Michal Shamir’s grandmother Sara always served store-bought challah alongside her abundant spread of salads on Friday nights. Today, Michal likes to bake her own, brushing it with a touch of maple syrup for sweetness.

Somewhere between the thickness and density of a classic American pancake and the texture of pliable Ethiopian injera, Yemenite lachuch is ideal for soaking up the flavors of the foods it's served with.

While grape leaves are often filled with meat or rice and vegetables, in this recipe from the late Tamar Moradoff, the vegan filling is studded with dried fruit like raisins and dates.

Harira is often vegetarian, but, in Arielle Nir Mamiye’s version, chicken thighs are seared and added to the soup, imparting a rich flavor. Topping it with fresh lemon and herbs brightens the entire bowl. 

In the Ethiopian Jewish community, this lightly sweet bread called dabo is often served at Shabbat and holiday meals. Beejhy Barhany explained to us that even as her family walked from Ethiopia to Sudan, they would stop to make dabo.

In this classic Roman Jewish recipe, zucchini are fried, soused with vinegar, and left to marinate for hours with garlic and herbs.

Cookbook author Adeena Sussman updated her mom's kasha varnishkes by turning the dish into a pasta salad with earthy roasted mushrooms, spicy radishes, and peppery arugula.

Hand-rolled couscous is made slowly with simple ingredients and steamed several times. Ron and Leetal Arazi, owners of New York Shuk, keep this tradition alive in Brooklyn, serving it with hearty stews.

After tasting this dish on a trip to Ghana, it became part of Jackie Jonas’s culinary repertoire. She serves it on Shabbat and prepared it for a synagogue fundraiser where guests discussed the intersection of race and religion.  

This dish comes from the Bene Israel community of India and is served at celebrations like the birth of a child. It’s also made on Tu B’Shvat in the late winter. “At its core, malida is more than just a recipe — it's a symbol of gratitude, abundance, and community bonding,” Eddna Samuel shares.

This deeply savory tomato-cucumber soup is spiked with curry powder and topped with coconut milk. Chopsticks Meets Fork writer Jamie Wei serves it for Rosh Hashanah, but it’s also excellent for a summer dinner.

This rice gets its verdant color from fresh and dried dill as well as lima beans. Golden potato slices add to the tahdig, the prized crispy crust that forms at the bottom of the pot. 

Like her grandmother Aliza, Syrian-Jewish cookbook author Sigi Mantel serves these stuffed pickled peppers during Passover, but they are wonderful anytime. Make sure to start them a week before serving so there’s time for the vinegar to do its thing.

The slow-cooked Greek dish kapama is typically made with meat or poultry, but this recipe from Alison Negrin’s family is vegan. It’s best made during the summer when tomatoes and eggplant are at their peak. 

Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett is the last person in her family to cook this simple split pea soup that’s made with an abundance of herbs but no meat. She asks that when you make it, you remember her mother Dora and the cold winters she lived through in Eastern Poland.

In Syria, where Naomi Hazan’s grandparents were born, this simple dish was served on laundry day, when women were too busy to prepare a more elaborate meal. Her grandmother Rashel continued to make the dish in Israel for her 40 grandchildren. 

This Ethiopian stew is laced with a spice mix called berbere, which you can make at home or buy. Serve the stew with injera or dabo, a loaf baked by Ethiopian Jewish families for Shabbat. 

Meyer Rosen cooked two meals in his lifetime: Scrambled eggs and corned beef with barbeque sauce served alongside cabbage and noodles. The cabbage and noodles dish is now an essential part of the family’s Shabbat meal right after Thanksgiving, but it’s excellent through the fall and winter. 

This pumpkin-filled flatbread comes from the Kavkazi Jewish community; sometimes known as Mountain Jews, they live between the Black and Caspian Seas. Alona Eisenberg has worked diligently to document recipes from her community. “I collect knowledge about this cuisine from everyone who agrees to sit with me,” Alona says. 

