Tzimmes
The slow-cooked carrot-and-sweet-potato side that signals Rosh Hashanah as clearly as apples and honey. Sweet, glossy, scented with cinnamon and orange, studded with prunes. Made in a baking dish, cooked until the carrots melt against the spoon.
Overview
Carrots, sweet potatoes and prunes are layered in a baking dish with butter or oil, honey, brown sugar, orange juice and a stick of cinnamon. Covered and roasted low until the vegetables soften and absorb the sweet braising liquid, then uncovered for the last fifteen minutes so the top catches and the juices reduce to a syrup. The dish is sweet on purpose: it is the food of a hopeful festival.
Ingredients
- 500 g carrots (peeled, cut into 3 cm chunks)
- 500 g sweet potatoes (peeled, cut into 3 cm chunks)
- 150 g pitted prunes
- 50 g sultanas (or raisins)
- 4 tablespoons olive oil (or 60 g butter, melted)
- 4 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons soft dark brown sugar
- The juice of 2 oranges (about 200 ml)
- The zest of 1 orange
- 1 cinnamon stick
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- A small pinch of fine sea salt
- A generous grind of black pepper
Method
Stage 1 - Prepare
- Heat the oven to 170°C fan / 190°C / 375°F.
- In a large baking dish, combine the carrots, sweet potatoes, prunes and sultanas. Pour over the oil (or melted butter), honey, sugar and orange juice. Add the orange zest, cinnamon stick, ginger, salt and pepper. Toss with your hands until everything is glossy.
Stage 2 - Slow cook
- Cover the dish tightly with foil and bake for 45 minutes. The vegetables should be tender when pierced with the tip of a knife.
- Uncover and stir gently with a wooden spoon - try not to break up the sweet potatoes - and return to the oven for another 25-30 minutes. The juices should reduce and turn syrupy, and the tops of the vegetables should catch and darken in places.
Stage 3 - Finish
- Fish out the cinnamon stick. Taste and add a pinch more salt if needed; the sweetness needs the salt to land properly.
- Let the dish rest for 5 minutes before serving so the syrup thickens around the vegetables.
Notes
- Some traditional tzimmes include cubes of brisket cooked alongside, which turns the side into a one-dish main. To do that, brown 600 g of brisket cubes first, layer them under the vegetables, and extend the covered bake to 2 hours.
- For a deeper note, add 2 tablespoons of treacle alongside the honey.
- The dish reheats well; cover with foil and warm in a 160°C oven for 20 minutes with a splash of water.
Serving
Alongside brisket, roast chicken or roast lamb on the Rosh Hashanah table. The orange-spiced sweetness sits well against a slow-cooked, oniony main.
Storage
In a covered container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Reheats well; can be made a day ahead.
More like this
Challah
Strong bread flour worked with eggs, honey, oil, salt and warm water until the dough is smooth and elastic. Two long rises, the first slack and the second tight after braiding. A six-strand braid if you're showing off, three-strand if you want the loaf made before the candles. Brushed with egg yolk for the lacquer-deep crust, scattered with sesame or poppy seeds, baked until the bottom sounds hollow when tapped.
Honey Cake
A simple oil-based cake built around a generous pour of dark honey, brewed coffee for moisture and depth, and a quartet of spices (cinnamon, ginger, clove, allspice). Mixed in one bowl, baked low and slow. The crumb is dark and dense without being heavy; the flavour deepens overnight, which is why most Jewish households bake it a day or two ahead of the meal.
Chocolate Babka
Brioche-style dough: bread flour, yeast, milk, eggs, butter, sugar, salt. Kneads 10 min till elastic; rises 1 ½ hours. Chocolate filling: dark chocolate + butter melted with cocoa, sugar, cinnamon, cools to spreadable. Dough divides in half; each rolls to a rectangle 40 × 25 cm; filling spreads to edges; rolls up tight; cuts lengthways down the middle; the two halves twist around each other (the iconic babka braid). Lifts into a buttered loaf tin; rises for 45 min; bakes for 35 min at 180°C. Sugar syrup brushes over hot.
Matzo Ball Soup
Two parallel jobs: a long-simmered chicken broth made from a whole bird with onion, carrot and celery, skimmed clean and finished with dill; and the matzo balls themselves, made from matzo meal, eggs, schmaltz and seltzer, rested in the fridge for the gluten to relax. The balls poach in salted water (never the broth, or the broth clouds), then sit in the hot broth at serving time. Light, comforting, traditional.