We’re about ½ way through Pesach and perhaps you’ve eaten chicken soup with matza balls four days in a row. Looking to mix it up a little bit, perhaps add some new flavors to your Pesach repertoire? Consider quinoa, or…not.

For the past several years, my family and I have enjoyed quinoa on Pesach (well, in truth, I enjoyed it; the rest of my family choked it down as a substitute for rice).  I vividly recall learning it was permissible to eat quinoa on Pesach; for me it was a hallelujah moment.  I’m not a big fan of KLP (Kosher l’Pesach) foods that attempt to imitate chametz (Have you tried Crispy O’s? Call me crazy, but I’m just not interested in paying $5 for a half-filled box of cereal that tastes like stale cardboard). I strive to make Pesach about eating simple, whole foods. Which is quite wonderful, actually. It’s amazing how satisfying and nourishing it is to eat earthy veggies, sweet fruits and basic protein, jazzed up with some good olive oil, herbs and spices. But it’s easy to get stuck in a Pesach rut, eating the same foods several meals in a row. There are just so many potatoes and eggs you can consume in 8 days, and some times you just need some whole grains!

Quinoa is technically not a whole grain, which is why many people eat it on Pesach. Click here for a technical definition of quinoa, but in a nutshell, quinoa, though cooked and consumed like a whole grain, is actually a seed.

Please read on. I’m going to end up talking more philosophy than food eventually…

I recognize that not everyone eats quinoa on Pesach (heck, most people don’t eat quinoa ever).  There are some guests to whom we just wouldn’t serve quinoa for halachic reasons. But we’re happy to eat it ourselves. And since quinoa and I have an intimate relationship all year round, I gladly volunteered to write a Pesach post on quinoa.

Naturally, I first Googled “quinoa AND Passover”, and, lo and behold, found major controversy.  While more and more people are accepting Rabbinic rulings that deem it permissible to eat quinoa on Pesach, many are not. Particularly shocking was a feisty exchange on Imamother, a website whose tag line is “connecting frum women”. Read the thread for the irony here. Clearly, there was much disconnect over quinoa.

Though it’s generally agreed that quinoa is NOT a grain and thus not chametz, there is debate about whether it’s considered kitniyot. The other point of contention is if the quinoa is processed on the same equipment as wheat, resulting in cross-contamination. A widely accepted solution is to purchase quinoa (before Pesach) that is also gluten-free or prepared on separate or cleaned equipment. Eden Foods brand and Ancient Harvest (which also produces the Trader Joe’s brand) fit the bill. For more on this issue, click here.

In the end, it seemed to me like no one wanted to offer a definitive ruling, to come out and say “Yes-go ahead and eat quinoa on Pesach!” Most articles ended with a variation of the vague “Be sure to ask your local Rabbi…”.

Which ultimately left me thinking about the ability of food and food practices to unite or divide.  Keeping kosher, for instance, segregates Jews from non-Jews; logically, then keeping kosher should strengthen the unity between Jews.  We all know how that plays out, though.  On Pesach, when we take food restrictions up a notch, wouldn’t it be great to bolster our communal unity as well?  But this would likely mean a uniform set of standards for Kosher L’Pesach. And while I admit feeling a bit of food envy watching my Sephardic neighbors eat their rice on Pesach, I acknowledge the beauty in preserving the diversity of local traditions and minhagim. What would we lose by “standardizing” what it means to be Kosher L’Pesach?

I realize I’m opening up a “can of worms” here (decidedly not kosher, for Pesach or otherwise!), but I’m curious to hear how you think kashrut can be a unifying force, ultimately strengthening and uniting Am Yisrael.