Planning a Kosher Wedding Reception Dinner Menu

Planning a kosher wedding reception dinner is tricky even if you're relatively familiar with the kashrut (Jewish dietary laws). Not only will you need certified kosher foods, but you'll need to prepare the meal in a kosher kitchen with kosher utensils. And, just to keep things interesting, the Ashkenazim and Sephardim sometimes have different ideas about what's kosher. To help you navigate the kosher dinner planning maze a little more easily, here are some ideas on what to serve for both meat (fleischig) and dairy (milchig) meals.

Appetizers

A classy party platter is a must-have. The easiest choice is a vegetable platter with parve dips like herb dip, black bean dip, spinach dip, tzatzki dip, hummus and baba ganoush. For milk meals, try a fruit and cheese platter with fruit like melon cubes and grapes along with kosher cheeses like feta, cheddar, and colby accompanied by fancy crackers and breadsticks. For meat meals, you might offer canapes filled with chicken or fish. Besides the party tray, other parve ideas include stuffed mushrooms, mini vegetable kabobs, Asian lettuce wraps, and tempura vegetables.

Salads

Fortunately, choosing salads for a kosher wedding reception dinner is easy because, after all, most salads contain only parve vegetables or fruit, anyway. Some possible choices are Caesar salad, bean salad, Astoria salad, spinach salad or even something Middle Eastern like fatoush or tabouleh. Just remember, if you're planning a fleishig meal, you'll need to avoid any dressings that contain dairy. Instead, stick with vinaigrettes, balsamic vinegars, or honey Dijon (honey is parve).

Fish

You might be thinking that because fish is parve, it wouldn't be hard to find something for the fish course. The problem is, not all species of fish are kosher. For instance, you'll need to avoid sturgeon and, of course, shellfish. Salmon is one of the best choices because it's easy to tell apart from other fish even as a fillet without the scales. Consider poached or roasted salmon with a non-dairy sauce like Dijon, teriyaki, or even Louis dressing.

Main dishes

The easiest way to plan a kosher wedding reception dinner, or really any event meal, is to decide on your main dish and plan the meal around that. Since many traditional main courses contain meat of some sort, you might find it easiest to plan a meat meal and avoid dairy in the rest of the courses. Some ideas for meat main dishes are chicken breasts sauteed with vegetables, roast beef brisket with sauce, and roast leg of lamb. That said, there are plenty of good vegetarian and dairy main course recipes out there for things like souffles, vegetable or bean soups, quiches, vegetable casseroles, and vegetable curries.

Side dishes

Like appetizers, side dishes really aren't too hard choose once you've decided on your main course. Some good side dish ideas are roasted vegetables with herbs, couscous, pasta, and rice. If you want something traditionally Jewish, kugel makes a nice side dish, too. The key is to jazz up the dishes up a little with colorful herbs and vegetables and eye-catching garnishes.

Desserts

Unless you're planning a milk menu, dessert will require special handling. While you could use dairy substitutes in a traditional dessert recipe, your guests are likely to notice something missing in the taste. A better and ultimately easier option is to go for a parve dessert like apple cake, fruit compote, sorbet, lemon meringue pie or pears in spice sauce.

Planning a kosher wedding reception dinner isn't necessarily complicated, but you do need sound knowledge of the kashrut to get it right, especially if you're expecting Orthodox guests. If you're not completely familiar with Jewish dietary laws, consider hiring a kosher caterer. Remember, you can still come up with your own ideas for what to serve and suggest them to the caterer.