Ingredients: half a fresh green cabbage (~1.7 lb), oil, 1tsp caraway, 1tsp nutmeg, 2/3 cups flour, 10 cups water, 6oz can of tomato paste, 5 tbsp salt, 3 tbsp sugar, 3 tbsp vinegar
Prep Time: about one hour

Here are the ingredients you’ll need: cabbage (I used half of it),tomato paste (not sauce, sauce has spices and such), vinegar, sugar, caraway, nutmeg, and butter or oil.

Remove the inner hard core from the cabbage, and also remove the outer green leaves. You can save them for later to make the popular stuffed cabbage (holubky). Cut the cabbage into thin “noodles”. At least that’s how I started. Soon I lost patience and I cut the rest into all sorts of random shapes.

Place the cabbage strips into a pot along with oil (I used half a cup). Fry the cabbage for 5 minutes while continuously stirring. Then add caraway (rasca) and nutmeg (muškátový oriešok). They both should be ground, but I didn’t have ground caraway, so I used it whole. Top this with flour and pour in a cup of water.

Stir and cover with the lid. Steam covered on low heat for about 30 minutes until the cabbage is almost fully cooked (soft). But keep an eye on it and stir every few minutes to make sure it doesn’t burn. Also add more water as needed.

Pour in the rest of the water and also a small 6oz can of tomato paste. Then finish seasoning with salt, sugar, and vinegar. I used 5 tablespoons of salt, 3 of sugar, and another 3 of vinegar. Feel free to adjust these to your taste.

And that’s it. By the way, I don’t think there is any food in the world more delicious than soup (any kind) with a slice of toasted home-baked bread with garlic scraped on top. Yum!

Of course, there is another kind of cabbage soup which is even more famous: the famous Christmas sauerkraut kapustnica.

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Horseradish is an ancient plant from the same family as broccoli, mustards, or cabbages. It is grown for its large root, which is grated and preserved in vinegar. It will keep refrigerated for many months. You will horseradish in your grocery store in the deli section, next to pickles and some exotic cheeses.

Sauce (omáčka) made out of horseradish is very popular in Slovakia. In making it, I used mix of three different recipes. The amount of flour came from Recepty Starej Mamy by M. Murtišová. The cream and water came from Slovenská Kuchárka. And finally, the serving suggestion is from mimibazar.sk.

Ingredients: 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup oil, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup cream, water, 100g horseradish, lemon or vinegar
Prep Time: 20 minutes

Start by preparing zápražka (roux) by browning the flour on oil (or butter). Add milk and cream.

Then add salt and one tablespoon worth of lemon juice (citrón).

Add water as needed – I needed about two cups. Continue stirring and let go through boil. Then turn the heat off and add 100g – half this jar – of horseradish (chreň).

Serve with smoked meat (údené mäso) and knedľa (the popular Czech/Slovak steamed dumpling).

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Ingredients: 1 cucumber, half a clove of garlic, salt, pepper, vinegar, sugar
Prep Time: 10 minutes

Start by peeling the cucumber (uhorka). Slice it into thin slices using a box grater and place in a salad bowl. Then add a teaspoon of salt and half a clove of garlic (strúčik cesnaku), minced.

Then add sugar and vinegar, to taste. Or if you don’t like it too “vinegary”, mix the vinegar with water, so that you have enough liquid for the cucumbers to swim in. I ended up using two tablespoons of sugar and no water. Top off with black pepper and let sit for few minutes to allow the flavors mix through. Enjoy!

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Here is a recipe for another popular soup, one made with green beans (zelená fazuľa) and potatoes (zemiaky). Green beans, the immature bean pods, are quite healthy. They are high in vitamin C, and also contain insoluble fibers which aid in digestion. The recipe comes from “Recepty starej mamy” (Grandmother’s recipes), a classic cookbook from 1984 by M. Martišová and F. Martiš. You will find this book on many kitchen shelves in Slovakia. Note, the recipe calls for 1.5 L of water (about 6.5 cups). The resulting soup was slightly too thick for my taste – I prefer more liquid soups. If I were to prepare it again, I would increase water by at least a cup – or use less flour.

Ingredients for making green bean soup, except basics such as flour, sugar and salt. Start by washing the beans (fazuľa).

Then get chopping. Cut off the ends and then slice the beans into sections about half an inch long. Add to boiling salted water (slaná voda) along with the potatoes (zemiaky), peeled and cubed. Cover and cook until both potatoes and beans get soft. This will take about 20 minutes (dvadsať minút).

Then prepare the flour mixture to thicken the soup, zápraška. Brown about 4 tablespoons of flour (múka) on about a quarter of a butter (masľo) stick. Also add about a teaspoon worth of paprika (mletá červená paprika). Stir into the soup.

Once the flour mixture dissolves (break up large chunks by squishing them along the side of the pot), add sour cream (kyslá smotana). I used only about 3/4 of the tub, although the recipe called for more. Next add about a tablespoon of sugar (cukor) and about a teaspoon of vinegar (ocot), to taste. Let go through boil to allow the flavors to mix. Finally, top with about a handful of finely chopped dill (kôpor).

And that’s it. Serve with a slice of good rye bread. Dobrú chuť!

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Treska is my favorite Slovak salad. So I was really excited when Kristina posted a recipe for it on the Facebook page! I made it and it turned out quite tasty. Here I show you how to make it. But, there is a caveat. When I went to buy the ingredients, I learned that my grocery store was having a 60% off sale on fillets of “blue fish”. This was a deal too good to pass! Well, this is a problem because, you see, the word treska means “cod”. So here you have a cod-free cod salad. You’ll see that when you make this salad out of the right fish, the resulting creation will be of much lighter color.

Start by preparing “vinegar stock” by combing 3 liters of water, one cup of vinegar, whole black peppercorns, 6 bay leaves and salt. Let boil for 5 minutes. Then add the fish fillets. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes. Then take the fish out and place in a large salad bowl. Let cool down.

While the fish is cooling, cook two whole peeled carrots. Place them into boiling, salted water, and cook for about 3 or 4 minutes. Let them cool down. In the mean time, finely flake up the fish with a fork. You could also use a mixer.

Next finely grate the carrots and two whole onions.

Add mayo (3/4 of this medium sized tub), …

…, two tablespoons of vinegar, 4 tablespoons mustard (I used spicy brown), …

…, black pepper and salt. Then let sit in the fridge for 24 hours. This will let the flavors mix through. Enjoy with few fresh rolls, or even better, with rožky, Slovak mini baguettes. Dobrú chuť!

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