Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur have always been a deeply special time for me. I was never a religious person; however, I loved the traditions we repeated each year as a family. And as I got older, I cherished the time my father and I would share going to the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur together. I knew one day, he wouldn’t be there, sitting next to me holding hands and reading the prayers together. I learned to appreciate that time with my dad. Today, my Jewish High Holidays are special because they invite me to slow down, reflect, remember and listen.
Rosh Hashanah is the celebration of the Jewish New Year. Yom Kippur is known as the Day of Atonement. Yom Kippur is the most reflective day of the Jewish year— it’s a time for looking inward, reflection, prayer and forgiveness. It comes nine days after Rosh Hashanah. Yom Kippur gives us an opportunity to think about the year behind us, how we want to improve ourselves and our actions, and how we want to move forward a bit better into the year ahead. It’s also a time of remembering our loved ones who have passed away.
After spending an evening and the following day in temple fasting from sundown to sunset the next day, we break our fast.
For our family, as with so many Jewish families, Break Fast is not about finally eating, it’s about reconnecting around the table, sharing comforting foods, and marking the end of a deeply reflective time together.
The last thing any of us want to do after fasting is to spend hours cooking. So our favorite Yom Kippur Break Fast foods are dishes we make ahead of time and simply pull them out of the fridge, perhaps warm them up, and enjoy.
Here are a few of my personal favorite dishes I remember eating with my parents and grandparents, and now have been sharing with our children.
Creating an Easy Gluten-Free Yom Kippur Break Fast
After a day of fasting, we like to keep the meal simple, comforting, and easy on everyone—including the cook!
The secret is preparing as much as possible ahead of time.
Most of your Break Fast spread can be made the day before and stored in the refrigerator. Then, when it’s time to eat, there isn’t a mad rush around the kitchen.
Set everything out family-style and allow everyone to make a plate with whatever sounds good.
Here are some of our favorites.
🍲 A Cozy Stew
A hearty vegetable, lentil, or bean stew is wonderful because you can make the entire pot ahead of time.
In fact, we think most stews taste even better the next day after all those beautiful flavors have had time to mingle.
Simply reheat your STEW before everyone gathers and serve alongside gluten-free bread.
🥗 Simple Seared Salmon
Simple, familiar, and completely prepare-ahead friendly.
Make your favorite FISH and add to a salad the day before and keep it chilled. Serve it with greens, sliced vegetables, crackers, or toasted gluten-free bread.
🍗 Chicken Salad
Chicken salad is another wonderful addition because it can be made completely ahead of time.
Use leftover roasted chicken and add your favorite crunchy vegetables, fresh herbs, grapes, apples, nuts, or whatever your family loves.
It’s satisfying without feeling overly heavy after a day of fasting.
🍞 Gluten-Free Bread
A beautiful loaf of gluten-free bread makes the table feel complete.
Slice it ahead of time and serve it with butter, cream cheese, cottage cheese, tuna salad, or chicken salad.
You can toast slices if you’d like, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with putting the loaf right on the table and letting everyone help themselves.
🥘 Gluten-Free Kugel
For many families, kugel is one of those foods that immediately feels like a Jewish holiday.
And it’s practically made for preparing ahead!
Whether your family loves a sweet noodle-style kugel or a savory potato version, prepare your gluten-free kugel before Yom Kippur and simply warm it when you’re ready to Break Fast. You can also try Challah!
Comforting, nostalgic, and delicious—that’s exactly what we want.
🥣 Cottage Cheese & Simple Sides
Not everything needs to be a “recipe.”
Put out platters of smoked fish, lox, bagels, cream cheese, and whatever simple foods your family enjoys.
After fasting, sometimes the simplest foods taste the best.
🥬 A Fresh Seasonal Salad
With all those comforting dishes, we always love having something fresh on the table.
Use whatever is beautiful and seasonal—a variety of colorful lettuces, simple seared salmon, apples, grapes, cucumbers, carrots, onions herbs, nuts or seeds and drizzled with a flavorful lemon caper dressing!
You can wash and chop and prepare most of your ingredients ahead of time and keep your dressing separate until it’s time to eat.
Understanding the Jewish Calendar
There are so many facets of Judaism that I’ve loved learning about throughout my life.
I often wondered why the Jewish High Holidays always arrived at different times in the fall as well as why the dates for the holidays were never the same each year.
It wasn’t until I began writing my current book, Raising Children of Spirit, that I really started to delve deeper and understand the reason why. The Jewish calendar is different from the Gregorian calendar most of us use every day. Only took me 70 years ☺.
The Jewish calendar is a lunisolar calendar, meaning it incorporates cycles of both the moon and the sun, along with calculations that keep the holidays aligned with their appropriate seasons.
Long before we had computers or phones telling us the date, observing the moon was an important part of determining the beginning of a new Jewish month.
I find something incredibly beautiful about that connection.
Look up at the moon and you’re looking at something our ancestors also watched thousands of years ago.
Connecting Our Jewish Roots with Nature
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become increasingly interested in the relationship between spirituality, nature, and the cycles happening around us.
Many years ago, I began diving deeper into astrology and practicing moon rituals introduced to me by my dear friends Heather Askinosie and Timmi Jandro, founders of Energy Muse Jewelry. Those practices encouraged me to pay closer attention to the moon, the seasons, and my own relationship with the natural world.
For me, these practices don’t replace my Jewish roots. Instead, I’ve enjoyed finding ways to weave together tradition, spirituality, nature, and curiosity.
I especially love doing this with children.
Kids can see the sun and moon. They can touch rocks and trees. They can stand beside the ocean and feel its power. They can watch the seasons change.
Stories and events that happened thousands of years ago can sometimes feel abstract to children. Giving them tangible ways to connect with nature, tradition, history, spirituality, and even science can open the door for questions.
And I love those questions.
Rather than simply telling children what they should believe, we can give them traditions, stories, experiences, and information that help them begin developing their own understanding of life and spirituality.
Yom Kippur: Reflecting, Forgiving & Beginning Again
That idea of reflection feels especially meaningful to me.
The days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are traditionally a period of introspection. It’s an opportunity to consider our actions, make amends, seek forgiveness, and think about how we want to show up differently in the coming year.
One doesn’t have to be Jewish to go inward and reflect during this change of season.
It’s not necessarily about becoming a completely different person overnight.
Maybe it’s about being more patient.
Reconnecting with someone we’ve lost touch with.
Apologizing when we need to.
Being more present with our children.
Letting go of old resentments.
Showing ourselves and others a little more compassion.
There is something powerful about having a ritual that gives us permission to stop and ask:
What do I want to carry forward, and what am I ready to release?
And after that reflection comes something we Curry Girls know very well: gathering around food.
Food, Ritual & The Traditions We Carry Forward
This time of year, I’m reminded of how much of our family traditions live in the rituals we repeat.
Some are religious.
Some are cultural.
Some come from our parents and grandparents.
And some are new traditions I have created with our own families.
That’s one of the things I love most about traditions: they can have roots while still continuing to grow and evolve as we do.
We can teach our children the stories that came before them while encouraging them to remain curious about the world around them.
We can look inward while still looking up at the moon.
We can honor ancient traditions while creating new family memories around today’s table.
And we can end a day of fasting, reflection, and forgiveness by doing something humans have done together for thousands of years:
Sit down and share a meal.
To all of our Curry Girls friends and family observing Yom Kippur,
G’mar Chatima Tovah.
May you and your family be sealed in the Book of Life.
May this season bring you reflection, forgiveness, connection, peace, and a sweet year ahead.
With love,
Mama Pegs
Curry Girls Kitchen