I hear a lot of complaining from people that all they have to eat on Pesach is chicken, meat and potatoes. I get it. Everyone missed their bread and their oats. But you know what, chicken, meat and potatoes are awesome! They are blank canvases that can pair with a huge palette of sauces, dips and salads. (Like how did that canvases, palettes…)

I have a few tricks snd some staple dips that I make in huge batches on the first day of my Pesach cooking. They stay beautifully in the fridge all Pesach long and switch up which ones I serve at each meal!

I’ve said it about a million times by now but I’ll say it again. I LOVE PESACH! It’s the beginning of nice weather here in Israel and that means it’s officially barbecue season! We grill up a variety of different proteins every single night and serve them with all the fridge staple dips!

Before I start giving you a few of my best staple tips and dips heres a few things to keep in mind:

• I like to make all my dips and base ingredients first so that they are parve. This way I can use and serve them with everything!
• Adjust the flavors to your families preferences. If you don’t like cilantro, swap it for parsley. Spicy foods are not your thing…Leave the heat element out!
• Double or triple each recipe. Starting from scratch the second days is just not fun. So make sure to make enough of everything so that it lasts you the whole holiday.

SAUTEED ONIONS:

The first thing I always do is sautée up 40 onions. Yup, that’s right 40. Why so many? We go through tons and tons of onions on Pesach. They get smothered on chicken, add to hash browns, mixed into our eggs, turned into dips and layered into our yapsik.

• I use my food processor’s slicing blade to cut them into really thin strips (takes 5 to cut 40 onions, it’s amazing!)
• Add them to a huge pot with a few tbsp oil, 1 tbsp salt and little crushed black pepper.
• Set the fire to medium heat, cover the pot and cook for 5 minutes.
• Once a little water has come out of the onions, remove the cover, lower the heat to medium low and cook for 5-6 hours till they are a deep golden color and have a beautiful melty texture!

Garlic flavored oil:

The second thing I do is peel about 20 cloves of garlic. I do three things with the cloves.

• I take about 16 cloves and add them to a large 16 oz jar. Fill the jar up to the top with whichever oil you prefer. Stick it in to the fridge and then any time you need oil for sauteeing, salad dressings, searing meat or marinades use your garlic oil. It is the ultimate flavor booster!
• The second thing I like to do is right away make a few batches of confit garlic. All you do is stick however many cloves of garlic you want into an over proof dish. Add whatever spices or herbs you like and little salt and pepper. Cover the garlic with olive oil, wrap dish tightly in foil and bake in a 350f oven for about 35-40 minutes.
• Lastly and probably most importantly, take the rest of the cloves and stick them right into the food processor. Pulse until all the garlic is minced. (be careful not to over pulse or it will turn into a puree) Mix in a few tbsp of canola oil and pour all the minced garlic into an airtight jar. Top off with a little more oil and pop in the fridge. Your cooking will be sooooo much easier!

Salatim:

This is probably the most food enhancing part of all my Pesach cooking. We like strong flavors around here and the right kind of dips and salatim enhance all food.

Weather I serve chicken, meat, potatoes or eggs everything gets served with a different salad or dip. This way, evenjhough were technically eating the same foods over and over, they’re always paired with different flavors so nothing gets boring.