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Papua New GuineaFlavors · Slovakia
Thick sauerkraut soup with smoked sausage and pork, often with dried mushrooms. It’s Slovakia’s winter soup and the dish that starts the Christmas Eve dinner in many homes.
Traditional dish from Slovakia
Also known as: sopa de chucrute; vianočná kapustnica (kapustnica de Natal)
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Kapustnica — Slovakia
Kapustnica is a soup made with kyslá kapusta, sauerkraut, slowly cooked with pork, smoked sausage and, in many recipes, dried mushrooms. The sauerkraut gives the sour flavor, the sausage and smoked meat provide a smoky base, and sweet paprika colors the broth. Some people add sour cream at the end, dried plums or beans.
It’s the soup most associated with winter. In many Slovak homes, kapustnica starts the Christmas Eve dinner on the night of December 24, and each family defends its own recipe. Versions vary from region to region: some are lighter and more acidic, others thicker, with more meat and mushrooms.
In everyday cooking, kapustnica appears on the menus of kolibas and home-style restaurants, especially in cold months, and is common in the mountains, such as in the High Tatras, after a walk in the snow. It’s also served at pig-slaughter parties, when fresh meat and sausage are available.
Slovakia
Traditional winter and Christmas soup throughout the country.
Sauerkraut with its broth, pork, smoked sausage, dried mushrooms, onion, garlic, sweet paprika, bay leaf and pepper. Some recipes include sour cream, dried plums or beans.
Hot, in a deep plate or bowl, with bread. Sometimes served with a spoonful of sour cream on top.
Winter and Christmas Eve soup; also served year-round in home-style restaurants.
Your questions
Of sauerkraut slowly cooked with pork, smoked sausage and, in many recipes, dried mushrooms, with sweet paprika, garlic and bay leaf.
In winter and, in many homes, at the Christmas Eve dinner on the night of December 24. Home-style restaurants serve the soup year-round.
Flavors of Slovakia
A clear or slightly yellowish brandy with a pronounced juniper aroma and flavor. It is the traditional distilled spirit of Slovakia; some regional varieties have protected geographical indication in the European Union.
Small potato gnocchi mixed while still hot with bryndza, a soft salty sheep’s cheese, and topped with fried bacon. The official tourism board presents it as Slovakia’s national dish.
Shepherds’ soup made with bryndza, the soft salty sheep cheese, sometimes with potato, onion and bacon. It is traditional in the sheep-farming regions of central Slovakia and has won regional cooking contests.
Thin, glossy pastry filled with walnuts or poppy-seed filling. The poppy-seed one is shaped like a horseshoe and the walnut one like the letter C. Registered in the European Union as a traditional speciality guaranteed.
Goose slowly roasted until the skin is crispy, served with lokše — thin potato pancakes brushed with the roast fat — and braised red cabbage. It’s the autumn feast of the Bratislava region, famous in the village of Slovenský Grob.
Dough dumplings boiled in water, filled with potato and bryndza, and served with fried bacon and sour cream. They are a traditional dish of eastern Slovakia, especially in the Šariš region around Prešov.
Sweet fermented dough rolled onto a wooden cylinder and roasted while rotated over heat, topped with dried fruits; afterwards it is dusted with sugar mixed with vanilla sugar. It is from Skalica and was the first Slovak product to receive a European Union protected geographical indication.
