January 17, 2025

PJ Library Offers Free Downloadable Passover Recipes for Kids on Its Jam-Packed Passover Hub

PJ Library, long trusted as a resource for Jewish families (now in 40 countries) who receive free books each month, offers these fun and fresh Passover recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner that kids can whip up easily for the 8-day holiday. This year Passover is celebrated April 22–30.

Families often have their favorite “tried and true” recipes that they absolutely must make for Passover. Tradition, tradition! But preparing family meals during Passover often becomes a challenge, especially when preparing for young children.

Help is on the way from the PJ Library! You and your family will love making these kid-approved and kid-friendly recipes year after year, making great memories as well as great food.

Breakfast: Passover charose balls

Don’t discard the leftover seder charoset. Save it for these easy, make-ahead, healthy treats packed with protein to keep you full and energized. They make a great after-school snack too!

Ingredients:

3 ounces dried apple slices

1 ½ cups hot water

½ cup pitted dates

½ cup walnuts

½ cup matzo meal, divided

½ teaspoon of cinnamon

¼ cup shredded, unsweetened coconut

Preparation:

In a medium bowl, soak the dried apples in hot water until they are softened and reconstituted. Drain the apples, but reserve the liquid.

In a food processor, pulse together the drained apples, dates, walnuts, half of the matzo meal, and cinnamon until it comes together. Add the reserved apple liquid, one tablespoon at a time, to help bind the ingredients. You would only need one to two tablespoons of liquid to do so.

Use a spoon to scoop about one tablespoon of the mixture into your palm. Roll it into a ball.

Repeat this step with the rest of your fruit and nut mixture.

In a small bowl, combine the rest of the matzo meal with the shredded coconut.

Roll each ball in the coconut and matzo meal mixture to coat.

Place your finished treats on a cookie sheet and chill in the refrigerator for one hour before serving.

Lunch: Passover Portable Salad on a Stick

If you’re packing lunches or trying to get a fussy child to eat, you’ll love this healthy, fast, side dish. Use the caprese style recipe as a blueprint for your salad, and then change things up by swapping the type of cheese, as well as the fresh vegetables used.

Dinner: Passover Roasted Broccoli Florets with Lemon Garlic Matzah Crumbs

If you weren’t a broccoli fan before, you will be after you try this dish. There’s something magical that happens when deep green broccoli meets a hot oven and emerges with a gentle char. The combination of sweet and pungent roasted garlic married with vibrant and refreshingly tart lemon zest, perfumes the matzah crumbs in such a way that it won’t take long for this dish to become a heavily requested staple on any Passover table.

Looking for more Passover Kid-Friendly Food & Recipe Inspiration? Check out these easy recipes to get you through the school week, where you’ll find: 11 Delicious Books About Passover Foods, 25 Easy Passover Recipes Your Family Will Love, and 9 Passover Lunch Ideas for Kids.

Finally, you’ll want to explore the newly updated PJ Library Passover Hub, where you’ll discover a plethora of Passover information, videos, podcasts, activities, and more for the entire family:

• Books For Matzah Lovers
• How to Host a Passover Seder
• The Before-Bedtime Seder: A Short but Meaningful Celebration for The Littlest Attendees
• PJ Library’s Passover List of Children’s Books, Music, Videos, and Audio Stories
• Passover History and Traditions

For 2024, PJ Library has partnered with Streit’s, and is featured on their iconic matzo boxes. For those who’ve gone without the free stories and activities PJ Library sends every month for zero dough (leavened or otherwise), they can now be led out of the desert thanks to the opportunity to sign up for a subscription on every box of Streit’s Matzos. Use Streit is in your favorite Passover recipes and look for the PJ Library logo on Streit is Matzos boxes in supermarkets across North America or online at streitsmatzos.com.

About the PJ Library

PJ Library, a global program available in 40 countries, provides Jewish families with free, high-quality children’s books and other resources that foster a deeper connection with Jewish life. Over 18 years, PJ Library has provided more than 50 million books to kids ages 0–12 worldwide. It is a program of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, which partners with local Jewish organizations to fund PJ Library and make it available in their community.

New York Jewish Parenting Guide