Passover is coming soon! For those of us who are gluten-free and vegan this holiday can be a struggle. Instead of eating leavened bread (or, bread), we eat matzo for 8 days. Matzo, or “unleavened bread”, is made with wheat. While you can buy gluten-free matzo, it almost always contains eggs (and is ridiculously expensive). I developed my own gluten-free vegan matzo recipe a few years ago, but I searched again recently and there are now several others out there.
Why do Jews Eat Matzo on Passover?
I recently learned from this article at Chabad, that there are two types of matzo (or matzoh or matzah): the “Matzo of Freedom” and the “Matzo of Affliction.”
The first type of matzo commemorates the commonly known reason we eat matzo: to remind us that the Israelites, fleeing Egypt and slavery, had no time to let their bread rise. It is symbolic of redemption and faith. The “Matzo of Affliction” was eaten while we were still in Egypt, both as slaves and at our last meal in exile. It is symbolic of poverty and slavery.
What to Eat Matzo with
Some of you may be wondering what to eat these with after the seder is over. You can make a peanut butter and matzo sandwich (if you find eating legumes acceptable on Passover), top with Thai tofu salad, chickpea salad, or mock chopped liver. You can also break these into small pieces in your food processor and use them as matzo farfel. Then you can use these in my Passover Granola recipe and eat it for breakfast.
Let’s get started!
In this post I curated a variety of gluten-free vegan matzo recipes to give you a choice. These recipes contain different gluten-free flours and use different baking techniques, so take a look and see which one looks the most appealing to you.
Keep in mind, not all of these use “approved” flours for Passover. The only “approved” flours for Passover as mentioned in the Torah are wheat, rye, oats, barley and spelt. Of these, oats are the only one that are gluten-free (if they aren’t cross-contaminated of course). So some of these don’t meet the criteria as being officially Kosher for Passover but when you have dietary restrictions, sometimes you just have to hope that G-d understands.
Gluten-Free Vegan Matzo 4 Ways (Oil-Free) by Plantivores. This is my original gf vegan matzo with options to make it 4 different ways.
Gluten-Free Matzah Recipe [18-Minute Matzah with Oat Flour] by Good for You Gluten Free. My friend Jenny over at GYGF created this oat flour matzo that can be made in 18-minutes, which is one of the requirements of making a matzo suitable for a Passover Seder. Her recipe contains only oat flour, water and salt.
Homemade gluten-free vegan matzo by Fitful Focus. This recipe uses a gf flour blend, almond flour and oil.
Gluten Free Matzo / Matzah Recipe by GFJules. This uses a gf flour blend, gf oat flour and oil.
Matzah (Grain free, Vegan, Oil free) by Shalom Homestead. This matzah is grain free, gluten free, Paleo, AIP (Auto Immune Protocol), nut free, and vegan of course.
Thanks for joining us! If you try one of these recipes, please be sure to tag us @theplantivores and the recipe creator on Instagram.
