Celebrating Jewish traditions with plant-based recipes (2024)

KATIE DeBENEDETTI

Lox, brisket, shawarma, whitefish salad — you might be wondering how these foods fit into a vegetarian cookbook.

In “Nosh: Plant-Forward Recipes Celebrating Modern Jewish Cuisine,” Micah Siva, a Bay Area chef and registered dietician, puts a plant-based spin on Jewish recipes that traditionally use all of these, and other, non-vegetarian ingredients.

Siva, who lives in San Francisco, will be at Napa Bookmine for an author event on April 16 at 6 p.m.

Siva grew up learning to cook a lot of traditional versions of Nosh recipes with her family, especially her grandmother.

“I always spent so much time with her in the kitchen. Whether it was making cookies together for Hanukkah or going raspberry picking and making jam out of the raspberries to fill little-tempered cookies,” Siva said.

But many of the family recipes she learned to love making were meat-focused. This became clear to Siva in middle school when she decided to eat a vegetarian diet.

“This is definitely the book that I wish that I had at that time so that I could still participate fully in family and family meals and holidays,” Siva said. “It's definitely inspired by something that I just felt like was missing from my own experience.”

She said the project has been a celebration of Judaism, food and community. Cooking and faith are intertwined for Siva, but ingredients found in some more traditional Jewish dishes don’t.

“I think that the act of cooking is how I practice my Judaism,” Siva said. For her, cooking and faith go hand in hand, but some of the ingredients in traditional Jewish recipes don’t fit her lifestyle. She said her personal experience, combined with the rise of plant-based diets, inspired her to write this cookbook.

When diets change, Siva said recipes, and traditions, need to be able to modernize to continue.

“So much of what we're doing when we're eating those foods is we're experiencing a memory and a feeling. For everyone to be included in that memory and feeling is so special. I don't think it's about the recipe itself; I think it's about the history behind it,” Siva said. “There needs to be some modern take so that people for generations to follow want to eat it and feel good about it.”

Siva also acknowledges that there’s room for a balance of old-school and modern recipes — like a beef brisket for some, and a mushroom and tofu brisket for others. Throughout, the book blends tradition and nuance, both in its recipes and its additional content.

Nosh’s opening pages include a “Shabbat Matrix” — a perfect example of how Siva helps readers juggle current-day lives with generations-long traditions.

In the book, she says, “a weekly Shabbat can feel daunting between work, kids, cleaning and everything else we do.”

Her easy-to-follow matrix shows how she tackles the Friday night meal, based on how much time and energy she has to give it. A calm week might call for homemade chickpea noodle soup and challah. Other times, only takeout pizza, wine and candles fit the schedule.

Siva also gives tips for readers considering the vegetarian diet, including easy plant-based swaps, like flaxseed for eggs and the many uses for tofu.

She also provides context on keeping kosher during Passover, how this looks in her vegetarian kitchen, and how it can vary for Jewish people of different heritages.

While "Nosh" certainly has a focus on Jewish dishes, it also contains recipes inspired by ingredients, memories and places Siva loves. Her hope is that non-Jewish people will also utilize the book.

“It’s just a different way to diversify your cooking,” she said. “The book is for people who either are vegetarian or vegan, cook for people who are, or just want to try to eat more vegetables in their diet.”

Where does she suggest readers start? Her favorite recipe in the book is for poppy seed, potato and caramelized onion Kreplach. The soup dumplings were a staple in her grandma’s kitchen during Rosh Hashanah growing up, and Siva said they’re extra sentimental because the pair made them together with Siva’s husband the first time he met her family.

“The Kreplach is important to me, but it's also a plant-based recipe that works really well,” Siva said. “It's delicious. It's one of those projects that you might take a Sunday afternoon to make, and it's just the most comforting dish in so many ways.”

Napa Bookmine is located at 1625 Second St. in Napa. To register for the April 16 author event or to purchase the book, visit napabookmine.com/event.