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Key Points
Ina Garten’s Passover menu focuses on stress-free, make-ahead dishes perfect for large gatherings.
Her five-ingredient roasted vegetables are simple and ideal for spring holiday dinners.
Garten suggests serving buffet-style to simplify hosting and enjoy more time with loved ones.
Holiday dinners are always filled with delicious food, but one of the best parts of having a celebratory meal is the experience of sitting down to enjoy moments with the people you love. Ina Garten has shared time and again that she’s a big fan of keeping dinner parties as stress-free as possible, and it’s an approach we’re big fans of. So recently, when the Barefoot Contessa shared her go-to Passover menu, we took notes.
In her Substack newsletter, Garten took on a subscriber-submitted, Passover-related question in her “Ask Ina” column. “I host a big Passover Seder with lots of family members,” the question read. “How would you set up the meal?”
Garten’s response emphasizes her love of “stress-free” entertaining, but acknowledges that keeping things simple is “not always easy with a big group.” Thankfully, Garten’s got a make-ahead, foolproof Passover menu that’s perfect for long guest lists. What’s more, it includes a simple, five-ingredient side dish we can’t wait to try.
“One way to simplify dinner is to serve platters, not plates,” says Garten. “I love to arrange a buffet table.”
If you don’t have the space on a counter to set the platters out, you could always arrange them on your table and serve things up family-style.
“After the stories are told, you can ask a few guests to help bring out bowls of Matzo Ball Soup,” Garten continues. “Then, I like to put everything on a buffet table nearby—big platters of Brisket with Onions and Leeks, Garlic Roasted Potatoes, whitefish salad, Oven-Roasted Vegetables, wine and sparkling water.”
The menu sounds pretty delicious, especially the five-ingredient Oven-Roasted Vegetables recipe Garten shares. The simple dish calls for small fennel bulbs with the tops removed, some fingerling or other small potatoes, trimmed French string beans, some thin asparagus with the ends removed and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. With a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, the dish comes together by roasting the ingredients in a 425° F oven for about 45 minutes, then sprinkling the roasted veggies with Parm before serving. It’s a perfectly easy side dish that’d look beautiful on any springtime holiday table—and it’s so simple, we might even add it to our weeknight dinner rotation.
“Passover doesn’t have to be too sophisticated,” Garten says at the close of the column, and we love this take. After all, the most important part of any holiday dinner is who you share it with, not how much time you spend working hard in the kitchen beforehand.
Another easy spring holiday hack Garten shares in her Substack? Putting together an Easter dessert table. “I love a dessert table with lots of goodies,” she explains, adding that with a few baked goods all set for the holiday, all that’s left to do is decorate and create a dessert buffet.
Garten’s top Easter dessert recommendations? “You can make my Carrot Cake with Ginger Mascarpone Frosting, Coconut Cake and Coconut Cupcakes at home… have a delicious Easter!”
If you want some other sweet options that are perfect for your spring holiday dinners, we’ve got you covered. Here are a few of the recipes we lean on again and again:
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Dining and Cooking