I don’t think there was anything we did last year that rivaled the popularity and excitement around our Passover Box. Maybe it was the Maine-grown matzo or maybe it was Chris’s vegetarian chopped liver, or the fact that we kashered our kitchen (a new experience for us!) Or maybe it was just the promise of Spring. Whatever it was, this box was very different from all other boxes.
And yes: this means that sales are officially open for our Passover Box! The email is going out tonight but we’re putting it here for any of you who follow the blog.
We’ve expanded from 1 distribution day to 2 to keep up (April 13 & 14) – hopefully it won’t sell out this year but no guarantees!
We want to let you know that the Passover box exceeded our expectations! Not that we doubted you would put together a very good menu, as all the other boxes we’ve ordered have been, but Passover can be a challenge for a cook who wants to put together a special feast. You certainly delivered a wonderful assortment of food that we are enjoying so much! If I was asked to choose my favorite, I will say that the borscht is the best I’ve ever had, the chopped “liver” better than my recipe and the butternut squash kugel so delicious. And the matzo was a topic of discussion, with the suggestion that for next Passover it is the only kind we should have, so I should learn how to make it. That’s okay, I like to cook and bake. But I also like that we enjoy your ready made meals! Thanks for delivering such delicious food. Now we are looking forward to the Easter box which we can enjoy as Passover ends Sunday evening.
-M
Hi there,
My sister-in-law recommended your meal boxes and I am so delighted I tried them! We had such a chill, no hassle Seder and still have food for several days!
Everything was absolutely delicious and I loved the variety of flavors. I especially liked the mitzvah matzo! What a great way to reconnect with our heritage.
Thank you so much for the wonderful, delicious food and the convenience of getting it so well packaged and almost ready to serve.
In conclusion, thank you!
My best,
– I
Thank you, Clover team and Rabbi Barry for the work and effort that went into making the Passover box K for P and extraordinarily delicious. We really appreciate you thinking of our community, boiling lots of water, and creating new and delicious menu items. With no disrespect to your standard menu, I think that the items in the box are my favorite Clover items ever (except for your french fries). Some universal favorites (we tested the food with 12 people!) were the apple mousse, the brussel sprouts, the chopped liver (someone said that it was better than any meat variety), and the kale mashed potatoes. Thank you for helping us feed our large and hungry family.
-J
Hello Clover team!
We are enjoying our Passover box so much, especially the matzo mushroom pate with onion gravy, which is delicious! This could definitely become part of our Passover tradition going forward. Is there any chance you could share the recipe so that we can make some more at home? Thanks for putting this fun box together. Passover cooking can get a little tiring and this is exactly what I needed to make it easier and still delicious!
Warmly,
T
Dear Joe,
I received a voice mail message after our Passover meal box was delivered, seeking our thoughts and reactions to it. I’m more than happy to provide that since it was such an outstanding experience. Full disclaimer: this is the very first meal box I’ve ever ordered from Clover Food Lab (I was always just a lunch customer), and we don’t actually celebrate Passover. But I thought it would be a fun experience for our family with an homage to some family cultural background.
So let me begin…
The Magnificent:
• The packaging and labeling of the items was incredible. Everything was in appropriate containers, right down to the salad dressing bottles and (compostable!) resealable bag and high quality outer paper bag for the matzoh. It was a pure delight to open up the box and unpack all the individual items.
• Delivery was on-time and exceptionally well executed. I especially enjoyed that the message indicating near-term arrival included the driver tracking. It enabled me to run outside and accept the box in person exactly one minute before a work meeting began. (Our yard is under construction so I didn’t want the driver to have to run the gauntlet of debris, trucks, and machinery). The driver was very friendly.
• I LOVED the fact that this ginormous meal required all of about 5 minutes total active prep time, limited to simple steps like turning on the oven, removing lids, dressing the salads, etc. We also cheated and heated individual bowls of soup in the microwave oven, making cleanup non-existent since no pot was ever used. We did get fancy and put the onion gravy in a gravy boat to zap in the microwave oven too, but otherwise we just served out of the provided containers.
• The instructions were very helpful in staging the preparation of everything. We knew exactly when to put each of the oven-heated trays in so that everything was hot at the same time. And yes, we did it all in one meal — for 3 of us. :-0 We had groaning stomachs by the end, but plenty of fun leftovers. It was also extremely helpful to have the letter designations for each item, because one of us (me) generally avoids gluten.
• On the individual food items:
◦ The maple fluff was absolute Kryptonite for me. After enjoying a few fluffernutters on gluten-free crackers, I ate the entire container with a spoon the next day. With no regrets.
