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Is Quinoa Kosher for Passover?

New York Times

The big Passover questions are the same every year, and easy enough to answer, starting with “Why is this night different from all others?” Little questions, though, sometimes arise that can stump even the experts. Like, what to do about the quinoa situation?

Quinoa (pronounced ki-NO-uh or KEEN-wah) is a grainlike South American crop newly popular among health-conscious North Americans. In the last decade, observant Jews have welcomed it with something like the thrill of seeing a new face at the Passover table after several thousand years of conversation with matzo and potatoes.

Tasty, gluten-free, protein-rich — and, by many accounts, kosher for Seders lacking in carbohydrate variety — it has become a staple of Passover cookbooks. Gourmet magazine hailed it in 2008 as the new “belle of the Passover ball.”

If only life were so simple.

As with most matters under the purview of Jewish law — from how to turn on the lights during the Sabbath, to what kind of cough syrup is certified kosher — a debate has emerged among rabbinical experts about quinoa’s bona fides as a kosher alternative to leavened-grain products like bread. And this has led to confusion and concern in many Passover kitchens around the country on the eve of the holiday, which begins on Monday evening.

“I went to hear two rabbis discussing the quinoa situation at my synagogue last week,” said Arlene J. Mathes-Scharf, a food scientist in Sharon, Mass., who specializes in kosher food and operates a popular consumer Web site, Kashrut.com. (Kashrut is the Hebrew word for kosher dietary law.)

“They had basically the same information, but they came to opposite conclusions,” Ms. Mathes-Scharf said. “Typical.”

Her hot line has received hundreds of “anxious inquiries” on the topic, Ms. Mathes-Scharf said.

At Pomegranate, a large kosher grocery in the heavily Orthodox Midwood section of Brooklyn, customers had more questions than guidance.

“They’re asking me 20 times a day, ‘What is the ruling?’ ” Gabe Boxer, the store’s general manager, said last week.

“Look, we have ‘certified kosher for Passover’ quinoa — that’s what it says on the label,” he said, picking up a package and reading the fine print. “So it’s certified, as far as I know.”

There are two camps on quinoa: rabbis who say it is fine, and those who regard it as suspect. But both agree that its suitability for Passover depends on how the crop is harvested and shipped.

A definitive answer is not likely to be reached until a rabbi can be dispatched to a remote mountain region of Bolivia to inspect certain quinoa operations, said Rabbi Sholem Fishbane, director of the kosher supervision service of the Chicago Rabbinical Council. The council is one of several kashrut certification groups involved in the quinoa debate, which was brewing for years before it broke into the open in February with conflicting opinions issued by various rabbinical experts, he said.

“We’d like to get someone up there to inspect the operations, but it’s a four-day trek into the wilderness,” Rabbi Fishbane said. “Until we can get someone there, we’re going to have to make the best decisions we can with the information we have.”

Quinoa was unknown in the Middle East at the time of the Bible’s account of the Jews’ escape from Egypt, when their hurried flight left them no time to wait for their bread to rise. And since it was not part of their diet, it is not on the list of leavened grains forbidden to be eaten during Passover. For that reason, one of the nation’s leading kashrut certification companies, Star-K of Baltimore, issued an opinion in 1997 that quinoa was kosher for Passover. At the time, the crop was grown mainly in Bolivia and was just beginning to gain popularity in the United States.

Increasing demand here for quinoa — which can be boiled or otherwise prepared in a variety of ricelike dishes — has driven up the price, persuading many farmers who grew wheat, corn or barley in Bolivia and Peru to plant quinoa as well, said Rabbi Menachem Genack, director of the kosher department of the New York-based Orthodox Union, the world’s largest kashrut certification agency.

And there is the potential rub, Rabbi Genack explained. Some inspectors have found traces of wheat, and other grains susceptible to leavening in the cooking process, mixed in with quinoa shipped by some farmers, he said.

“They may be using the same equipment or bags to harvest a field of quinoa, and a field of something else,” he said. “Things easily get mixed up.”

The Orthodox Union has not certified quinoa kosher for Passover, leaving the decision to consumers and their rabbis. “We recommend that you inspect any product carefully before using it,” the rabbi said.

Under Jewish law, violating Passover dietary law is a serious offense, referred to by the Hebrew word “karet,” which means to be cut off from one’s soul.

Rabbi Fishbane of the Chicago Rabbinical Council voiced the more quinoa-friendly opinion, posted late last month on the council’s Web site. It says quinoa is proper for Passover if imported from Bolivia by companies that handle the crop exclusively. (The Web site suggests certain brands.) Rabbi Fishbane also recommends that consumers inspect quinoa for foreign matter.

Jesse Blonder, director of the Center for Kosher Culinary Arts in Brooklyn, which advertises itself as the only professional kosher cooking school outside Israel, said he found the popularity of quinoa at Passover interesting from a psychological viewpoint.

“When you’re eating this stuff, you know, it tastes different from everything you’ve always had for Passover — different enough that you feel, like, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it,” Mr. Blonder said. “For some people, that makes it taste better.”

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21 Comments

  • Harav Hazaken

    Kasha and quinoa are two peas in a pod. If you eat quinoa you may as well eat kasha. Of course, because kasha is called by the (misleading) name of buckwheat, everyone would shy away.

    Look up recipes for quinoa bread (it is becoming popular), and then munch on the thought.

