Cookbook Club: Spotlight on Ukrainian Cuisine
Welcome to Cookbook Club: The Ukrainian Edition; a gathering of home cooks shining a spotlight on Ukrainian cuisine and authors.
“We all have so much more in common than that which divides us, and good food and good stories are universal.” Olia Hercules, Home Food
Yesterday ten of us gathered for our monthly cookbook club. As a second generation Ukrainian Canadian, I’ve been dreaming about this one for years.
Between us we had fifteen different dishes from six or seven cookbooks and managed to present an absolute spread of gorgeous food. I actually became quote emotional when I witnessed the feast come together; food, and the sharing of, never fails to move me.
Read on for a look at every single dish we prepared, and get the links to recipes and cookbooks. This is our protest against the war on Ukraine. A small, but symbolic gesture.
Spotlight on Ukrainian Cuisine: Cookbook Club Edition
“It’s the same food, the same full table and the same friendly people; it’s just in a different language.” Anna, new Ukrainian Canadian, yesterday at cookbook club.
Ukrainian Appetizers
Beet Pickled Deviled Eggs
For this recipe, I was inspired by the gorgeous front cover of BUDMO! Recipes from a Ukrainian Kitchen. Anna’s incredible book is full of vibrant recipes and this springtime appetizer is just one example.
I’ll be sharing my version of these deviled eggs very soon here on the blog, featuring fresh chives from my herb garden and a secret ingredient that we all have in the fridge.
Piroshki Buns with Cabbage
One of my latest cookbook acquisitions is the fantastic KAPUSTA: Vegetable-Forward Recipes from Eastern Europe. Alissa’s a gifted writer and recipe developer, and this book is a true gem.
Piroshki buns can be made with a wide range of fillings; I followed Alissa’s recipe and used cabbage (kapusta!), spring onions, hard boiled eggs and lots of dill. They were so delicious; I can see how piroshki would make a great picnic food or afternoon snack.
Smoked Salmon Platter
In her book Budmo!, Anna says that curing food with salt is one of the most important Slavic preservation techniques and shares a recipe for Cured Salmon. This region of Europe loves all things pickled, fermented and smoked.
Ukrainian appetizers can be as simple as opening a few tins of smoked seafood and a jar of pickles. Paired with a soft cheese and hearty bread, you’re all set.
Garlic Pampushky
You all know this one by now. When the illegal and unprovoked russian invasion began over three years ago, everyone from Nigella to Jamie made Olia’s Pampushky to uplift Ukrainian food culture.
These Ukrainian garlic buns have a very special place in our home, and were an essential addition to our cookbook club feast. The original recipe can be found in Olia’s debut cookbook, Mamushka:
Ukrainian Salads
Crunchy Vegetable Salad-Pickle
Salad-pickle is my new favourite foodism. Essentially it’s a versatile dish that works as both a side or a condiment. My friend Jo-Ann arrived at cookbook club with a huge platter of salad-pickle featuring beets, carrots and other root vegetables in a punchy vinaigrette.
It was the perfect balance to the hearty main dishes on our table. Find the recipe in Home Food by Olia Hercules.
Radish and Pomegranate Salad
My co-host Rebekah created this stunning springtime salad from Olia’s book Home Food: 100 recipes to Comfort and Connect. Based on the author’s travels, the book features recipes from Ukraine, Cyprus, Italy, England and beyond.
This salad packed a punch, using pomegranate molasses, sumac and fresh herbs in a dish that popped with flavour.
Spring Radish & Tomato Salad
Another treasured recipe from Mamushka is this comforting spring salad. I make variations of it all summer long, as my garden produces. It’s seasoned with fresh dill and the dressing is simply yogurt with salt and pepper.
Ukrainian Main Dishes
Cabbage Rolls
Known as Holubtsi when I was growing up, these are one of the most comforting Ukrainian main dishes ever. In her book Kapusta, author Alissa Timoshkina calls cabbage rolls “…a culinary genre in their own right” and offers an amalgamation of several recipes from across Eastern Europe.
This exquisite version came from the now out-of-print and highly regarded cookbook, Traditional Ukrainian Cookery by Savella Stechishin. This vintage beauty of a book was passed down to our friend Susan by her grandmother. My kind of family heirloom. PS. The PDF exists online!
Potato and Cheddar Varenyki (Perogy)
Any Eastern European gathering must have a plate of perogy/pyrohy/pierogi/varenyki. I had a stash in my freezer, so I boiled varenyki fresh for our gathering. I paired them with sautéed onions, crispy bacon, Ukrainian sausages and sour cream. Dreamy.
I often playing around with traditional varenyki recipes, but my current favourite is from the Canadian Prairie kitchen of Karlynn. Her fantastic cookbook, The Prairie Table, has a whole chapter of Ukrainian recipes, including Grandma Marion’s secret perogy recipe. It’s worth the price of the book, trust me.
Lamb Kebab
Rounding out our feast was both lamb and beef kebabs, with charred flatbread. Lightly spiced with sumac and turmeric, this delicious recipe is from Home Food by Olia Hercules.
