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. Choose a space/room that’s more out of the way and doesn’t get daily traffic. Washing some of the bowls and small appliances might seem tricky, but a bathtub with a new sponge could be your solution.

Anything that uses small appliances and not an oven works! Get your food processor out and plug in your perfect tried and true portable burner. The blender, the immersion blender, the beef jerky dehydrator…you can get all freeze-friendly items you typically prepare with these

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?

all purpose coffee spice rub in an open clamp lid glass mason jar with a 1 tsp. measuring spoon, and small piles of each ingredient on stone countertop

Spice Rubs. Your meat dishes will be a breeze once you start the official cooking if your spice rubs are ready to go.
Pickles! These take a few weeks and can easily be made without any appliances and remain at room temperature (or, if they need to be refrigerated, keep them bagged).
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.
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. The best part is that you won’t be using the dehydrator again once you’re done so you can put it right back where you stored it previously.
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! You need a plug-in 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! You can also make and freeze those fruit sorbet pops.
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.
Marinate Meats and Coat Chicken. Just because you’re not baking yet or frying just yet doesn’t mean you can’t get this prepped and out of the way. Freeze and thaw when ready to cook.
All Non-Baked Desserts. There’s lots of great ones like Date Bark, Three-Ingredient No Bake Biscotti, and Mango or any Fruit Coulis (you’ll prep the crunch later on).
Barbecue Sauce, Tomato Sauce, and Duck Sauce. Having these ready really gets you ahead of the game. If you need Homemade Tomato Sauce (for those who don’t use processed products) or Homemade Pesach Barbecue Sauce (for those that do). Duck Sauce is another basic you can get ready now.
Lukshen. The big job of making Pesach Lukshen can be done with a portable burner and crossed off your list.
Soup. Soups that are blended like this Cream of Chicken Soup freeze perfectly well and are made entirely on the stovetop.
Pesach Pancake Batter. We prep and freeze this Pancake Batter, and then thaw the night before so it’s ready for each Chol HaMoed morning without a mess.