Can you eat potatoes during Passover?

Answer 1

How could we live without it!?! cheeses and all foods must have a seal that marks them Kosher for passover, but yes, we can eat cheese. Why you would want to, doubled with the effects of the dry matzo, I don't know.

Answer 2

This is a little tricky. We're supposed to avoid "leavened bread." This is based on the description of the flight from Egypt, when we had to take bread from the ovens before it had a chance to rise.

Since Biblical times, several different traditions have grown up about what foods are "kosher for Passover." In general, yeast is to be avoided. (Therefore, no beer, bread or pasta, etc.) Traditionally, five grains were used in making breads: wheat, oats, barley, spelt and rye. So no foods containing flour made from those grains can be eaten unless they are "unleavened." This is taken to mean that there is no yeast, and that the flour made from the grain has not contacted water for more than 18 minutes. To avoid any danger of error, traditional Jews eat only products labeled "Kosher for Passover".

In some traditions, rice and beans are banned. This is usually traceable to the use of rice flour and various types of beans in baking.

It can be very challenging to be a kosher vegetarian this time of year!

Answer 3

First, there are the general requirements of kashrut (food laws) which are valid around the year as well as during Passover, such as abstentions from pork, shellfish, meat that is improperly slaughtered, and mixes of meat and dairy, and numerous other requirements. (All of these year-round requirements are discussed in much more depth in the Related Question: What types of foods are Jews allowed and not allowed to eat?and, therefore, there is no need to repeat them here.)

However, Passover has additional specific requirements concerning the consumption of "khametz" (חמץ) and "kitniyot" (קטניות). Khametz is categorically banned on Passover. Conversely, Ashkenazi Authorities almost universally ban kitniyot and Mizrahi/Sephardi Authorities generally permit consumption of kitniyot.

Khametz (sometimes transliterated as "chametz" or "chometz") is any food product for which two conditions are met: (1) it must be made from or contain one of the five major grains: wheat, barley, rye, oats, or spelt and (2) this grain must have come into contact with water and been allowed to ferment and “rise.” Practically speaking, with the exception of matzah (מצה) or unleavened bread and its derivatives, any product that contains these ingredients is khametz (such as breads, cereals, pasta, cakes, cookies, granola bars, and porridges). Since khametz is not permitted, people eat matzah and its derivatives in place of khametz.

Kitniyot refers to a number of secondary grain or grain-like substances. The exact list of kitniyot varies from community to community, but the major members are the following foods and their derivatives: rice, maize, lentils, beans, peanuts, and quinoa. Potato is generally not considered kitniyot, but there are some minor authorities that put it on the list. Even though Ashkenazi and Mizrahi/Sephardi Authorities disagree on the permissibility of kitniyot, they do agree that a mix of kitniyot and khametz is banned for both groups since khametz is banned for both groups.

Additionally from roughly 10:00 AM on the day of the First Seder of Passover until the appropriate time in the Passover Seder, neither khametz (and kitniyot for Ashkenazim), nor matzah or its derivatives may be consumed. (This day is also Ta'anit Bekhorot (תענית בחורות) or Fast of the Firstborn Males, so many will be fasting anyway.)

Answer 4

As potatoes are a tuber, there is nothing to make them not kosher for Passover. (Unless something is added to them such as bread.)

Answer 5

Only if the label says "Kosher for Passover". Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jews do not eat legumes during Passover.

Answer 6

Yes, in fact, potatoes and potato derivatives are a staple during Passover.

Answer 7

Yes, in fact, potatoes are a major staple, both as potato and as potato starch, during Passover.

Answer 8

Yes, any kind.