Thursday, April 21, 2005

IS SOY KOSHER FOR PASSOVER?

This is a question I've asked every Passover for the past five years.

I found the answer here.

In case you dont feel like clicking, the answer varies between sephardics and ashkenaz's.
Sephardic = yes, kosher for passover. just like rice
Ashkenaz = no, not kosher for passover.

Yay! Now my mom can make me the things she made with beef with tofu ground round! yay!

and yum.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am glad I am sephardic because the food is much more flavorfull than Ashkenazic cuisine. The Passover restrictions make more sense from a logical perspective.

Rice and corn were not sources of food eaten by the slaves staples during the times

Anonymous said...

It's more complicated. Like peanuts-you can't eat the nuts (o edimame), but you can use the oil or processed version (tofu).

Of course this practice varies.

The reasoning behind prohibiting legumes is said to be related to their physical similarity to grains - legumes (especially when ground up) look like grain (or flour) so that you can't tell if they have become contaminated by grain (or flour).

Processed versions, like peanut oil, no longer resemble grain and so can be used.

Anonymous said...

The only way legumes (like soybeans) can be kosher for passover is if you cook them yourself. You can't buy kosher for passover tofu. To be kosher for passover you have to inspect all the beans to make sure no wheat or other grains got mixed in.

This step is very labor intensive, and no commercial company does it. If they did you wouldn't be able to afford the final product. This is why rabbis have ruled not to eat legumes on passover - it's simply too difficult for people to prepare them properly.

And even if it's unlikely that anything gets mixed into the soybeans, you still have to kasher certify the tofu making facility for passover. And there aren't any who do that. So there is no tofu available on passover.