israel Ner Tamid, a conservative synagogue in Glendale. She incorporates the tradition of serving fruit, especially apples, with a healthy twist in her Apple Farro Pilaf and Pomegranate Molasses Chicken.

“Farro is a whole grain, and it’s got more protein than a regular starch,” Sattler said. “It’s like barley, but it cooks up like a risotto.”

Sattler said she tries to focus on eating healthy year-round.

“I’m pretty active, I run 5 to 6 miles, 5 to 6 days a week and do Bikram (heated) yoga. I find that if you feed yourself healthier food, you’ll feel it when you’re working out.”

For Rosh Hashanah, Sattler serves chicken as opposed to red meat.

“You can adapt this recipe to all white meat,” she said. “You could easily take the sauce and use it with boneless, skinless chicken breasts.”

The pomegranate seeds in the chicken have symbolic meaning as well. This is because pomegranates are said to have 613 seeds, “the same as the number of mitzvot (good deeds) in the Torah,” said Sattler.

A busy, single mother of three girls, Sattler nonetheless makes time to prepare and host Rosh Hashanah dinner in her Mequon home for up to 18 people. The number 18 translates to the Hebrew word, “chai,” which means life. This correlation inspires Jewish people to incorporate the number 18 into various aspects of their lives.

But Sattler also has a practical reason for limiting her guest list to 18. She says, smiling, “I have 18 place settings of china, so that’s my limit for adults.”

Ronnie Fein, who writes the blog Kitchen Vignettes and is the author of four cookbooks, including “Hip Kosher” (Da Capo Press, 2008) and “The Modern Kosher Kitchen” (Fair Winds Press, 2014), stresses the importance of food and its symbolism at Rosh Hashanah.

“Food is an iconic symbol of fulfillment and a way to fill ourselves with sweetness, fulfillment and happiness, which is the meaning of Rosh Hashanah,” she said.

Incorporating healthier, modern approaches to Jewish cooking is another major element in Fein’s recipes.

“I almost don’t think about cooking healthy anymore — it’s just the way I cook,” she said. “We don’t eat processed foods, I always use fresh produce; it tastes better. It’s healthier and it’s cheaper, too.”

This may not be your Bubbe’s (translation: grandmother’s) approach to holiday cooking, but the benefits to cooking healthier both for holidays and every day are widespread.

“Traditional Jewish cooking was salty, fatty, not healthy and time-consuming,” explained Fein. “Today most Jewish home cooks want to use fresh ingredients that are lighter, better for us, and don’t require that we be in the kitchen all day.”

Fein’s recipe for Carrot Soup with Harissa and Coconut, and her Roasted Beet and Winter Squash Salad, are both examples of this new approach to Jewish holiday cooking.

“The soup is one of my favorite recipes,” she said. “Carrots are traditional for Rosh Hashanah because of their sweetness, and harissa is a Tunisian spice paste that adds heat, while the coconut milk tames it.”

Beets are widely recognized as a super food, and Fein uses them in this salad for both their health benefits and flavor.

“Beet roots are filled with fiber, vitamins (especially vitamin C) and minerals. They are also high in natural sugar, so they’re always a favorite with people, because most of us like sugar. But it’s natural sugar, not processed.”

Fein is a big fan of Roasted Fruit Cocktail as a healthy alternative to honey cake, a traditional Rosh Hashanah dessert. Fein’s recipe offers a fresher version than the canned fruit cocktail many of us grew up with.

“I like this fruit cocktail for many reasons: healthy fresh fruit, a variety of colors and textures and tastes of the different fruits,” she said. “It’s not heavy, and it’s absolutely delicious. It’s just an all-around good choice and worth the effort.

“I change the fruit depending on what I see in the market. It satisfies everyone and is so healthy at the same time.”

Challah, or braided bread, is a year-round staple on Jewish holiday tables, and for Rosh Hashanah the challah is baked in a round shape to represent the cycle of the year. This is one food that Fein feels is off limits to change.

“I do not tamper with challah,” she declared. “Challah is challah.”

This Rosh Hashanah, if your resolutions include a vow to eat healthier, know that it’s easier than you think and totally doable, even while maintaining the traditions of the holiday.