Slovenian Recipes

Menu Sweet Beet Soup (sladka pesna juha) Potato-Spinach Dumplings (njoki) with Gorgonzola-Gouda Sauce Fresh Tomato Garnish Coleslaw I was in the mood for some healthy, not-too-meaty Slovenian food. I had a couple of ideas, both appealing.  One was borscht, or beet soup.  The other was gnocchi, or njoki in Slovenian.   Since I couldn't choose, I decided to make them both. It was a labor intensive dinner.  So let's consider the beet soup first. Months earlier, I had noticed a curious recipe in the Progressive Slovene Women's cookbook.  It was called sweet beet soup, or sladka pesna juha.   Definitely the sweet-and-sour type, with plenty of sugar and lemon juice, along with tomatoes and onions. But I didn't know what to make of the eggs.  What was this, a dessert or a soup? So I dismissed it. But I got to thinking about borscht again, when we visited our favorite Polish restaurant and ordered their version of borscht, which we had enjoye...

Menu Stuffed Peppers with Turkey-Kasha Filling Fresh Cranberry Beans Green Salad Lost Kosovo Kugel Now, with an eye to a healthy makeover, I made a few more changes.  For starters, I would make an all-turkey filling, instead of the beef-pork-turkey mixture I had used before. That meant increasing the spices, as I had done in my recent attempt at healthy turkey cevapcici.  And why not substitute high-protein, flavorful kasha for the white rice?  It might not be traditional, but it would be in the Slovenian spirit. Otherwise, I followed my original recipe, although I did add a little wine to the tomato sauce. When I went to the market in the morning, I found a surprise: fresh cranberry beans, otherwise known as Roman or borlotti beans.  By now, the dried version had become a staple in my Slovenian kitchen.  I couldn't resist buying these tasty beans fresh, although I wasn't quite sure how to prepare them. And for dessert, I invented something new...