What does a girl from the Southern Mid-West, who grew up going to Catholic School, know about Latkes?<\/p>\n
To be honest, until recently, not much. In fact, for the first 11 years of my life, Jesus was the only Jewish person that I knew.\u00a0 Which, when in it comes to talking about Jewish traditions, holidays and cuisine, doesn\u2019t give me much \u201ccred.\u201d<\/p>\n
Often called potato pancakes, rounds fried crispy on the outside, melt in your mouth tender potato insides, are served warm with sour cream.<\/p>\n
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And for all I didn\u2019t know growing up, I had been eating latkes all my life.\u00a0\u00a0 A resourceful cook, my mom would transform leftover mashed potatoes\u2014a weekly staple into delectable fried nibbles.\u00a0 Though I\u2019d eat them year around, they make their holiday debut this time of year for Hanukkah.<\/p>\n
The 8-day Festival of Lights, Hanukkah<\/a> has a very ancient and turbulent back story in which the Jewish people were in conflict with the Syrian king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who intolerantly wanted the Jews to worship Greek gods.\u00a0 The long battle was not without the loss of many Jewish lives and destruction of their Second Temple.\u00a0 The victory at last came under the leadership of Judah Maccabee and brought the restoration of the Second Temple altar and historic lighting of the menorah.\u00a0\u00a0 Celebrating creation and light, the menorah burned through eight nights when there was only enough olive oil for one. It was a miracle!<\/p>\n This year Hanukkah is celebrated December 22-30 alongside Christmas reminding us of why our Pilgrim forefathers and mothers came to America\u2014for religious freedom.\u00a0 It is also a time when we can enjoy a taste of Jewish tradition.<\/p>\n Still cooked in oil to remember the miracle, this version made use of dairy, specifically cheese, to remember the Syrian-Jewish conflict heroine Judith.<\/p>\n According to Tori Avey, The Shiksa in the Kitchen<\/a>, Judith first attracted the attention of Holofernes, the Assyrian army general.\u00a0 She then incapacitated him into a stupor with wine and cheese, before beheading him.\u00a0 The village was then able to victoriously surprise the Assyrian army, thanks to Judith.\u00a0 Today, the more common potato latkes are accompanied by a cooling dollop of sour cream.<\/p>\n When the Jews were kicked out of Sicily, they shared their medieval latke recipe with northern Italian Jews and the recipe spread.\u00a0 And sometime in during the 1800\u2019s out of the Eastern Europe breadbasket, the heartier potato pancakes emerged.\u00a0 With other crops faltering, potatoes thrived and became the main latke ingredient for Ashkenazi Jews of Poland and the Ukraine.\u00a0 Their adaptation made the version of latkes we now know best.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t wait for you to try my version of latkes.\u00a0 I\u2019ve upped the veggies and added amazing flavor to the non-fat dairy topping.\u00a0 My motto, even the most loved of traditions can benefit from a little evidence-based evolution when it comes to health.<\/p>\n Potato-Carrot-Kale Latkes with Lemon Apricot Yogurt<\/strong><\/p>\n Serves: 6, makes approximately 18-20 latkes<\/p>\n Prep time: 15 minutes<\/p>\n Total time:\u00a0 30 minutes<\/p>\n Not sure about kale?\u00a0 Try 3 cups of fresh cups spinach in place of the kale.<\/p>\n Latkes<\/strong><\/p>\n Using a coarse grating disk in the food processor, grate the potato, and onion; hand chop any large pieces. Transfer the mixture to a clean dish towel and squeeze out any excess liquid, then put into a large bowl. Process the carrots; hand chopping any large pieces. Add the carrots and the kale.\u00a0 Using a fork, stir in the egg.\u00a0 In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and pepper.\u00a0 Add the dry ingredients to the potato mixture and mix well.<\/p>\n In a large non-stick skillet, heat 1-2 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat until hot.\u00a0 Drop 2-tablespoon scoops of the mixture into the pan. Using the back of a spoon, flatten each dollop.\u00a0 Cook the first side for about 5 minutes or until golden on the edges.\u00a0 Turn and brown the other side, approximately 5 minutes more.\u00a0 Adjust the heat as needed.\u00a0 Drain on paper towels. \u00a0Repeat for each batch.<\/p>\n Lemon Apricot Yogurt<\/strong><\/p>\n Zest half a lemon and set zest aside. Remove remaining peel, pith and seeds from the lemon half.\u00a0 Into a small food processor blend the yogurt, lemon half, apricots, honey, cumin and cayenne.\u00a0 Stir in zest and cilantro. Salt to taste.<\/p>\n Libby Mills, MS, RDN, LDN, FAND is a sought-after Culinary Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and Spokesperson for the <\/span>Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics<\/span><\/a> known as a food and nutrition authority. \u00a0Libby markets and teaches nutrition through scrumptiously fun culinary experiences, as well as entertaining, imaginative communication to all ages, ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds. \u00a0She engages audiences with experiences from her Midwestern roots, urban living, and endless quest for healthy, flavorful, good food. To learn more about her visit <\/span>DigInEatUp.com<\/span><\/a> and connect on <\/span>Facebook<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Twitter<\/span><\/a> and Instagram<\/a>, and listen to her radio show <\/span>Libby\u2019s Luncheonette<\/span><\/a> live on <\/span>WCHE1520AM<\/span><\/a> Mondays from 12:15 to 1:00 pm ET.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What does a girl from the Southern Mid-West, who grew up going to Catholic School, know about Latkes? To be honest, until recently, not much. In fact, for the first 11 years of my life, Jesus was the only Jewish person that I knew.\u00a0 Which, when in it comes to talking about Jewish traditions, holidays […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":7989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[158,235,236],"class_list":["post-7983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-hanukkah","tag-jewish-heritage","tag-latke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.eatrightpa.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.eatrightpa.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.eatrightpa.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.eatrightpa.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.eatrightpa.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7983"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.eatrightpa.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10300,"href":"http:\/\/www.eatrightpa.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7983\/revisions\/10300"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.eatrightpa.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.eatrightpa.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.eatrightpa.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.eatrightpa.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Contrary to the potato latkes most Americans love, the first latkes were Italian in origin–more like a ricotta cheese blintz.<\/h3>\n
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If our body is our temple housing the light unique to each of us, finding healthier ways to remember the past can help sustain a heart-full enlightened future.<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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