Close your eyes. Are they closed? Good. Imagine a street, a narrow, cobblestone street. It’s midday, a sunny summer day. Tiny colourful houses lining the street, perched along the dusty pavement, their windows open, white lace curtains fluttering in the draught. Not even a single soul can be spotted in the distance; only the cat, lazily licking the paw. What can you smell? Take a sip, there you go. Can you smell the onion? Can you smell the warm snuggly aroma of a freshly baked cake? Can you trace this oily scent of burned butter and garlic? Don’t turn your head out. It’s only cabbage. Well, now you know, that’s how traditional vegetarian Polish cuisine smells like.
The cobblestone streets of Wroclaw,Poland. Credits:Arcadius,Flickr.
It seems that the most obvious connotation one has with the Polish food is the one of a sausage. But little does one know, that the range of variety of food on Polish tables reaches far beyond the sausage and pork chops. I can’t tell you exactly from where and when did we take out tastes and recipes, the ones passed down from mother to daughter but I can most surely tell you, that they do derive from the times, when the meat was scarce and the hungry a plenty. Butter, milk, eggs, a range of fresh and pickled vegetables, bread and soup, these are the things you should search for, when seeking to discover a vegetarian cuisine. It has obviously changed over time. But surely it has been there over the last dozen of decades and is still being revived, restored and rediscovered, both in the confinement of household kitchens and in the broad daylight of the modern vegetarian restaurants, which have sprung out all over the country and have become a requisite on the culinary map of every gourmand traveller.
My mother is a rather traditional cook, same as both of my grandmothers. I remember them preparing plentiful of typical home cooked and so one can say, typical vegetarian dishes. There were of course potato pancakes, made from shredded raw potatoes, some onion, a dash of garlic and fried until golden brown. They were usually served either bare or with cream (oh, do spoil yourself just once). As a child I liked to sprinkle them with some sugar. They tasted heavenly. In restaurants you can also find them served with a stew, but don’t be fooled, that’s been taken from Hungarian cuisine. And no salads with potato pancakes! There’s enough work with making them to bother with something else.There were also pancakes – not the fluffy round American pancakes served with maple syrup but thin and big ones, served with a spoonful of cottage cheese, cream and a homemade strawberry jam. Racuchy is yet another version – small, yeast pancakes with half melted pieces of apple and raisins inside, in some regions called also małdrzyki. They are similar to Russian blins. You will hardly find them in restaurants but I wish you luck! There are also sour pancakes, filled with cabbage and mushrooms, folded and covered in egg and breadcrumbs, and then fried – krokiety. Some also put a piece of good old yellow cheese inside but I prefer them solely with cabbage. Truly, the variety of yeast and soda pancakes, with topping galore, is endless! These milk and egg delicacies you can find in what is called a „bar mleczny” – milk bar. Now they’ve come back into fashion and serve a range of different vegetarian dishes.
Sweet Pancakes from Poland.Credits: Ren Behan .Check out the recipe at Ren Behan.
Also check out this upcoming book by Ren : Wild Honey and Rye: Recipes from a Modern Polish Kitchen
What I also ate very often were soups. Oh, a sour soup – this is something you will rarely get a hold on anywhere else. Beetroot soup (a clear, vegan version is served in some regions for Christmas’ eve dinner), sourdough soup with eggs called żurek, sour cabbage (kapuśniak), a sour cucumber soup… I still remember those chilly autumn afternoons. I’d just come back from school, all wind and shivers, and this first sip of my grandma’s sour cabbage soup warmed me just instantly. Beware though – although they may not contain meat, most of them are traditionally made of beef stew. Ask before you order!
We cannot forget about dumplings, pierogi, can we? We can argue where do they come from and what is the core, traditional recipe, but let’s face it – it’s a dough stuffed with any delicacy you’d like to stuff it with. You can have them cooked, baked, fried – whatever you wish. A plate of pierogi is a flagship on the Polish table. Making it is time-consuming though, so fewer people make them at home, but they are a staple in milk bars (you know them already, don’t you?). Another type of stuffed plumpy dumpling is pyza or knedel. A delicate body of mashed potato and flour, with a dash of water, covers the insides of both sweet and sour filling. You can have them again with cabbage (no dish without cabbage) or seasonal fruits. The typical knedel my grandma rolled in the swift hands od hers was with a sweet ripe plum. Another type, not filled with anything but simply a dough rolled into a long tail and cut into trapeze shapes and cooked, are kopytka, easy and filling. By the way – kopytka means tiny little trotters. Enjoy. Sometimes you can mix them with quark and served with sugar and cinnamon.
Polish Dumplings
That’s all very nice, you can say, but which of all these treats can we actually eat out? Or do we have to bribe someone to take us home and get poor old granny to make them for us? No, this is the last option you have. As I mentioned, there are many places now where you can eat vegan or vegetarian meals, including the traditional, quasi-homemade food. But what you must know, is that most of the popular vegetarian places serve all BUT Polish food. It’s this darn western influence, what can you do? But try to see this as yet another opportunity. Vegetarian places in Poland are simply exquisite to go and savour Middle Eastern and Asian food. Why Middle Eastern? Only God knows, but pray these humus and falafel, tajins and salads to stay and settle for good. I have many favourite vegetarian places with beetroot burgers, ramens, lentil soups and vegetarian fajita. Funny fact, did you know that a number of these venues are actually run by people somehow related to the alternative and undergroud culture? They are not only great to eat but to observe – who comes, how behaves, the interior, the events – all more or less socially engaged. Try, you’ll not be disappointed to get a glimpse of something below the surface of the society.
I could ramble about Polish food all day so I will just stop here. If you’re a up to a traditional culinary experience, I would definitely recommend you staying with couchsurfers or at an Airbnb flat while visiting Poland. We are known for our hospitality and a secret guilty love for our traditional food. So even if your host wouldn’t know how to make pierogi or kopytka, you can surely have fun making them together – chances both of you would be making them for the first time in your whole life. Call to mum and grandma guaranteed!
Have fun!
Note: Thanks a lot to Marta from W Ruchu for taking us on this wonderful journey and giving us an insight into Polish cuisine. Martha is an Anthropologist from Poland, now living in Basel,Switzerland. Check out her blog as well as Facebook page and show her some love.
To know more about recommended vegetarian food in Poland and 23 other European countries, check out this post : Droolworthy dishes from 24 countries .
For more Food love, check out our other tips, stories and guides all about food! .
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