Author’s Note: We didn’t have any Borscht for this gathering, but this beloved beet soup is very traditional. Find my Vegan Borscht recipe here.
Ukrainian Desserts and Sweet Breads
Ukrainian Honey Cake
I had such fun with this one! Titled Glorious Honey Cake, the recipe is from BUDMO by Anna Voloshyna. Essentially it is what North American’s would call an icebox cake.
Ten or so crisp, honey-sweetened ‘crackers’ are layered with a sweetened sour cream and whipped filling until a cake is constructed. It’s chilled overnight, then topped with nuts and served. It’s entirely unique and was a huge hit at the gathering.
I served my honey layer cake with preserved sour cherries in syrup and additional vanilla whipped cream. Look for my personal version of Anna’s cake coming soon to the blog in an all-new recipe you can try for yourself.
Shortbread Meringue Jam Squares
A Ukrainian friend of mine happens to be an extraordinary baker. She couldn’t make our gathering, but sent these squares for us to enjoy. And enjoy we did.
I’ve never had anything like them: a shortbread base, then a layer of cranberry and rose petal jam. The squares are topped with a meringue and dolloped with shortbread crumble. Quite a fabulous concoction and one that I must recreate this June when the roses are in bloom.
Kolach (Ukrainian Christmas Bread)
Olia Hercules, our mentor from afar, introduced us to kolach, a traditional Ukrainian braided loaf enjoyed on Christmas Day. Lindsay recreated this Pumpkin and Orange Kolach, baked with love and adorned with the season’s first forcythia flowers.
Cottage Cheese Sweet Rolls
Our friend Anna moved here to Halifax from Ukraine when the war started and we love her so. Her strength and resilience is inspiring to witness; she just one of many creating a new life for themselves in a new country.
Anna brought these flaky sweet rolls to our cookbook club gathering. Lightly spiced and delicious with tea, they are made with a traditional cottage cheese dough. It is a family recipe.
Poppy Seed Roll
My mother’s favourite Ukrainian bake, this sweet bread is just delicious with coffee or tea! I’m so glad I have some leftover. 🙂
The recipe can be found in Mamushka, and is fairly simple to make. I made mine in advance of cookbook club, while stress baking (it happens). I’m happy to report it froze and reheated very well.
Start your own Cookbook Club
If a cookbook club sounds fun to you, here’s more information and inspiration:
- How and Why to Start a Cookbook Club
- Secrets to a Successful Cookbook Club
- An Orchard Harvest Dinner
Thanks for reading! I hope you’ll be inspired to pick up one of these cookbooks and help shine a spotlight on Ukrainian cuisine.
Slava Ukraini
About the Photographer
ALL images byt Michelle Doucette, a lifestyle photographer and visual storyteller based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Follow her on Insta at East Coast Food Stories. Michelle, thank you for helping to shine a spotlight on Ukrainian cuisine.
This post contains affilate links that support this food writing.
Interesting cook books. Recently I have begun watching a program called Food Around The World, which focuses on traditional foods made by Ukrainian women living in the Carpathian Mt. regions.
Their food looks amazing (although tons of wheat, and we eat Gluten Free – but I have modified a few recipes) What I find most interesting is the way they make any kind of pickled preserve, in particular pickled tomatoes. While I have watched the programs, I am unsure of the brines/amounts used. They also turn their jars upside down on a blanket, and cover with another blanket, then the next day the jars are sealed.
Are you familiar with this process? Or, can you recommend a traditional Ukrainian cook book on their way of preserving/canning? Many thanks, Ina
Thanks for the tip, Ina, I’m going to look for that program. Yes, Ukraine is the breadbasket of Europe, and we love our wheat. No problem digesting it!
I am familiar with that canning process, though have not tested it myself. I’ll keep my eye out for a canning book specifically. However ALL of these recommended Ukrainian cookbooks have recipes for canned, pickled and fermented foods.
Hi! Great post. Can you share the recipe for the cottage cheese sweet rolls? Ty
Aimee,
You have caused combustion in a hidden spark. I’ve bookmarked all of the books from this cookbook topic. My spouse’s grandmother was raised from just after birth to adulthood in Austria-Hungary. Her parents fled to the US and her mother passed shortly after she was born so her father sent her back to be raised by her grandparents. She left “the old country,”marrying someone that didn’t speak the same language but they both had limited fluency in a different Slovak language and came back to the US in the early 1920s. She was never fluent in English, I had great difficulty understanding her beautiful language and she mine but we shared the love of food and cooking many of the foods above.. She passed with Alzheimer’s a few years ago, so now, I believe therapeutic cooking is in order.
I’ve quietly mourned with you with and millions of others as we’ve watched the last few years like a terrible wreck in slow motion. I may have missed my irl opportunity to visit your rich and beautiful country. I’ve been following you fairly quietly, for years. Your adventures always became a part of my bucket list, for when I had my life in order. It remains in my plans but like so many things, ( as my still living and very bright 102 year old father advises,) I’m trying to keep it going one day at a time. PS that same father and my spouse loved her cooking, I’ll see if I can make something as incredibly wonderful as she did. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.