• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Vegan Atlas

  • Home
  • Vegan Recipes
    • Appetizers & Snacks
    • Beverages
    • Breakfast & Brunch
    • Breads and savory baked goods
    • Casseroles & Skillets
    • Desserts & Sweets
    • Gluten-Free
    • Holiday Roundups
    • Jewish Vegan Recipes
    • Main Dishes
    • Pasta & Noodles
    • Pizza
    • Recipe Roundups
    • Salads & Sides
    • Sandwiches & Wraps
    • Sauces & Dressings
    • Soups & Stews
    • Stir-Fries
    • Tofu & Tempeh
    • Tortilla Dishes
    • Veganize This!
  • Good Food Guides
  • Vegan Living
  • About
  • Nava’s Books
  • Contact

The Passover Seder Plate for Vegans and Vegetarians

March 15, 2020Updated April 5, 2025 By Nava Atlas 2 Comments

Here’s how to create a beautiful vegan Passover Seder plate with easy replacements for two of the components. Central to the Passover observation is the Seder plate, a round dish with designated spots for the symbolic foods to be sampled during the reading of the Haggadah.

Vegan Passover plate

Just for show: The foods aren’t eaten from this plate, but everyone gets a sampling of these foods from separate serving bowls or plates, to be accompanied by matzo and washed down with plenty of sweet wine.

So exactly what isn’t vegan? In the traditional Seder plate, there’s baytzah, or egg, and also zoreah, or shank bone. Quite honestly, I’ve been to many a Passover seder (actually most of them), at which the latter hasn’t been used at all. 

Those who celebrate the holiday most strictly have three covered matzos (or matzah, as it’s sometimes spelled) on the table near the Passover plate, but in more casual celebrations, there’s a platter of stacked matzos, and these are replenished as needed.

The matzos, or unleavened bread, of course, represent the food that the Israelites took with them during the Exodus.

Festive Vegan Passover Seder recipes

A full roundup of vegan Passover Seder recipes

There are often slight variations in the interpretations of the symbolic foods on the Seder plate. Here are a few:

  • My Jewish Learning: The Seder Plate
  • Chabad: The Seder Plate
  • Reform Judaism: Learn About the Seder Plate

Following, we’ll find out what’s on the plate, and address the two components that need to be replaced for the vegans at the table. 

Plant-based (vegan) Passover plate

Here are the four components that everyone can partake of:

Karpas: A mild green herb, such as parsley. This symbolizes the new growth of spring. As part of the Sephardic Passover plate, a small leaf of romaine lettuce or other mild green might be used. It’s sometimes dipped into salt water as a reminder of the tears shed by enslaved Jews.

Maror: A bitter herb, usually horseradish for Ashkenazic Jews or a bitter green such as escarole or endive for Sephardic jews. This represents the bitterness of slavery suffered by the Jews in Egypt.

Often, prepared horseradish is used since it’s meant to be tasted on matzo. A separate small serving container of prepared horseradish can be served if you’d like to use a small portion of a whole horseradish root on the plate.

Hazeret: Another green, either slightly bitter, like chicory, or mild, like lettuce. Some traditions hold that two bitter herbs should be tasted. This particular platter designates a spot for lettuce, so I split the difference with some slightly peppery greens.

Haroset: A mixture of nuts, wine, and apples (as Ashkenazic Jews make it), or nuts, wine, and dried fruits (in the Sephardic tradition), this sweet mixture has color symbolizing the bricks used by the Jewish slaves to build Pharaoh’s cities.

Haroset and the Passover plate

Our recipe for Haroset

Vegetarians might choose to retain the egg, but the two components of the Seder plate that vegans will replace are:

Zoreah: The shank bone represents the paschal lamb whose blood was said to be on the doorsteps of the homes of the Israelites on the eve of the Exodus. As I mentioned earlier, I can’t recall a single Seder I’ve ever attended that used this item, so replacing it doesn’t stray much from tradition.

To fill its spot in the vegan Passover plate, it can be replaced with small whole beet, or chunks of roasted beet.

Beytzah: A hard-boiled egg, sometimes roasted. The egg’s symbolism shifts depending on the source. It is sometimes said to symbolize the eternal mourning for the loss of the Holy Temple.

In other interpretations, it’s said to symbolize the sacrificial offerings performed in the days of the Second Temple. And for yet others, it’s the usual symbol for spring and renewal. For tasting, chopped eggs are combined with salt water, representing tears.

A cooked potato, more for its shape than any symbolic similarity, can be used to replace the egg on the seder plate. Similarly, chopped cooked potatoes can be served in a little salt water for tasting. A more contemporary swap is a whole small orange, though you wouldn’t want to dip that in salt water!

Vegan Passover seder plate

If you like this presentation of the Seder plate, you might also enjoy …

Vegan Potato kugel - Jewish cuisine

More vegan Jewish recipes

Filed Under: Jewish Vegan Recipes, Vegan Recipes

About Nava Atlas

Nava Atlas is the author of many vegetarian and vegan cookbooks, including Vegetariana, Plant-Powered Protein, 5-Ingredient Vegan, Wild About Greens, Vegan Holiday Kitchen, and many more. A longtime dedicated vegan, find out more about her on this site's About page.

Previous Post: « Ashkenazi Haroset for the Passover Seder
Next Post: Vegan Mock Chopped Liver (Cashew, Onion, & Mushroom Pâté) »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jeannie David

    April 12, 2025 at 6:31 PM

    This is my first sedar. I don’t have a way to get all that’s needed to do it the traditional way. I’m learning. Doing this alone but I’m enjoying getting closer to God by learning the Jewish traditions.

    I don’t eat meat and I don’t have any beets but I have a plum. I hope this will substitute the beet. It’s the closest thing I had to it. I don’t have a way to get what was needed. Hopefully God will see my heart in this feast of Passover and I do t do something wrong in his eyes

    Reply
    • Nava Atlas

      April 12, 2025 at 7:46 PM

      Jeannie, a plum is a great substitute. But as you say, what is most important is what’s in your heart. Enjoy the holiday!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

More results...

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
Filter by Categories
Appetizers & Snacks
Beverages
Breads and savory baked goods
Breakfast & Brunch
Casseroles & Skillets
Desserts & Sweets
Gluten-Free
Good Food Guides
Jewish Vegan Recipes
Main Dishes
Nava's Books
Pasta & Noodles
Pizza
Recipe Roundups
Salads & Sides
Sandwiches & Wraps
Sauces & Dressings
Soups & Stews
Stir-Fries
Tofu & Tempeh
Tortilla Dishes
Travel & Dining
Uncategorized
Vegan Holiday Roundups
Vegan Living
Vegan Recipes
Vegan Thanksgiving
Veganize This!
  • facebook
  • pinterest
  • instagram
  • twitter
  • rss
  • youtube

Recent Posts

Vegan Pizza Smashed Potatoes

Vegan Pizza Smashed Potatoes

Spices on wooden background

Spices for Healing and Rejuvenation: Wisdom from Ayurveda

Hearty Vegan Black Bean Salsa Soup

Almost-Instant Salsa Black Bean Soup

Organized Refrigerator door

Spring Clean & Declutter Your Fridge to Reduce Food Waste

Vegan Cottage Cheese recipe

Amazingly Easy Homemade Vegan Cottage Cheese

Pumpkin seed and hemp seed brittle

Pumpkin Seed & Hemp Seed Brittle (4 essential ingredients + options)

Copyright © 2025 The Vegan Atlas · Privacy Policy · WordPress · Log in