Israeli Charoset Recipe

Tina Wasserman
Recipe by
Tina Wasserman

This recipe is an adaptation of the California-influenced Israeli charoset of the well-known kosher cooking instructor and cookbook author Judy Zeidler. This recipe truly tells a story since the ingredients are an amalgam of both Ashkenazic and Sephardic culinary traditions. Flavorful, intriguing, and a big hit at the seder.

Ingredients
2/3 cup pistachio nuts
2 apples (Gala or Empire), peeled, cored, and cut into chunks
15 pitted dates
2 bananas, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
1–2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (depending on sweetness of fruits used)
Zest of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
Zest of 1/2 orange
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup sweet Concord grape Passover wine
4 tablespoons matzah meal
Directions
  1. Place the pistachio nuts in a processor work bowl and pulse on and off until the nuts are ground fine but not forming butter. 
  2. Add the apples and dates, and pulse until the fruits are fairly well chopped.
  3. Add the bananas, lemon juice and zest, orange juice and zest, and cinnamon, and pulse until the mixture is a coarse but combined mass.
  4. Remove the mixture to a glass bowl, and stir in the wine and matzah meal. Chill, covered, until serving time.
Additional Notes
  • Here the banana is used, with its great ability to impart both sweetness and a dark brown color when the mixture oxidizes.