Ultimate Vegan Hanukkah Recipe Roundup (2024)

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From latkes to gelt, it's every recipe you need for a gluten-free and vegan Festival of Lights! This Ultimate Vegan Hanukkah Recipe Roundup has all the delicious seasonal recipes you need to fill your home with good, nutritious holiday food.

Hanukkah, or the Festival of Lights, is a Jewish holiday celebrated every winter. The exact dates change since it's celebrated according to the Hebrew calendar, but it usually falls around November and December! As you may know, we are ALL about the food in the Jewish faith, so every holiday has lots of fun cooking and eating. Hanukkah is celebrated over eight days, so I get to fit in tons of my favorite traditional dishes! It's the best. If you're looking for the perfect homemade gift, check out my two-ingredient Easy Homemade Sugar Scrub. Everyone loves it! In this Vegan Hanukkah Recipe Roundup you'll find...

  • Latkes - Two versions, plus traditional toppings made vegan!
  • Main dishes - Savory, filling dishes, all perfect for winter.
  • Roasted veggies - I'm cooking in every color of the rainbow here.
  • Homemade Gelt - Plus gelt cookies, all made without dairy or gluten.
  • Sugar cookies - Gluten-free and perfect for cutting into seasonal shapes...plus frosting to top them off!

Be sure to also check out my Fun with Food: Hanukkah Snack Edition! These Hanukkah Snacks are made with some of our favorite foods and arranged into the best shapes of the season. Menorahs, dreidels, and the Star of David are all here and they’re so tasty! I've also got a really cute Star of David Grilled Cheese Sandwich made with vegan cheese. It's SO fun!

Crispy Vegan Hanukkah Latkes

One of the most popular Hanukkah foods is latkes. They're usually made with oil, which is a celebration of the ancient miracle when the Jewish Maccabees reclaimed their temple. They found the smallest amount of oil, barely enough to burn their lamps for one day. When the oil instead burned for eight days it was a Hanukkah miracle, which is why we celebrate with light and oil at this time every year! Most people put out both applesauce and sour cream for toppings, so I've got both in this Vegan Hanukkah Recipe Roundup. They both pair so well with crispy, piping hot latkes!

Spiralized Sweet Potato Latkes

Easy Instant Pot Homemade Applesauce

Easy Homemade Vegan Sour Cream

Main Dishes

Since I don't eat meat, you won't find a traditional brisket on my table...but I still have lots of filling, delicious, savory main dishes that I love to make during the eight days of Hanukkah! These warming dishes are perfect for staying cozy during the winter and celebrating the Festival of Lights with nutritious vegan food.

  • Cauliflower Steak Marbella with Roasted Chickpeas
  • Vegan Cauliflower Chickpea Shawarma Bowls
  • Moroccan Quinoa Salad
  • Mediterranean Vegan Quinoa Bowl, and don't forget my post on How to Make Perfectly Cooked Quinoa!
  • One-Skillet Baked Butternut Squash Pasta with Sage
  • Instant Pot Vegan Mushrooms Risotto
  • Best Creamy Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Roasted Garlic...or you can make it in the Instant Pot with Instant Pot Vegan Butternut Squash Soup! I also have this new 30-minute version that is creamy, delicious and easy!

Roasted Veggies

Sides just might be the best part of any meal! I am always roasting veggies to serve with dinner, and then reheating the leftovers for lunch. These delicious roast veggies are the best sides for Hanukkah, and they're all made totally vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, and without any refined sugar. Serve them with Simplified Israeli-Style Hummus, Vegan Tzatziki Sauce, or Green Tahini Sauce for a flavorful dish!

  • Crispy Oven Roasted Cauliflower
  • Easy Maple Glazed Sautéed Carrots
  • Crispy Smashed Potatoes with my Creamy Roasted Garlic Dip
  • Walnut Crusted Roasted Delicata Squash
  • Restaurant-Style Sautéed Mushrooms
  • Herb Roasted Root Vegetables
  • Crispy Brussels Sprouts
  • Easy Whole Roasted Rainbow Carrots Over Hummus with Herb Tahini Sauce
  • Hemp Seed Crusted Whole Roasted Cauliflower with Green Tahini Sauce
  • Maple Roasted Butternut Squash

Vegan Gelt for Dreidel

Gelt are the little foil-wrapped chocolate coins that we use to play dreidel! You've probably seen the dreidel before; it's a spinning top with four sides, each with a different Hebrew letter on it. The letters represent parts of the phrase "A great miracle happened here," and depending on where the dreidel lands, the person spinning gives or takes gelt from the center "pot." It's over when one player wins all of the gelt! It's a really simple, fun game that even little ones can play and understand...plus there's chocolate involved, which is always a win!

Easy Homemade Hanukkah Gelt

Hanukkah Gelt Cookies

Homemade Vegan Chocolate

Gluten-Free Hanukkah Sugar Cookies

We also love to make sugar cookies for Hanukkah! We do different holiday-themed shapes, usually the Star of David, menorahs, or dreidels. I use this Gluten-Free Sugar Cut-Out Cookies for the base, then top them with Easy Vegan Vanilla Frosting or Easy Vegan Vanilla Blender Icing!

