Rude Kitchen For about fifteen hundred years, borscht has been one of the foundations of Polish and, more broadly, East Slavic cuisine. Originally made from fermented leaves of Heracleum sphondylium (which gave the dish its name), it later came to mean soups prepared on various types of sour starters — that is, fermented vegetables. Today the most … Read more
On the internet, you can find everything you’re capable of imagining—and plenty of things you’re absolutely not.One of them is “culinary Marxism.” The moment I saw the phrase, it stole my heart, and I’ve since enjoyed calling myself a “culinary Marxist.” Whatever that may actually mean. And I found a very intriguing interpretation of the … Read more
Traditionally, Christmas Eve dinner is a fasting meal, so you really don’t have to try very hard to make 12 fully vegan Christmas dishes.But we also have no reason to limit our creativity — especially since today’s Christmas Eve customs are guests from abroad anyway: from Germany (the Christmas tree), from Ukraine (kutia), or even … Read more
In the fasting season, people didn’t necessarily eat “fasting food” in today’s sense of the word — bland, meagre, diet-friendly.Fasting could be lavish. Of course, only on the tables of the small part of society that could afford it. The fish that replaced ham during fasts had, for centuries, been unavailable to the majority of … Read more
Is it possible to host a vegan Christmas Eve? Absolutely — and it can be fully in line with Polish holiday tradition. Much more so than the Western-inspired habit of serving roasted poultry for Christmas Eve dinner. If we look deeper into history — and also deeper into society — we see a culinary reality that is very different from what … Read more
Once very popular in traditional folk cooking, today these ingredients are truly underappreciated and underused. Various grains, seeds, and nuts — from sunflower seeds to hemp (with their phenomenal protein content), pumpkin seeds, and walnuts. On the one hand, they no longer play the role they once did, when even a hundred years ago, nuts and seeds … Read more
Born and raised in Poland, I’ve only been living in Germany for a few years now. Nothing illustrates the phenomenon of Polish Christmas Eve (Wigilia) better than the reactions of my German friends when I tell them about the traditional and widely practiced Polish Christmas Eve. The most unique and shocking tradition for other nations … Read more
I have the feeling that traditional Polish cuisine—our classic dishes and ingredients—is often being neglected and replaced by foreign culinary influences. Not that I have anything against outside influences: I love Asian, Mexican, or even African cuisines (don’t know what fufu is? You’ll find out soon, because there’s a packet of it waiting for its … Read more
Stuffed vegetables are my personal comfort food — not just for the taste itself, but for the memories they bring back of the best thing from my INGREDIENTS 50 g TVP (soy protein granules)Marinade for the TVP: 2 tbsp soy sauce 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce 1 tbsp Crema di Balsamico Filling: 100 g millet … Read more
The vegetable most closely associated today with the celebration of Dziady, Samhain, Halloween — call it what you will — is the pumpkin. INGREDIENTS Filling: 300 g pumpkin purée 100 g sunflower seeds 1 tsp smoked paprika ½ tsp cumin ½ tsp ground coriander seeds 3 tbsp nutritional yeast 1 clove garlic salt Dough: … Read more