  • its such a shame

    i think its a chutzpah to make this staple kitniyas its like saying a chicken is treif just to be safe

    when this wasnt part of the cheirem and to add it will be a shame

  • Chaim Tovim

    Quinoa ( /ˈkiːnwɑː/ or /kɪˈnoʊ.ə/, Spanish: quinua, from Quechua: kinwa), a species of goosefoot (Chenopodium), is a grain-like crop grown primarily for its edible seeds. It is a pseudocereal rather than a true cereal, or grain, as it is not a member of the grass family. As a chenopod, quinoa is closely related to species such as beets, spinach, and tumbleweeds.

    Thus, it is kosher for Pesach. The only question may be whether it is processed in a plant that is kosher le’Pesach

  • chag sameach

    i don’t understand, people. it only 8 DAYS. give me a break. you can do without questionable foods for 8 measly days. i love quinoa and eat it regularly but wouldn’t touch it on pesach with a 10 foot pole.

  • Milhouse

    #3, it’s you who has the chutzpah. What gives you the right to an opinion on the subject? Who told you that only species known to the rishonim are included? Will you eat corn too, because the rishonim never heard of it?!

    #5, how does anything in your citation show that it’s not kitniyos? On the contrary, as #2 correctly pointed out, quinoa is in exactly the same boat as buckwheat (shvartze kashe), and there can be NO QUESTION that buckwheat is forbidden to Ashkenazim on Pesach. Go open the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchon Oruch and see what the basis for the entire gezera is; the gezera is on “maaseh kedeira”, i.e. “kashe”. Since kashe of the 5 kinds is chometz, all kashe is banned. Quinoa is also a kind of kashe, and therefore it is also banned. QED.

  • To Millhouse from Chaim Tovim

    If you read the quote from wikipedia, it says it is closely related to beets, spinach, and tumbleweeds. Therefore it IS KOSHER LE’PESACH. Rabbi Blumenkranz A”H also agreed with that opinion. Please learn your facts before commenting.

  • Milhouse

    #11, Who cares what it’s related to? Tell me how it’s different from buckwheat, which is definitely ossur.

    And since when do we follow R Blumenkrantz’s psokim? He was a talmid of R Moshe, who permitted peanuts too.

  • Lloyd A Cohen

    There is a valid reason for people wanting to have quinoa. Because once you eliminate all other non-chomatz alternative because of various humoras there is hardly nothing left to eat. Potatoes is so unhealthy and completely tasteless that many people avoid them So, you do need a filler besides matzoh.What is worse in this case is that when experts state that an item is kosher–to many people who do not know anything counterdict them by claiming that they do not know what they are talking about. Instead they should just opt out not to eat them owing to personal choice just as I refuse to eat potatoes and gefilte fish because I view them as the pits of wothless junk.

  • awacs

    #11: The good thing about Rabbi B (A”H) was that he was such a machmir, if he said you’re ok you’re REALLY ok. Kinda like Dr. Feldman.

  • a thought....

    The question is not about what it is – but rather if it is something that could potentially be mixed with or processed with chometz. It would seem that it could. Plus, at the very least it can certainly qualify as a maaseh kedeira. Given all the chumros of Pesach – why is there a need for one more kula?

  • Milhouse

    #14, potatoes are very healthy and delicious; there are so many different ways to cook them that you will not run out in a week. And there are so many other vegetables. Sweet potatoes, parsnip, eggplant, squashes of all kinds, etc. But quinoa fits the definition of kitniyos exactly, just as buckwheat does. Just because this one or that one announced that it’s OK doesn’t make it so.

    #15, R Blumenkrantz was neither a meikil nor a machmir; he followed the shitos of his rebbe, who was in general known more as a meikil than otherwise.

    #16 has it exactly; it is a kashe, a maaseh kedeiroh, exactly like rice and millet and buckwheat, etc.

  • To Millhouse from Chaim Tovim

    Millhouse: please tell me why a beet related product would be not kosher for Pesach. And don’t try to make a hekesh’ between buckwheat and quinoa; don’t build issur upon issur. It doesn’t make sense. If you want to be crazy and eat only potatoes, go ahead and knock yourself out. But don’t make blanket statements that quinoa is not kosher le’Pesach.

  • awacs

    “#15, R Blumenkrantz was neither a meikil nor a machmir; he followed the shitos of his rebbe, who was in general known more as a meikil than otherwise.”

    Milhouse, you’re kidding, right? I dunno about his rebbe, but ever read his book? You’ll never eat again. :-)

  • Milhouse

    Chaim Tovim, you tell me why it matters what relatives a plant has? What is buckwheat’s yichus, pray tell. This whole line of argument is irrelevant, because we’re talking about an individual plant, not its genetic relatives.

    Meanwhile, why don’t you explain exactly how quinoa is in any way different from buckwheat. Buckwheat is the ur-kitniyos; give me a plausible theory that explains why quinoa can have a different status. And don’t tell me that it was unknown in the days of the rishonim, or else you’ll have to explain why corn (“Turkish wheat”, as the achronim called it) is nevertheless kitniyos.

  • Milhouse

    #19, and yet on the subject of eruvin he was even more meikil than his rebbe, who famously did not allow eruvin in Manhattan or Brooklyn, unless they were enclosed by a real wall. And yet Rabbi B gave his hechsher to the Park Slope eruv, which at the time was less than 50% wall.