Inspired by the popularity of my post on How to Clean for Passover in One Day, I decided to tell y’all how I cook for Shabbos in an hour. Because I’m all about saving time and getting out of the kitchen. A friend of mine recently told me I am doing the Jewish world a service by standing up there and admitting that I don’t like to cook, so of course I’m all about doing a mitzvah, benefiting others, yada yada.
So hear this now: I’m Jewish, I’m religious, I’m the mother of a large family, my husband is even a rabbi, and I DON’T LIKE TO COOK. I’d much rather go for a walk with someone I love, or even like; read something really interesting; socialize with friends; or play a game with my kids. For those of you that love the patchke, you may click right away from the page with no hard feelings at all.
And yet I cook Shabbos food pretty much every week and love to host guests. Here’s how I do it:
THE MENU:
Homemade challah
Partially homemade gefilte fish
Homemade matza ball soup
Roast chicken
Salads
Rice
Grilled vegetables
Pareve ice cream dessert
THE TRICKS:
There’s a secret. You have to prepare the challah dough in advance. And you have to do shopping in advance. And not everything will be homemade.
SHOPPING LIST:
(I’ve only included the things you’re unlikely to have on hand.)
- yeast
- loaf of frozen gefilte fish (I don’t find the brand matters much; I shop the cheapest brand)
- chicken, for the soup and for the main
- any bottled salad dressing or sauce
- veggies for the salads and roasted veg dish
- matza ball soup mix
- pareve ice cream or sorbet for dessert
- net bag for your chicken soup
PREPARING THE CHALLAH DOUGH IN ADVANCE:
Throw the following into a bowl:
- 1.5 Tbsp yeast
- 2 c. warm water
- 1 c. sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 c oil
- 1 Tbsp salt
- 7-8 cups flour
- Start by mixing up your matza ball mix according to package directions and put in fridge to firm up. Estimated time: 5 minutes.
- Next, peel all the veggies for your roasted veggies and for the soups (I like onion, carrots, sweet potato, celery, and squash in my soup). Throw your veggies for the soup in a large pot along with the chicken. I put the chicken in the bag for easy removal. Fill pot with water to the top, season with salt, pepper, dill, and whatever else you like. Put it up to boil. Estimated time: 10 minutes.
- Next, clean your chickens and arrange in a nice dish. Pour some bottled dressing or sauce (any will work) and put in oven for two hours uncovered at 350. Estimated time: 10 minutes.
- Now, take your gefilte fish, unwrap it from both the plastic and wax paper, and transfer to a loaf pan partially frozen. Spray or brush the top with olive oil and sprinkle with lemon pepper or any seasonings. Put it in the oven for two hours. Estimated time: 5 minutes.
- Next, arrange your roast veggies in a pan. I drizzle with two tablespoons olive oil, basil, rosemary, kosher salt, and freshly ground pepper. Put in oven for two hours. Estimated time: 5-10 minutes.
- Now prepare your salads. I can’t put a time on this; it all depends how you like your salads. I sometimes do the salads just before dinner anyway, so I’m going to leave it out of the equation.
- Now deal with your challah. I have instructions for that here. Not counting rising time, this should take 10 minutes, depending on how fancy you get with your braids and how new you are at it. Estimated time: 10 minutes.
- Take your matza ball mix out of the fridge and form into balls. Fill a pot with water and bring to a boil. Drop in matza balls and allow to cook. Estimated prep time: 5 minutes.
- The rice is super-fast because I have a rice cooker. I throw the rice in there with water, a little oil, some soy sauce and frozen veggies, and just turn the thing on. But before I had a rice cooker, I did it in a pan in the oven and it was almost as easy. Estimated time: 5 minutes.
Do you feel obliged to make so many courses? I know it's supposed to be special, but are 4 courses really what you have to do? Can't it be a salad plus chicken and baked potatoes (and challah and dessert)? Does anyone really like gefilte fish? And can it be a cold meal during hot summer?
I do feel obliged, because it's what makes Shabbos special, a festive meal. Insert "Thanksgiving" instead of "Shabbos" and you'll see what I mean. Can't you serve dairy for Thanksgiving, or just skip all the heavy side dishes? See?
In theory, sure you can. But for me that would take away a lot of the special-ness. I do know a lot of people who skip the soup during the summer, or otherwise omit what anyone doesn't like. I guess we're more traditional. In the modern Orthodox community I think you'll find a lot more dairy for Shabbos or things like that.
I don't make so many courses. Specifically, I skip the fish course. Also, I'm not a big fan of chicken soup, so I make some sort of vegetable soup, which takes longer. And in the summer I make cold soups. Our summer lunches are usually cold meals. And I can't stand eating the same thing every Shabbos, so it takes me a lot longer to plan menus and cook (since there's a limit to how many different things you can cook so quickly). I do make homemade desserts, but I make extra and freeze, so that's not usually part of the weekly schedule. Making cold lunches (also, the "third meal" for late afternoon) means more salads, and salads are time-consuming. And Ruchi seems to have the exact same meal for Friday night and Shabbos lunch, which limits what you can make. The result is that it takes me all day Friday to cook.
