Maybe I am not the only one with questions.
Someone told me that chumus is not K for P. Assuming one keeps Sephardic K for P kashrut, and If it is just ground garbanzo beans and ground techina, a bit of lemon, etc., why would it not be?
Also, the rule against leavening is not against any leavening, but only leavening that comes from the five grains of the land of Israel, right? (wheat, rye, spelt, barley and oats). So would anything that rises by baking soda would be okay?
It’s possible that garbanzo beans fall into the category of legumes which are also avoided at Passover by Sephardic Jews, apparently because they either appear like the five grains or because they could have come in contact with them.
If I am not mistaken, Sephardic Jews do allow kitniyot, while Ashkenazi Jews forbid them. I am asking from the perspective of Sephardic law during Passover. This person told me that in Israel (which generally follows Sephardic law) humus was forbidden during Passover. Now, I can imagine that an Ashkenazi Jew in Israel during Passover would not eat kitniyot, but why not a Sephardic Jew?
My understanding is that Sephardim allow some kitniyot, such as rice, but not others, such as legumes.
Baking soda is pesedekh as long as it doesn’t contain chometz or kitniyot. I had always understood that chemical leaveners weren’t pesedekh (hence the reliance on beaten egg whites), but a recent trip to the local kosher grocery informed me otherwise. They stock pesedekh baking powder that does not contain cornstarch (corn is kitniyot) and they stock pesedekh cookies and cakes that have been made with pesedekh baking soda. I know that 10 years ago they did not sell these products. Since this store serves primarily Orthodox and Chasidic customers, I assume that the existence and use of pesedekh chemical leaveners is generally accepted.
In the Shulchan Arukh, Orach Hayim, 453:1, it says:
"These are the things from which you can fulfill the mitzvah of matsa: wheat, barley, spelt, oats and rye, but not from rice or other kinds of kitniyot, but they are also not subject to “chimutz” (leavening process) and it is permissable to make food from them " (my translation).
It seems clear that in Sephardic halakha, you can each all kitniyot. I wonder if there are any Sephardim (or someone who knows Sephardic halakha from the inside), or any Israelis who can answer whether you can eat humus on Pesach, and if not, why not. The halakha seems to permit it.
Right, because the halakah regarding matzah is stricter than that regarding pesedekh food in general. It *is * permissible to use oat matzah if one cannot eat wheat matzah.
Personally, I have no problem with eating kitniyot during Pesach. I see no reason to eliminate a permitted food simply because it “looks like” a forbidden food. cwPartner avoids most kitniyot during Pesach, not because he’s more frum, but because he spends all year not eating wheat, barley, spelt, oats, and rye (celiac disease). It lets him feel like he’s departing from his normal practice, the same as everyone else.
They may well be talking about Ashkenazic rules for Passover, under which beans and sesame seeds are forbidden. Many Ashkenazim also avoid derivatives of kitniyot, such as corn oil or tahini from sesame seeds.
And one of the reasons they do is that they didn’t normally use kitniyot anyway, so giving them up wasn’t much of a hardship. Now on the other hand, if the rabbis had ruled that potatoes were chametz, we’d be in big trouble. 
That would leave macaroons.
Speaking of which, I have to run out and buy macaroons. I love macaroons…
:eek:
I don’t think I could survive Passover without potatoes.
What about potato chips?