Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, is a day of reflection and atonement (Oct. 8 this year). If you are observant, you begin fasting at sundown on the eve of Yom Kippur and break the fast at sundown the next evening. So, for most, the Yom Kippur meal is like having brunch for dinner. Just like the word “breakfast” literally means to break the fast, referring to breaking the fast of the night while you were sleeping, breaking the fast in Jewish tradition recognizes that after 24 hours of no food, no one needs a huge heavy dinner-style meal. Traditionally the meal in a kosher home is a “dairy” meal, so no meat or meat products included, but plenty of fish, which is considered “pareve,” a sort of Kosher culinary switch-hitter, and can therefore be eaten with either dairy or meat meals.

Usually there will be bagels and lox, tuna salad, egg salad or hard-cooked or deviled eggs, noodle kugel, some sort of vegetable like cole slaw or cucumber salad, fruit, and then small pastries like rugelach or mandel bread or the like for dessert. What you really want after all that fasting is a meal that is made up of lighter foods that will land in the empty pit of your deprivation without making you bilious. It should also be noted that for the observant, the day is spent in temple, so they also need to get the meal on the table really fast. Having most everything served cold or at room temp means that it is all prepped ahead and just has to come out of the fridge and onto the table.

Since this meal is almost always primarily sourced from a local deli (unless you like to cure your own lox, in which case, mazel tov!), there are a few things you can do ahead to help make the meal a little bit more special. Frying your capers crispy in a little neutral oil, for example, to garnish the lox sandwiches is an easy step that can be done up to two days in advance and adds some lovely salty crunch. Homemade labneh can be a welcome change from plain old cream cheese and is easy to make, and again, a great do-ahead project. If no one at your house is a baker, picking up a tray of small sweets or pastries from a local Middle Eastern or Asian bakery can be a lovely way to end the meal with some nontraditional flavors.

For any such gathering, whether it is Yom Kippur or just a random brunch, there are usually only a couple of dishes that always get made from scratch. And in my house, this means the noodle kugel and the cucumber salad. The noodle kugel, a sort of a baked noodle casserole, of egg noodles cooked in a custard similar to a bread pudding, has always been a standard. About 15 years ago, I started baking my kugel in muffin tins instead of the traditional baking dish. This allows for a superior browned outside to creamy middle ratio and means that the kugel is beautifully portioned for easy serving. Trust me, no one wants to watch Uncle Sidney try to get a slice out of the pan intact and drop rogue noodles all over the fruit salad en route to his plate.

Recently I did a kugel with some Indian golden milk spice mix blended in. This heady combination of turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, coriander, nutmeg and black pepper was originally developed to make a delicious and healthful beverage by whisking into hot milk. Spicewalla, a terrific spice company based out of North Carolina, make its own blend, and I love to add it into my tea with a splash of milk. Since kugel is dairy based, and I already had cinnamon and nutmeg in my version, it seemed logical that it would be a good pairing. The spice blend not only makes your kugel a truly gorgeous shade of saffron yellow, the spices give it a depth and complexity it usually doesn’t have. This kugel’s amps go to 11 in all the best possible ways. And the golden milk is no one-hit wonder — once you have the spice mix on hand, you’ll find yourself adding the delicious blend to everything from granola to yogurt, sprinkling on sweet potatoes or roasted butternut squash, or even a pinch on vanilla ice cream.

Cucumber salad is pretty ubiquitous at Yom Kippur gatherings, and there is certainly nothing wrong with the traditional Eastern European cucumber/onion/dill version. Halfway between a salad and a quick pickle, it is an easy way to get some vegetation on a plate full of carbs and the bright acidic flavor is a perfect thing to cut through the oily richness of smoked fish. My updated version takes advantage of the fact that everyone is now selling everything bagel seasoning in jars, and the combination of sesame seeds, poppy seeds, toasted onion, toasted garlic and coarse pretzel salt is a really wonderful addition. I pump up the sesame a bit with a splash of sesame oil, but it is optional. Even better, by day two the salad has become more of a pickle, and garnishes sandwiches of all kinds like a champ. I’ve even put it on a sort-of roast pork bahn mi thing, and on some leftover koubideh in a pita, and neither was a mistake.

Whether you are gathering family in celebration of the holiday or just want a couple terrific new brunch dishes for your repertoire, I hope you’ll try these new versions of old classics. And for those who observe, I wish you all an easy fast. Yom Tov.

Stacey Ballis is a freelance writer and the author of 10 foodie novels, including “Recipe for Disaster,” and a compilation of her recipes “Big Delicious Life.”