Eleven years ago, I stayed with a Jewish family in Zimbabwe for Passover. There was no supermarket with kosher holiday foods nearby, so nearly every dish was made from scratch, from the chopped herring down to the stuffed grape leaves. My hosts had roots in both Lithuania and the Greek island of Rhodes, and each dish was rooted in the family’s distinct story; a few even featured the avocados growing in the backyard.

I spent the next Passover back in the United States. For the seders, I enjoyed some of my family classics, like potato kugel, brisket and matzo ball soup. I spent the rest of that holiday, however, eating a considerable amount of packaged “kosher for Passover” foods, such as matzo and jam, special cereal and other snacks. I longed for my meals in Zimbabwe — though I don’t doubt that my hosts would have appreciated access to the kosher aisle of an American supermarket to ease the burden of navigating the very elaborate and specific eating guidelines of Passover.

For a holiday all about freedom, Passover dietary restrictions — no bread or leavened goods and, traditionally, for Ashkenazi Jews, no legumes, rice or corn — can be quite taxing. Despite this complex set of rules and customs, a growing number of processed foods that meet these age-old Passover restrictions can now be found in supermarkets across this country. It’s increasingly possible to eat the same way on Passover as on any other day of the year, perhaps with a larger dose of tapioca and potato starch.

Yet embracing the holiday’s tedious dietary restrictions, not working around them, is critical to appreciating this holiday on a deeper level. And to eating well.