For me the holidays bring my two favorite things together: family and food! I hope this Vegan Hanukkah Recipe Roundup helps you menu plan for a stress-free Festival of Lights. Every single one of these recipes is vegan, gluten-free, peanut-free, corn-free, soy-free, and refined sugar-free. They're allergen-friendly dishes that everyone can enjoy! I hope you'll tag me on Instagram if you make these dishes so I can wish you a Hanukkah Sameach, and don't forget to drop a review below your favorite recipes.

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  • Hanukkah
  • Gluten-Free
  • Refined Sugar-Free
  • Vegan
  • Easy
  • Kid-Friendly
Ultimate Vegan Hanukkah Recipe Roundup (2024)

FAQs

What is the key ingredient for most Hanukkah foods? ›

From shallow-fried potato latkes to deep-fried jelly doughnuts, traditional Hanukkah foods hinge on oil. Typically falling in December, the Jewish holiday, also called the Festival of Lights, celebrates the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem.

What two foods are traditionally linked to the Hanukkah Miracle? ›

From latkes to sufganiyot, we eat fried food on Hanukkah to remember the ancient oil miracle. Throughout the eight days of Hanukkah, Jewish families like mine celebrate by eating latkes (fried potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (fried jelly doughnuts).

What kind of junk food is commonly eaten during Hanukkah? ›

Fried foods, like potato pancakes and jelly doughnuts, are prepared and eaten throughout the holiday to celebrate the miracle of Hanukkah: oil that kept the menorah (an ancient lamp) lit for 8 days instead of the 1 day it was supposed to last.

How are Hanukkah foods cooked? ›

Hanukkah recipes often use oil to commemorate that same oil that kept the lights burning, which means Hanukkah foods cooked in oil — and lots of it! We rounded up our favorite crispy latke recipes and fluffy sufganiyot along with other Hanukkah desserts, because what's a holiday without a few sweet treats?

What is the dairy food for Hanukkah? ›

While potato latkes have become one of the most popular foods for celebrating the Hanukkah miracle, dairy remains central within some traditions. For Ashkenazi Jews, kugel and blinis are very popular at Hanukkah time. In Italy, ricotta pancakes called cassola are still considered a Hanukkah delicacy.

What foods Cannot be eaten during Hanukkah? ›

"Among other rules, eating certain animals, primarily pigs and shellfish, is forbidden; meat must be ritually and humanely slaughtered; and dairy and meat aren't to be eaten at the same meal." Fish and plant foods are "neutral" (parve) and can be eaten with either meat or dairy.

Can you eat cheese during Hanukkah? ›

"By the 14th century, there's quite a strong tradition that people eat cheese on Hanukkah and it's associated with Judith giving cheese to the enemy to make him drunk," Weingarten says.

What is the Hanukkah miracle? ›

According to tradition, during the rededication of the Holy Temple (the Second Temple) in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean revolt, a small quantity of oil used to light the Temple's menorah somehow miraculously burned for eight days. Hanukkah commemorates this event.

What do you drink on Hanukkah? ›

Hanukkah / Chanukah Drink Recipe Collection
  • Hebrew Hammer.
  • Mulled Pear and Ginger co*cktail.
  • Aperol Schvitz.
  • Spiced Clementine Sour.
  • Olive Oil Gin Sour.
  • Sababa.
  • Hot Toddy with Spiced Rum.
  • Jelly Donut co*cktail.
Oct 31, 2023

What is the difference between a jelly donut and a sufganiyot? ›

In Poland, jelly doughnuts are called paczki which means flower buds. Traditionally, they were fried in lard which sets them apart from sufganiyot, which are fried in oil.

What is a good Hanukkah menu? ›

A Traditional Menu for Hanukkah
  • 01 of 12. Potato Latkes I. View Recipe. ...
  • 02 of 12. Spiced Slow Cooker Applesauce. View Recipe. ...
  • 03 of 12. Applesauce. ...
  • 04 of 12. Most Amazing Challah. ...
  • 05 of 12. Wine-Braised Beef Brisket. ...
  • 06 of 12. Salmon with Lemon and Dill. ...
  • 07 of 12. Crispy Rosemary Chicken and Fries. ...
  • 08 of 12. Roasted Green Beans.
Oct 21, 2020

What do Sephardic people eat for Hanukkah? ›

Sephardic Hanukkah dishes include cassola (sweet cheese pancakes), bimuelos (puffed fritters with an orange glaze), keftes de espinaka (spinach patties), keftes de prasa (leek patties) and shamlias (fried pastry frills).

Do people eat fried food on Hanukkah? ›

Jews commemorate Hanukkah by eating fried foods. For most American Jews, that means latkes — potato pancakes fried in oil. But other cultures toss different foods into pots of boiling oil.

What is the significance of Hanukkah foods? ›

Speaking of oil, eating food fried during Hanukkah is considered a symbol of the oil used to light the menorah. Hence, jelly donuts. Known in Hebrew as sufganiyot (the singular is sufganiyah), Hanukkah donuts were the brainchild of the Israeli labor group Histradut in the '20s, in what was then British-run Palestine.

What type of cooking is traditionally used in preparing dishes for Hanukkah? ›

However, by a miracle of God, one day's worth of oil kept the lamp burning for eight days, the time it took to get more oil. In honor of the miracle of oil, Hanukkah is celebrated for eight days and nights and foods are fried in oil.

What is the traditional meal for the first night of Hanukkah? ›

A perfect Hanukkah meal might start with matzoh ball soup, have a traditional brisket at the center and a stack of potato latkes on the side. If brisket is not your thing, a simple roasted chicken would serve very nicely, too.

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