How to Start Preparing for Pesach Early without a Pesach Kitchen

Do you want to get some Pesach prep out of the way before you turn over your kitchen? You can.

If you don’t have a designated Pesach kitchen, you might be wondering if you can still prepare for the holiday. The good news is—yes, you absolutely can. With a little planning and a few simple adjustments, you can set up a functional Pesach prep space without too much hassle.

A table, even a folding one, covered with a fresh plastic tablecloth can serve as your workspace. Washing some of the bowls, appliances might seem tricky, but a bathtub with a new sponge works just fine. To keep things organized, consider doing your prep while the family is at school or asleep. 

It’s a good idea to have a freezer already cleared out and cleaned when you’re ready for this step. If you need fridge space, keep items bagged so it’s not mistakable that these items are for Pesach. 

Prepping some things ahead before you turn over will give you lots more calm in those marathon cooking days leading up to Pesach. 

So what can you make, even without a kitchen? 

1. Spice Rubs. Your meat dishes once you start the official cooking if your spice rubs are ready to go.
   
2. Pickles! These take a few weeks and can easily be made without any appliances and remain at room temperature.
   
3. Marror.  We always make our marror and place it in the freezer, so why not prep it in advance? All you need is a Pesach knife and food processor. Learn how to make and freeze marror in this post.
   
4. Beef Jerky. If your family loves beef jerky, and you’ve already invested in a Pesach dehydrator, then you can make that jerky and get it into the freezer right now as you don’t need any other appliances.
   
5. Ices. For so many of us, making ices for Pesach takes hours. It would be so nice to get that out of the way. We think we can make it in advance too!  Let the mess happen on our folding table, instead of getting the kitchen all sticky! This is a little trickier, because you need a burner (in addition to a food processor). Since we use an electric burner for many of our photoshoots, we have a perfect tried and true burner we can recommend right here! Which ices do we love to make? Make Lemon Ices, Grape Juice Ices, and Mango Sorbet too!
   
6. Raw Potato Kugel Batter. Prep and freeze it, then you have it ready to pop into the Crockpot for an overnight potato kugel using this hack here.

Want more ideas of what you can make ahead and freeze, with or without a Pesach kitchen? See our favorite items to freeze for Pesach here.

For more prep ahead Pesach tips, see this post by Julie Hauser, author of “Pesach While You Sleep.”