I'm not traditional as far as food goes. I want to eat what I like, not what someone in Poland ate 200 years ago.
In answer to your question, yes, lots of people like gefilte fish. I don't happen to be one of them, though, so if I do make fish it's usually cold salmon as the main course (heresy!) for a summer lunch. And that's really quick, too.
I don't make the same thing for Shabbos lunch at all. I didn't speak of lunch at all, just dinner. We have cholent for lunch.
Look, we like gefilte fish. If everyone hated it of course I wouldn't make it. I also like variety and I don't make the same thing each week at all. This is my quick version. Sometimes we have meatballs or stir fry which are less traditional. I also have fun with salads.
Another thing. I left out one uber-traditional dish: potato kugel. It takes awhile to make and it's pretty unhealthy so I only make it occasionally.
Oops. Yes, your title mentions dinner, but your first sentence talks about cooking for Shabbos in an hour, so I thought this was everything.
Uber-traditional except that potatoes didn't even exist in eastern Europe until relatively recently, historically speaking. I wonder what they ate before that.
As an Eastern European I can answer that 🙂 – kashas of different kinds, and various tubercles (Wikipedia tells me it's called taproots? beets, parsnip, radish, turnip etc.).
Potatoes got introduced in Eastern Europe at the end of the 17th c. though, so they've been around a while now.
Thanks for the info, W. I hadn't realized potatoes made it that far east that early.Â
The real secret is there's no time allotted for cleanup. I'd cook a lot more, and bake a lot more, if the dish fairy magically washed all my pots, pans, mixing bowls and so on.
That actually is one of my secrets. I have cleaning help on Friday and I push myself to finish before she comes so she can clean up after me. I also tell my kids that even though normally they have to wash up after themselves when they cook or bake, when they are cooking or baking for Shabbos they too can leave the dishes for the cleaning woman to tackle the next day.
You never posted what your salads are? That's what takes up my time..
Yeah, I'd like that dish fairy to come over here, too.
The salads do take time. True. I am pretty quick in general though and I choose salads that are quick (no extra steps like carmelized onions or sauteed chicken, except for special occasions). I've learned to peel mangos quickly (with a regular peeler) and deal with avocados.
Ruchi, so when does the cleaning lady come? Before Shabbos starts, Friday evening, during the day on Saturday, or motzei Shabbos?
She comes on Friday morning. So I push myself to be done by like 11 so she can clean up before she leaves. On organized weeks, I do my challah dough and veggie peeling the night before.
So basically, it's one hour plus the time it takes to make challah dough, peel vegetables, make salads, and wash dishes. This is turning into a lot longer. (Also, sometimes I need utensils washed in the middle to use again.)
Incidentally, my potato kugel is pretty quick if you don't count the time it takes to wash all the parts of the food processor. Just put potatoes and onions in the food processor, mix in a few other ingredients, and stick it in the oven.
What temperature do you roast your vegetables at for two hours? I do mine for about 40 minutes, so I assume you're using a pretty low temperature.
Wait. Full disclosure there with challah and veggie peeling. Salads are not technically cooking, and dishwashing is never included in prep time.
I like using root veggies so they're in there for awhile.
Whoa! That's cheating! "Mixing up your matza ball mix according to package directions and put in fridge to firm up" is also not technically cooking. In fact, unless you're stirring a sauce constantly or toasting marshmallows, cooking isn't time-consuming. You just let it happen.
Ok, so maybe it's an hour and 10-15 minutes, but that's a much less catchy title, don't you think?
Can you give me a suggestion for salads to make quickly for this Shabbos? I spend much too much time on salads.
Oops…missed the boat for last shabbos but here it is. To make salads fast, you need to a. Use greens that don't need cleaning, b. Use veggies that don't need cutting, and c. Use bottled dressing.
Example:
Cole slaw mix
Craisins
Slivered almonds
Raspberry vinaigrette
Or:
Iceberg lettuce from the bag
Pre sliced mushrooms
Cut hearts of palm from the can
Soy sesame dressing from a bottle
Croutons
I just can't wash/peel/cut vegetables that fast!
Bribe your kids to do it for you 😉
What do you bribe your kids with?
My younger kids have a marble system for motivation for a variety of things, so I might give them marbles which they then trade in for privileges. My older kids don't have to be bribed, just asked nicely 🙂
Hi Ruchie,
I must say that I have been doing a very similar Friday night meal and it works great. Here is a variation on the rice Preheat oven to 350, get a good pyrex with a cover or deep tinfoil pan. – 1.5 cups whole round rice (dont know if they call it that in the US), 3 1/4 C water 3 tb onion soup mix, 1 pkg of mushrooms, cleaned and sliced, some oil and soy sauce. Leave it in the oven for about one hour and 15 minutes – comes out like Rissoto!
