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...

Menu Pierogi Lasagna (Žlikrofi Casserole) Sausage with Red Cabbage Coleslaw Pierogi Lasagna. Lazy Pierogi.  Polish Lasagna.  Pierogi Casserole. However you name it, the dish comes down to this: Potato lasagna.  Not so appealing, at first blush. I discovered Pierogi Casserole on the website of an ethnic radio station in Cleveland.  It sounded like a bland, white-on-white, carb-heavy nightmare.  And even though it was identified as Slovenian on that website, and on a few of the others, I had my doubts. But it turned out to be more than I expected—and more traditional than I realized. Most of these recipes are simple:  Lasagna noodles are layered with a filling of mashed potatoes, enhanced with cheese and onions, and maybe a little garlic.  It does sound like the casserole approach to pierogi, the popular Polish boiled dumpling that commonly features a potato filling. But this dish could just as easily be considered the deconstructed versi...

Menu Turkey Cevapcici Tuna and Tomato Salad Whole Wheat Pita Ajvar and Greek Yogurt Fall in the San Francisco Bay Area can feel like August.  This was one of those days.  It was early October, but we were having a heat wave.  By mid-afternoon, the temperature would be over 90 degrees. “Maybe we should grill outside,” my husband suggested, as he headed off to work in the still-cool morning. Maybe.  It was definitely a day for cooking light and avoiding the oven at all costs. I was torn between two entrees.  Cevapcici had become my tried-and-true favorite for grilling.  I had made it three times so far. But I had never made a healthy light version with turkey, so maybe this was a good time to give it a try. But I had just found the perfect summer entree salad in my latest cookbook:   Slovenian Cookery by  Slavko Adamlje, published in Ljubljana in 2001. I had spotted this book in the library at San Francisco's Slovenian Hall, ...

Menu Chicken Rižota Green Salad Challah Tuesday of Week 37 fell on the evening of Yom Kippur.  For Jews, sundown would mark the beginning of a day of fasting and repentance. Although the Yom Kippur Eve meal doesn't have ritual significance, some foods are traditionally chosen.  Simple, mildly seasoned foods are said to make the fast easier.  In many communities, chicken and rice are favored entrees. I wanted to make a meal that would fit within these two traditions, Slovenian and Jewish, that are a part of my family life. I immediately thought about rižota.  Slovenian risotto. Months earlier, I had made a delicious meat version. In doing research for the dish, I recalled some mention of substituting chicken for the more usual beef, veal or pork.   But I wasn't sure. So I went back to the handful of recipes I had found in my vintage Slovenian American cookbooks.  Yes, one of those recipes made a passing reference to using chicken instead of ...

Menu Bograč II (Slovenian Goulash Soup) Cabbage-Beet Slaw Cooked Greens Crostini I needed a make-ahead dish today, because I had to go to my office in the afternoon, instead of working  from home.  So I started the goulash soup in the morning, cooked it for about an hour, and then refrigerated it.  When I returned home, I cooked it for another hour. There are many approaches to making bograč.   So now I had the chance to experiment with a few variations. Bograč II  (Slovenian Goulash Soup, all beef, with some flavor additions) The basic recipe is here .  This time, I made the following changes : I used all beef stew meat, instead of half pork. I used 2 peppers (1 green and 1 red) instead of just 1. I added part of a small hot red pepper, minced. I skipped the tomatoes. Instead, I added 2/3 c. dried mushrooms, soaked and sliced, along with their liquid. And this time, I remembered to add two important seasoning boosts: 1 t. f...

Menu Ljubljana Egg Dish (Ljubljanska Jajena Jed), or Mushroom-Asparagus Souffle Green Salad with Asparagus, Tomatoes, and Radishes I found this unusual mushroom-asparagus souffle in a contemporary source:   The Food and Cooking of Slovenia (2009), by Slovenian professor and cooking expert Janez Bogataj, Ph.D. This beautifully produced book has received much attention, at least in Slovenian American circles. So I was excited to discover that I could browse through the online preview.  But I promised myself :  I wouldn't add it to my cookbook collection just yet.  For now, I wanted to retain my focus on vintage Slovenian American cooking.  I assumed this glossy book was a modern take on Slovenian food.  But I was wrong. Take this egg dish.  It definitely qualifies as vintage.  It first appeared in 1868, in a book by Magdalena Pleiweis.  This was one of the earliest Slovenian cookbooks, and the first one to be copyrighted.  It...