◦ The veggies and romesco dip were a huge hit as appetizers. Sooooo good that we didn’t get to the hardboiled eggs.
◦ The brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes, and squash kugel were each delicious in their own way as our entrees, and majorly enhanced by the rich onion gravy. The male contingent (husband and 20-something son) were skeptical that they would be full on a vegetarian meal. They even made plans about making a meat dish afterwards “just in case”. Those plans were abandoned by the end of dinner as we lay happy and as full as pythons that just ate the gazelle.
◦ It was fantastic to have 3 different soups to select among. We each chose a different one for dinner, with a serving of each left over. Pure joy for subsequent lunching.
◦ Six thumbs up for your imaginative salads and particularly the vinaigrette dressings. Our family’s unofficial motto is “more vinegar”, and these dressings hit the spot. Kudos for going outside the usual balsamic vinaigrette box.
◦ Great dessert options! My husband was overjoyed that the cake was chocolate and unadulterated by anything remotely resembling healthy fruit. I was thrilled that both the cake and apple mousse were gluten free. And refer to the first bullet point regarding the fluff.The Almost-But-Not-Quite-ThereI hate the add this, but in the interest of helpful and honest feedback, I feel obligated to provide some suggestions based on our personal experience with The Box.
• We wanted to like the matzo. We really did. It was so lovingly hand crafted, and beautifully packaged. We wrapped it in tinfoil and heated as recommended in the oven. It was soft and warm and … sadly, rather tasteless. But I guess that’s kind of the point for Passover, right? Perhaps if it had been thinner and crispier it would have been more exciting.
• The chopped liver for the appetizers had exactly the right color and consistency, but we couldn’t discern any flavor for this either. I would recommend some sort of spices to jazz it up. In the spirit of the family motto, I could totally see it with a splash of sherry vinegar perhaps.
• As fabulous as the Winter Moon roots were, we thought the flavor was repeated too often between the dipping veggies, the salad, and the borscht. This might not have been a problem had we spread out the menu over several meals, but we’re gluttons and thus noticed it.
• We weren’t big fans of the Mitzvah Matzo Pate. We didn’t know what to do with a 5 lb dense brick of mushroomy stuff. That’s just not how we roll. Overall, though, I would have to say that the box exceeded my expectations and provided my family a memorable evening. With a backdrop of happy taste buds and satiated stomachs, we enjoyed some really thought-provoking discussions related to Passover, family history, life in general… which is really what holidays and food are all about.
Thank you for making that happen.
Cheers,
J
THANK YOU for the amazing Passover Box! It brought so much joy to have it! We had extended family in town and everyone raved about everything! We all hope you do it every year!
In particular, we LOVED the soups, the salads, the brussels sprouts, the mashed potatoes, and the romesco dip! And my dad (who is 86) said the chopped liver is the best one he’s ever had in his life! (and he didn’t even know it was meatless!)Thank you again for doing the box this year–I hope it can be a part of my family’s Passover tradition every year!!
Happy to share any additional feedback if helpful.
Warmly,
L
Hi! Just wanted to let you know that we loved our Passover Box! The brussels sprout casserole especially was a stand out dish!!!! I am salivating thinking about it!!!!I hope you do this again next year as it definitely was a great addition to our seder. The only thing I would ask would be more vegan dishes because the seder typically is a meat meal so I couldn’t serve any of the casserole dishes to my husband so had to make other side dishes for him. Thanks again!!!! Can’t wait for you to open your Newton location which is very strong in the rumor mill right now!!!
-S
Hello Clover!I wanted to thank you SO much for creating the Passover meal box this year. I know that it’s not a small effort to convert a kitchen space to Kosher for Passover specifications. But as a single person who only eats K for P food on the holiday, and who hasn’t been able to visit family for the past two Passovers due to the pandemic, I cannot say enough how helpful and delicious this was. There was nothing that wasn’t good in the box, but since you called and asked for feedback, I thought you might like some more specific reactions. My absolute favorite item in the box was the Romesco sauce. I may or may not have licked it off a plate. I ate it mostly on the dipping veggies as instructed, but have some left over and plan to eat the rest on pasta once the holiday is over.
I also got major mileage out of the almond butter (which I don’t usually like) and maple fluff, and made several fluffernutters, some with the addition of banana slices. I really enjoyed the Mitzvah matzo, and had never had anything like it before. My favorite side dish was the Brussels sprout casserole. That was the one side dish that I completely finished during the week. I also ate a lot of the mashed potatoes with onion gravy. The squash kugel and matzo pate were both good but they didn’t grab me the same way, and there was just so much of the pate that I ate very little of it in the end. Similarly, the chopped “liver” was very good but there were so many other options that it got neglected.
