🍽️ Cuisine
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).
