Matzo Mina – a great Passover dish – gluten-free, vegan, and healthy
Happy Passover!!
I grew up Jewish, but the first time I heard of a Matzo Mina was as an adult, surfing the Internet. This is a lot like a lasagna, but made with dampened matzo instead of the lasagna noodles. With the overlapping squares of matzo on the top, this comes out looking really pretty. It tastes great, too, so it is my favorite Passover food. To make it gluten-free, I use gluten-free matzo.
Assembled Matzo Mina before baking
My pick for gluten-free matzo is Yehuda brand. I find it at my local Whole Foods store, though it is also available on Amazon. Lately gluten-free matzo is the most popular food in my house — my kids gobble it down! Go figure!
To make a soy-free version of this recipe, replace the tofu with 2/3 cup of cashews, 2/3 cup of sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds, and 2/3 cup of water.
This recipe is originally based on Tori Avey’s Spinach, Feta and Artichoke Matzo Mina — though I have changed my version a lot.
If you are cooking for Passover, you may also want to check out my recipe for gluten-free matzo ball soup. Yum!
Sorry to have gone so long between postings — I can’t believe I last posted in July! I don’t have a good reason for having gone so long between postings — just juggling kids, work, and the paperwork from Jan’s estate. Anyway, I do have lots more recipes that I want to post, so I will continue posting recipes!!
Here is my son Corbin, who is nine, at our Seder table.
The weather is so warm that this year we had our Seder outdoors on the back porch.
Matzo Mina - a great Passover dish - gluten-free, vegan, and healthy
Ingredients
- 3-4 sheets of matzo; for gluten-free use a gluten-free matzo such as Yehuda brand
- 1-2 jars of artichoke hearts plain or marinated; about 8 ounces per jar
- 1 pound firm tofu not silken
- 4 + tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons dried herbs such as basil or oregano
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- pepper to taste
- 2-3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 5 ounces spinach or kale frozen and defrosted is fine
- 1/4 cup fresh dill
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a food processor, blend everything except the matzo and artichoke hearts. Add the artichoke hearts and pulse until mixed in.
- Oil a 9x9 inch square baking pan.
- Dampen a sheet of matzo in cold running water from the faucet. Place in baking pan.
- Add half of the tofu mixture, and spread it smooth with a spatula.
- Repeat with another piece of matzo and the rest of the tofu mixture.
- For the top, dampen a piece of matzo, then break it into squares that are 1 1/2 or 2 inches wide. Overlap the pieces of matzo on top of the casserole, like roof shingles, covering the entire surface. You will need about 1 1/2 sheets of matzo, broken up, to cover the top of the casserole.
- Gently brush the top of the matzo with olive oil.
- Bake for 45 minutes or until the top layer is browning. Serve warm.
This recipe looks great, but the GF Matzo from Yehuda, and other brands, has eggs, so it is not vegan. If you know of GF, vegan matzoh I’d love to hear about it!
Hm. We’ve had other brands of store-bought gluten-free matzo, but lately we usually have had Yehuda. I did some Googling and found that Manischewitz brand gluten-free matzo also contains eggs. Then there’s the incredibly expensive Oat Matzo, which contains only oats and water, so it is vegan, but it’s also $30 a box, so I’ve never tried it (but here’s a link: http://www.glutenfreepalace.com/gluten-free-hand-matzos-rabbi-kestenbaum.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7NDwxOyF2gIVGonICh3y7AyZEAkYCCABEgIVovD_BwE and another brand here: https://www.google.com/shopping/product/13853031254771740192?q=gluten-free+matzo&rlz=1C1GGRV_enUS752US752&biw=1073&bih=778&prds=paur:ClkAsKraX4nX66F8AYUwW3LEC0JJj-hoLc17RerWdzuVTeE-CfFTS8PUoRVXj0e7P4_S0oXi51-8iScSY9pK_j0MmgMia1_gaNo9A5sQWZ4dU2USKn_lNQliuxIZAFPVH70qflTyGAVSr4Bk0qJ22ohdER-0yQ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjZ_-zE7IXaAhVh8IMKHU9RCZUQ8wII0gM ).
Then there’s this one that is gluten-free and vegan, but still about $22 a box:
https://www.google.com/shopping/product/6290114027982063223?q=gluten-free+matzo&rlz=1C1GGRV_enUS752US752&biw=1073&bih=778&prds=paur:ClkAsKraX1tS2w7UjC33zyZBLPwTQSq-GAmpuvtRL-zZK4aXJhVCNx3471uB_9RnmnkWliJdaJaPs6GOwENpXhJhaRbyp0qeIpJL_hA7l98LCTCONu5NXeWzuhIZAFPVH70AqS8Sq_Wv5N4dm28c_HlS8y7W_g&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjZ_-zE7IXaAhVh8IMKHU9RCZUQ8wII6gM
Finally, my kids like to make their own homemade matzo from this recipe, which *is* vegan. It makes five three-inch matzo pieces that are kind of crumbly, but they’re still good:
http://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/mock-matzo-gluten-free-non-gebrokts-matzah-crackers-215585
My notes on the Geniuskitchen recipe say to use only 4 teaspoons of water, not the amount in the recipe, and to bake for only 9 minutes. And I’ve been experimenting with replacing the shortening with canola oil, which works pretty well.
Just found your recipe. I’m looking for a non-dairy vegetarian mina, and yours looks good. Do you think it can be made in advance and frozen? If not, how far in advance do you think it could stay in the refrigerator?
Hm. I don’t tend to do a lot of freezing of food, but this seems like a recipe that would be amenable to it. It should also work fine to make it ahead and store it in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. Or assemble it ahead of time in a metal pan, leave it in the fridge, and then move it to the oven at the start of the seder, so that it warms through and bakes during the seder — though of course that depends on how long your family’s seders tend to last!
We don’t eat kitniyot on Pesach, so no tofu. Do you have an alternative we could use?
Elizabeth – I think you should be able to replace the tofu with nuts and seeds. For one pound of tofu, maybe try 2/3 cup of cashews plus 2/3 cup of sunflower seeds (or pumpkin seeds), and 2/3 cup of water, run through a blender or food processor.
Is this recipe easily doubled for a larger gathering?
What size pan and how long should it bake:
Thanks.
Hm. This should double easily, but I would be inclined to make two regular-sized pans of it rather than a double-sized pan, to be sure that it gets baked through. Though on the other hand, every ingredient is safe to eat raw, so if you baked a double-batch in a 9×13 “lasagna” type of pan, I think that would work. At my house, in some years this gets left in the oven for extra time during the seder, and it isn’t harmed by that. So I think the baking time is pretty forgiving, whether you go under or over. I would think that even a larger pan would be baked in 45 minutes, but I’d recommend baking for at least 60 minutes to be sure it’s heated through. But I am just guessing.
I’m a big fan of checking food with a thermometer to be sure it’s fully cooked. If you want to go that route, a food thermometer stuck into the middle would need to read at least 170 degrees for food safety.