Ukrainian cuisine is hearty and nourishing—borscht, varenyky dumplings, and salo (cured pork fat) with dark bread.
Borscht
Beet Soup
The iconic beet soup—Ukrainian soul food served with sour cream and pampushky.
Ingredients: 400g pork or beef, 3 beets, grated, 2 potatoes, Cabbage, Carrots, onion, Tomato paste, Dill, garlic, sour cream.
Preparation: Simmer meat until tender. After that, sauté beets with vinegar to keep color. Add to broth with potatoes, cabbage. Then make zazharka (fried onion, carrot, tomato). Add to soup. Serve with sour cream, garlic, dill.
💡 Add vinegar to beets while sautéing to preserve the bright red color.
Varenyky
Ukrainian Dumplings
Boiled dumplings with various fillings—potato, cherry, cabbage.
Ingredients: For dough: 480ml flour, 1 egg, water, For filling: mashed potato with cheese, or cherries, or cabbage, Sour cream, Fried onions.
Preparation: Make soft dough, rest. Roll thin, cut circles. Fill with potato-cheese, fruit, or cabbage. Then seal into half-moons. Boil until they float. Finally, serve with sour cream and fried onions.
💡 Sweet varenyky with cherries are served with sugar and sour cream.
Salo
Cured Pork Fat
Cured pork fat—Ukrainian delicacy, sliced thin with garlic.
Ingredients: 1 kg pork back fat with skin, Coarse salt, Garlic, Black pepper, Bay leaves, Rye bread.
Preparation: Score fat in diamond pattern. Rub with salt, garlic, pepper. Layer with bay leaves. Then cure in fridge 5-7 days. Freeze for easier slicing. Slice thin, serve on rye with garlic.
💡 Best eaten frozen, thinly sliced, with shot of horilka (vodka).
Ukraine has a significant wine tradition stretching back over 2,500 years to the Greek colonies on the Black Sea coast. With approximately 45,000 hectares under vine (pre-2014 figures including Crimea), Ukraine was historically one of Europe's larger wine producers. The Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the full-scale invasion of 2022 have dramatically disrupted the industry, but mainland Ukrainian wine production continues — and, remarkably, a new generation of winemakers has emerged even amid the ongoing conflict.
🗺️ Regions & Varieties
Crimea (historically Ukraine's most famous wine region, now under Russian occupation) was home to Massandra — the legendary winery founded by Tsar Alexander III in 1894, with cellars holding over one million bottles, including some of the oldest wines in the world. Massandra's dessert wines (Muscat, Madeira-style, Port-style) were legendary. On the mainland, Odessa Oblast (the Black Sea steppe) remains Ukraine's largest producing region — Shabo (a Swiss-founded estate in the village settled by Swiss colonists in the 19th century) is among the most modern producers. Zakarpattia (Transcarpathia, bordering Hungary and Slovakia) has centuries of winemaking tradition with Hungarian-influenced styles. The emerging Mykolaiv and Kherson regions (both significantly affected by the 2022 invasion) produced promising wines. International varieties (Cabernet, Merlot, Chardonnay) alongside indigenous grapes like Odessa Black, Telti-Kuruk, and Sukholymansky Bilyi define the varied landscape. Horilka (Ukrainian vodka, including the honey-pepper variant horilka z pertsem) is the national spirit, and medovukha (honey mead) has deep historical roots.
🏆 Kaufmann Wine Score (KWS)
100-point scoring: 🟡 Aroma (0-25) · 🔴 Taste (0-30) · 🟣 Finish (0-20) · 🔵 Value (0-25)
| Wine |
🟡 |
🔴 |
🟣 |
🔵 |
KWS |
| Shabo Reserve Cabernet (Odessa) |
19 |
23 |
14 |
23 |
79 |
| Beykush Chardonnay (Mykolaiv) |
18 |
22 |
14 |
23 |
77 |
✍️ Author's Note
Radim Kaufmann
Ukraine's wine story is one of tragedy and defiance. A country with 2,500 years of viticultural history — Greek amphora fragments on the Black Sea coast, Massandra's legendary cellars, the Swiss-planted vineyards of Shabo — has seen its wine industry devastated by war. Vineyards in Kherson and Mykolaiv have been shelled; winemakers have become soldiers. And yet: in 2023, Ukrainian winemakers harvested grapes under missile threat, bottled wine in cellars doubling as bomb shelters, and entered international competitions as an act of cultural resistance. When I tasted a Ukrainian Chardonnay from Beykush — a small coastal winery near Mykolaiv, its vineyards now on the frontline — the wine was bright, mineral, and heartbreakingly good. Ukrainian wine, like Ukraine itself, refuses to disappear.