Yum. I used to make a version of this but stopped when I got my rice cooker. I think I'll try it again!
Such a fun post, Ruchi! I do like to cook, but part of my trick is to do what can be done the night before and everyone knows they MUST vacate the kitchen on Thursday nights. I also watch some of my favorite shows during that cooking time. I do everything the night before excel the roasted veggies, which are best served fresh in my opinion. (We do skip fish by the way as really nobody will eat it in this house.) Also, the only dish I ever double and freeze is meatballs since they freeze and defrost well.
Love hearing everyone else's tricks. My kids are older so instead of vacating I want them to pitch in! And with 3 drivers I delegate the shopping too.
I'm trying to figure out how everything goes into the oven for two hours at about the same time. You certainly can't put fish and chicken and challa in at the same time. Perhaps you have two ovens but that's also a luxury many of us don't have.
The challah goes in after because I let it rise again after I braid it.
So your challah is always fleishig from baking in a fleishing oven? Then how do you make French toast with the leftovers?
For me one of the biggest challenges of Shabbat meal preparation is getting all the pareve stuff done before I make my oven fleishig for the rest of the day.
Yes, but I consider them pareve when the oven is pretty clean. If there is leftover unsliced challah I can use it with dairy after. If it's been sliced and served with a meat meal, I won't.
so an oven can become fleishig? I thought it's only the pots and pans and plates (so the stuff that meat touches directly…?). How do you make your oven un-fleishig? Does it mean that ideally one should have three ovens?
miriambyk, and would it work to make French toast with fleishig challah if you replaced milk with, say, soy/rice milk?
There are different opinions about ovens becoming meat or milk. Some people say an oven must be fully cleaned and kashered between cooking one or the other. I have some friends that only use their oven for meat, or that kasher (self-clean) it on a regular basis. I hold by a more lenient opinion, that the oven goes back to neutral once it is fully cooled off. So I try to do any baking or side dishes first, and the chicken or meat last. Sounds like Ruchi treats the oven as pareve as long as the items aren't in there at the same time.
And yeah, I am sure pareve French toast is possible with soy/rice/almond milk. I just tend to think of it as a dairy dish.
Do you have to bake your own challah? This is something that can be easily picked up at a bakery. Wouldn't that simplify a lot? Challah-baking sounds fun for kids but I can imagine would be a chore to do every week. How about pre-washed salad? I think there are O rules about salad that I'm not aware of though.
You don't have to, and I don't do it every week, and truthfully I usually do double the recipe I posted because then I can do the mitzvah of separating a piece with a blessing (you need a 5-lb minimum recipe for that). But for me that's one of the things that really makes a difference. Like I'd much rather buy dessert or a side dish and have the homemade challah. There are rules about salad. The lettuce has to be bug-free, so it takes time to clean it. In large Orthodox communities like Lakewood, NJ, Monsey, NY, and Brooklyn, they sell lettuce all cleaned and ready to go. But here in Cleveland we still have to do it ourselves. Iceberg lettuce which typically is very clean can be used as is, so that's a shortcut. Cabbage-based salads (cabbage is also typically clean) are another shortcut.
Hmmm … great tips but we are even more lazy. We might actually win for laziest family that makes shabbat dinner every week. Most weeks we have the same thing — (1) a store-bought roasted chicken, (2) 1-2 packages of Near East Rice Pilaf (3) broccoli or another fresh vegetable that we cook in the microwave (4) store-bought dessert + fruit. This can all be done in 1/2 hour, which is necessary as we both work full-time.
Now, granted, we don't usually have Friday night guests and we only have one child who is under 6 and who likes eating the same thing every week.
While this would not be special for another family, for us it is. Why? On all other nights, we almost always have one-pot meals. On all other nights, we do not eat roasted chicken. We pretty much never have dessert or wine except on shabbat. Voila — shabbat is an elaborate meal by our extremely low standards.
I actually would not mind having soup or gefilte fish. We should do that.
I love hearing even better shortcuts than mine. Your comment brings up another point, which is that mitzvah is to honor Shabbat and make it special. It should be qualitatively different from a regular dinner. How, specifically, to honor it? The Talmud suggests meat, fish, and wine.
Another thing: it's not mandatory to have guests. We've had periods of our life when we've had minimal guests because it was too much.
I agree–I think there are a lot of options to make it special, but not so time consuming that it's stressful. I love to bake, so I'll "patchke" in the dessert department but then I try to keep the rest of the meal quick and easy. I love a lot of vegetables, and I don't get too too fancy. When it's just our family, we often do simpler meals. Since we rarely eat meat during the week, even pasta and meatballs feels Shabbosdik (especially when you add in garlic bread, a pareve Caesar salad, red wine, etc).
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