Broccoli Rising and Two Big Dates

Thanks to a quirk of the calendar, this week offers two big dates. Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day when we pay tribute to Ireland’s patron saint and get to be Irish for a day. Friday at sundown is Eid al-Fitr, the feast celebrating the end of Ramadan, 30 days of fasting, reflection, and prayer.

About two so-called traditional St. Patrick’s Day foods:

• Green beer is a purely New York invention, ruining perfectly good beer.

• Corned beef and cabbage is neither Irish nor vegan.

Hold the corned beef (please!), but keep your cabbage — it’s the Year of Cabbage, after all, even Vogue says so — and do something truly Irish with it — make bubble and squeak.

Soda bread. It’s Irish, oaten, earthy and awesome. IT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE A CAKE. It’s called soda bread for a reason. It’s made with baking soda, not yeast, and it’s a bread. Got it?

You want cake? Have your cake and be Irish too with stout cake. Guinness stout is the pride of Ireland. But is it actually good for you? That, my dears, seems best explored over a pint or two at your local.

Eid al-Fitr does not involve beer of any color, but the foods at the feast are less contentious — at least I hope so.

Fussy but fabulous tadig or tacheen, a sweet-savory crispy rice cake.

Harira, a soup heady with saffron and rich with beans and vegetables.

Silky, sensuous rosewater pudding.

Easiest and most elemental of all — dates. Nutrient-dense, naturally sweet and native across the Middle East, dates are a sweet Ramadan tradition. They even come recommended by Mohammed, no less.

Both St. Patrick’s Day and Eid al fitr are worthy of celebrating separately and together.

It’s not traditional, but a pot of harira and a loaf of soda bread sounds like my kind of meal, a cozy warm-up for a chilly spring evening.

And though I still fiercely maintain that soda bread is not meant to be a cake, the sweet, chewiness of dates and the toasty, nutty goodness of oats are made for each other. So with apologies to Eid observers and Irish traditionalists, I’ve created:

Oat and Date Soda Bread. This recipe is found below for paid subscribers.

For another winning date treat, everyone head on over to Modern Daily Knitting for my Medjool Jewel recipe. You don’t even have to knit (God knows I don’t) to enjoy these cookies and be part of the whole inclusive Modern Daily Knitting community.

If you’re here, you’re part of the Broccoli Rising community, and I am grateful. Broccoli Rising depends on the support of readers like you. Erin go bragh. Eid mubarak. Thank you.