Let's get ready for Purim! 🎭


Hello my friend!

Holy moly it's only one week till Purim 😳

Time to get organised and plan which delicious festive foods to make, and what delicacies to include in this year's mishloach manot gifts.

I love to theme our Purim gifts, as I find it helps me to create a more coherent selection of goodies for the recipient. I also like to make healthier gifts, as so many mishloach manot are packed with sweets, highly processed snacks, and similar less nutritious items. I've put together a guide to creating healthier mishloach manot that includes all kinds of ideas for foods and treats to choose, as well as a number of themes you might like to use, such as a healthy breakfast basket or a cinema-inspired gift. Let's give Purim baskets that both celebrate our Jewish joy, and encourage healthy eating and wellness!

To further help you out, the good people over at Nutural World are offering a 15% discount to readers of Family-Friends-Food! Their gourmet nut butters and roasted nuts are incredibly delicious, kosher, and made without any added oils or salt. Use code FFF15 to get 15% off your order. (This discount is available once per customer.)

Delicious Purim Recipes

Celebratory foods are inevitably richer and more indulgent than their everyday counterparts - that's what makes them special! This typically means that they're more refined, and higher in sugars and fats. If you're trying to eat a healthier diet, there's no need to miss out altogether. Just be mindful that these are occasional treats to be enjoyed in moderation, and not everyday foods. Combining sweet Purim foods with more nutritious items is a good way to enjoy them and still avoid a sugar rush or next-day 'food hangover'! Eat and drink mindfully, enjoy the festivities, and remember that if you do go all-in and eat 12 chocolate hamantaschen single handed, that's fine too! You cannot make or break a healthy diet with a single day of food choices, so let's enjoy the Purim specialties while they last!

Here are some of my favourite dishes and treats for the joyous festival of Purim.

  • ​Classic British hamantaschen buns​
    Soft yeasted dough and a gooey and delicious poppy seed filling. The perfect hamantaschen!
  • ​Sushi hamantaschen​
    ​
    Not remotely traditional but fun and delicious! A great savoury item to include on a Purim seudah menu.
  • ​Pizza hamantaschen​
    Another non-traditional variant. These cheesy, Italian-inspired delights are great finger food and a fun inclusion in mishloach manot.
  • ​Queen Esther's toast​
    A special Purim breakfast or brunch, Queen Esther's Toast, aka Purim fritters, are a close cousin of French toast or Spanish revanadas de parida.
  • ​Caveos di Aman​
    A Bulgarian Purim dish made with noodles, olives and eggs in a zingy lemon and poppy-seed dressing. Yum!
  • ​Haman's fingers​
    ​
    Easy to make treats consisting of filo pastry wrapped around a spiced fruit and nut filling. Crunchy, nutritious, and no added sugar! A delicious Purim treat.
  • ​Gingerbread men for Purim - Lebkuchen Hamohns​
    ​
    Originating in Alsace, these spicy little fellas enable you to fully consume our enemy! Thick, slightly chewy traditional gingerbread, sweetened with honey.

You can browse all of my Purim recipes and ideas here.​

Shabbat Shalom

Wishing you and yours a refreshing and revitalising Shabbat.

May we all be blessed with peace, health, happiness and many reasons to celebrate. Shabbat Shalom - a Good Shabbos! - to everyone.

With love, Helen x.

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Family Friends Food

Hi, I'm Helen. I share easy, nutritious, seasonal, flexitarian recipes, often with a British-Jewish twist. Expect a weekly dose of delicious dinner ideas, news and positivity!

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