“To many Sephardi and Mizrahi communities, broad beans are a reminder of what the Jews ate during their captivity in Egypt,” writes Claudia Roden.

“Beetroot and pickled or fermented cucumber are an indisputable classic of Eastern European and Ashkenazi cuisines,” shares cookbook author Alissa Timoshkina, who was raised in Siberia. The duo come together in this recipe.

In retired ambassador Jeremy Issacharoff’s family, there’s a tradition of the men tending to and passing down recipes like this one. Pair it with the family’s osavo, a rich Shabbat dish of meat and rice, grilled kebabs, or rice for a vegan meal.

This mash recipe from Galicia — a historic region that stretched across part of Poland and Ukraine — is served alongside chicken with prunes and a beet salad for Shabbat in cookbook author Alissa Timoshkina’s home.

Tanzia is a Moroccan sweet and spiced topping, served over rice or couscous to add depth and contrast to savory dishes

White bean salad is a beloved staple in Balkan kitchens, and this tangy one comes from Shaily Lipa’s Greek grandmother Levana, who made it every Shabbat for the vibrant Greek breakfasts she served on her balcony. 

This bright, refreshing salad from Julia Mande’s Moroccan family combines crisp fennel, juicy orange, and a cumin-spiced lemon dressing. A handful of herbs adds freshness. Let it sit before serving so the flavors can meld.

This cozy aloo bhaji — tender potatoes infused with warm spices and fresh curry leaves — is pure comfort food for potato lovers. In cookbook author Elana Benjamin’s family, it was part of her aunt and uncle's barbecue spread.

When Sarina Roffé was little, her Syrian Jewish family made this salad as part of their mazza spread, small dishes served at the start of celebratory meals, but it packs up perfectly for a picnic.

Ruhama Shitrit's Iraqi grandfather would make this side salad of tomatoes, thinly sliced onions and amba, a tangy, fermented mango condiment. It brightens up a holiday perfectly.

Dishes like this one from the Iraqi-Indian Jewish community are a hybrid of traditions. Aloo means potato in Hindi, while makala is an old Iraqi Arabic word for friend, explains Elli Benaiah.

In some Ashkenazi homes, it's customary to serve tzimmes at nearly every holiday and Friday night dinner. This recipe from Sonya Sanford offers a modern and less sweet spin on the classic.

While many yapsuk (also spelled yapchik) recipes call for meat, this rendition from David Glick's family is entirely vegan. Think of it as a large latke that's baked instead of fried.

This Syrian dessert is traditionally made with milk, though dairy free (pareve) versions are popular in Syrian Jewish communities, including one that calls Panama home. 

Alana Satsuki Chandler grew up attending both synagogue and Japanese Saturday school. For Jewish holidays, their mother fuses together the two heritages in the kitchen. This vegan doughnut recipe, which Alana recommends making for Hanukkah, follows in that tradition.

This agar-agar recipe from Elana Benjamin’s mother has long been one of Elana’s favorite desserts — and was always served at her family’s summer barbecues. The classic Indian-Jewish sweet uses a plant-based alternative to gelatin to form its signature shape and texture.

Professor and writer Margaret E. Boyle sees this recipe as a clear example of the blending of Jewish and Mexican traditions. Serve the paletas for a Passover dessert like Margaret's family or after a Friday night dinner during the summer.

In the Ghalchi family, momentous occasions like weddings, births, and even funerals are marked by the presence of halva, a Persian confection made of wheat flour, rosewater, and saffron. 

This traditional compote recipe comes from Benjamin Lesser’s grandfather who lived in Mukatch, Hungary before the Holocaust. His home was “on a major street called Sugar — an appropriate name for that sweet home,” Benjamin explains.

These chocolate tahini truffles take just 10 minutes to make — but they will need an hour in the freezer to firm up, so be sure to make the recipe before dinner. 

When Rivka Hazan was growing up in Jerusalem in the 1930s and 1940s, her mother used the oven at the nearby Persian bakery when she made sweets like this one for holiday celebrations.