The Roman tomato soup and potato cheddar soup were both excellent, and will probably get finished after the holiday. I wasn’t as excited about the borscht compared to other soup options.I loved the apple mousse. But it took me till Day 7 to figure out that the flourless cake was delicious if I actually heated it up. Prior to that I had left it out of the fridge for awhile but that wasn’t enough – it just tasted like a brick of solid dry chocolate, and I couldn’t really eat it. All that changed when I figured out that I could microwave a small serving for 10 seconds and it became soft and fudgy.I did wish that there had been one non-dairy dessert. I do eat some meat, but I keep meat and dairy meals separate, as per kosher rules. So there weren’t as many things in the box that I could use at my (meat entree) seder, as almost all the side dishes and desserts were dairy. The endive salad could also have been non-dairy if the cheese was provided in a separate container, and then tossed together if someone wanted. Anyways, I don’t expect Clover to worry about my meat meals, but it’s something to consider if you’re making a Kosher box that could be mixed with other food. So once again, you have my gratitude and joy for this box option. I would definitely purchase one again in the future.
Best,
R
Hi Clover Team, I wanted to let you know that my family and I have hugely enjoyed your Passover box last week. Every single item in the box was absolutely delicious! Even my kids (who are 13 and 9) have been asking me when we can get the romesco dip again 🙂 This is a great praise because it comes from two boys who otherwise don’t love vegetarian food. We look forward to trying another box soon.
Cheers,
L
Dear Clover Folks,My husband and I loved our Passover Box! Everything was delicious. We particularly loved the brussel sprout casserole–that was the top winner. Also loved the butternut squash kugel. We liked the mushroom kugel though it was very intense for our taste and would have been happy with half the amount. The homemade matzoh/pita was great the first night and definitely not after that but we were warned and it was a treat for the seder. The salads held up well and the dressings were delicious. We picked up the box on Thursday and didn’t eat anything in it until Saturday night at the first seder. The desserts were delicious as well. My only suggestion for next year is to put the dipping veggies in a better container to keep them from drying out so much; I appreciate the lack of plastic but do wonder if a plastic bag would have preserved them a bit longer. It was a lot of delicious food and a real treat and we appreciate you making the space and time to provide this for the Jewish community.
Gratefully yours,
L
Dear Clover kitchen employees,
I just wanted to write to express gratitude for the Passover box this year. It is so rare to be able to find Passover food that is made in a kosher kitchen, let alone food that works for a long-term vegetarian like me (and doesn’t contain any legumes or other kitnyot)! Your box made my holiday meals so much more interesting and special, and prevented me from many meals in a row of scrambled eggs! I know it must have been a ton of work to make it happen, so know that my family and everyone else in my community I have talked to about it has absolutely loved it!
Special shoutout to the mushroom pate, it was so delicious that my meat-eating family chose it over real chopped liver! If possible, I would love to have the recipe so I could try my hand at making it myself next year.
I hope you are able to do this box again next year.
Happy Spring!
-S
Hi Jane, Anecdotally, a LOT of love from this. People loved it. I LOVED it. Some of the best Passover food I’ve ever eaten. Full stop. Thank you all so much. I know it was a lot of work.
With Profound Gratitude,
Rabbi Barry Dolinger
Hi Joe and Carrie,
This is a fan letter to your boxes – I’ve loved clover food lab since a random encounter at a food truck many years ago. The rest of the note is a response to your Feedback request. It’s all positive. Which is amazing bec I don’t order food delivery of any type and i don’t order meal boxes – Exception for the winter farm share
I decided to order the Passover Box which I loved and was a big hit. Also mushroom box
Everything was delicious. Then I got the spring box with spring dug parsnips and again everything delicious.
Yet the most amazing thing about these boxes is not the food.Not even the organization or packing of the food , instructions or even the ease of preparation. I’ve come to expect that. What is amazing is that it has allowed me to see the possibility of being
Vegetarian – or at least pescatarian – In this way the boxes have completely changed my way of thinking and for this I thank you.
Everything in the boxes was perfect. That said, and only because you asked. Charoset in the Passover box would have been welcome but I wouldn’t touch another thing. And I’d order your mitzvah matzoh over any other matzoh forever.
The spring box was also perfect. I don’t eat pasta but the sunflower seed pesto and radishes pasta was perfection.
Wish there was nutritional info for each dish – even If it could be found online would be great.
Many thanks,
R
PS: Addicted to the Halvah
