Get ready to eat stuffed cabbage year-round.
At the end of each year, The Nosher team scours the internet for Jewish food trend predictions for the year to come. With food being our literal bread and butter, we get our kicks from discovering how our eating habits will evolve in the next 12 months and if, finally, this will be The Year of Chopped Liver. (Spoiler alert: No, but another schmaltzy Ashkenazi classic is about to blow up.)
Last year, we predicted the rise of boards and were, regrettably, correct. We also predicted a rise in nostalgic comfort food, which, evidenced by your love of our one-bowl Russian Apple Sharlotka cake, mini potato kugels and Sephardic spinach matzah pie recipes, was also spot-on. Now that we’ve convinced you of our fortune-telling abilities, let’s see what’s in store for our stomachs in 2024:
1. Plant-Based Everything
Vegan meals, snacks and ingredients are set to soar in 2024. We’re talking more variety and, crucially, better quality, focusing on all-natural ingredients, like mushrooms. Happily, there’s no shortage of Jewish plant-based dishes and wisdom, from traditional Iraqi chickpea sambusak to contemporary carrot lox.
Hot tip: Keep an eye out for The Nosher’s upcoming vegan recipe collection, which covers all the Jewish basics and beyond, and contributor Micah Siva’s cookbook “Nosh: Plant-Forward Recipes Celebrating Modern Jewish Cuisine,” coming March 5.
2. Catchin’ On to Kasha
Buckwheat never went out of style at The Nosher, but we’re delighted to see The Daily Meal predicted it to be the “it grain” in 2024. It’s high time for Ashkenazi kasha varnishkes (schmaltzy buckwheat groats with bowtie pasta or, more traditionally, homemade noodles) to revel in the spotlight and for us to have yet another excuse to enjoy this cheap, filling comfort food.
3. Sweet Little Luxuries
Small, affordable luxuries of all kinds are predicted to rise in 2024, including pastries that “feel simultaneously fresh yet familiar” predicts The Food Network. Our minds immediately jumped to Miami-based bakery Zak the Baker, which regularly draws in lines around the block for its quality traditional Jewish bakes and innovative creations, and Parisian bakery Babka Zana, whose beautiful, visionary babkas have earnt it a cult following both on and offline.
4. Red Hot Chili Peppers
Get ready for a tongue tingling 2024, as everyone from Whole Foods to ABC Newsforecasts a year of spice. If you don’t already own a jar of Holy Tshili’s everything bagel blend-infused chili crisp, what are you waiting for? But that’s far from the only Jewish way to spice up your year: Zhug, a herbaceous Yemenite hot sauce, will amp up everything from soup to sandwiches; while spicy North African chraime is a Jewish fish dish worthy of any occasion.
5. Get Stuffed
The National Restaurant Association predicts that stuffed vegetables, particularly stuffed peppers and stuffed cabbage rolls, will crowd our menus in 2024—and we couldn’t be more delighted. As Vered Guttman explores in this fascinating essay, stuffed vegetables are the ultimate Jewish comfort food (and, forget a restaurant, we can whip them up at home). From hearty Iraqi stuffed onions and tomatoes to lemony Sephardi stuffed grape leaves, there are so many stuffed dishes to choose from in the global Jewish kitchen, perfect for any, and every, occasion.
Rachel Myerson is a contributing writer to Nosher and Jlife Magazine.
