Search
Brazil
Argentina
Bolivia
Chile
Colombia
Ecuador
Guyana
French Guiana
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
Paraguay
Peru
Suriname
Uruguay
Venezuela
Germany
Austria
Belgium
Croatia
Denmark
SlovakiaSlovenia
Spain
Finland
France
Greece
the Netherlands
Hungary
Ireland
Iceland
Italy
Luxembourg
Norway
Poland
Portugal
the United Kingdom
the Czech Republic
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
Canada
the United States
Mexico
the Dominican RepublicTurkey
South Africa
Australia
Fiji
New Zealand
Papua New GuineaFlavors · Slovenia
Thin dough rolls filled and cooked in water, steamed, or baked. They come in sweet and savory versions, with fillings such as fresh cottage cheese, tarragon, walnuts, apple and dozens of others, and are found in all regions of Slovenia.
Traditional dish from Slovenia
Also known as: štrukelj (singular); sirovi štruklji (de requeijão); pehtranovi štruklji (de estragão); kuhani štruklji; pečeni štruklji
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
Click a photo to enlarge it.
Štruklji — Slovenia
Štruklji are made with a very thin sheet of dough — stretched, fermented or made by other regional methods — spread with a filling and rolled up. The roll is cooked in water, often wrapped in a cloth, or steamed, or else baked in the oven. It is then cut into thick slices. The most classic filling is fresh cottage cheese; tarragon, walnut, apple and poppy-seed fillings are also traditional.
The first recorded recipe dates from 1589, when a court cook in Graz noted how to prepare štruklji boiled with tarragon. Valentin Vodnik included štruklji recipes in the first Slovenian cookbook, from 1799, and later cookbooks kept adding versions: dozens by the late 19th century and nearly a hundred in editions from the late 20th century.
In the past, štruklji were mainly festive food, prepared on holy days and during major agricultural tasks like harvest. They can be a Lenten dish or a main course, savory or sweet, a side for meats or a complement to soups. Each region has its own: in the west, for example, the kobariški štruklji from Kobarid have a sweet walnut filling.
Today štruklji appear in home-style restaurants across the country, served as a side or as a main dish, and specialty shops offer sweet and savory versions side by side.
Slovenia
Prepared in all regions, with local versions; national-level association.
Wheat-flour dough (sometimes buckwheat), water or milk, egg and salt. Traditional fillings: fresh cottage cheese with eggs and cream, tarragon, walnuts, apple, poppy seeds; topped with butter and toasted breadcrumbs.
Cut into thick slices, served hot, topped with butter and toasted breadcrumbs; savory ones accompany meats with sauce or soups, sweets are served as dessert.
Formerly festive food and sustenance for major fieldwork; today a restaurant dish and Sunday lunch all year round.
Your questions
They are thin dough rolls filled, cooked in water, steamed or baked, and cut into pieces. They can be sweet or savory.
Fresh cottage cheese. Tarragon, walnut, apple and poppy-seed fillings are also traditional, and each region has its own versions.
Both. Savory ones accompany meats or soups, or are served as a main course; sweet ones are served as dessert.
Flavors of Slovenia
Buckwheat flour cooked in water and fluffed into small clumps with a fork, served with pork cracklings. For a long time it was the everyday food of the central and alpine regions, and it is considered a national Slovenian dish.
Sweet leavened dough, rolled out very thin, filled, rolled up and baked in a round pan with a hole in the middle. It is the festive pastry of Slovenian celebrations, with fillings of walnuts, tarragon, raisins or honey.
Sweet square from Bled: a puff pastry base, a tall layer of vanilla custard, another of whipped cream, and a thin pastry sheet on top, dusted with powdered sugar. It has been made by the lakeside since 1953.
Small dumplings filled with potato, onion, bacon, and herbs, shaped like a little hat, from the old mining town of Idrija. The traditional accompaniment is bakalca, a lamb stew with vegetables.
Round, flat bread from Bela krajina in southeastern Slovenia, brushed with egg, caraway and coarse salt, and marked with a grid of score lines. It is eaten warm, broken by hand, never cut with a knife.
Light, acidic wine from Dolenjska in southeastern Slovenia, made by a required blend of red and white grapes, with low alcohol content. It has the recognized traditional designation PTP and is the region’s everyday wine.
Thick soup of beans, potatoes and sauerkraut or fermented turnip, cooked with smoked pork. It’s the spoon food of western Slovenia, and the Karst version, with sauerkraut and potatoes, is the best known.
Dark, acidic red wine from the Karst plateau, made only with the refošk grape grown in the region’s red soil. It has Slovenia’s recognized traditional designation PTP and pairs with the ham and dishes of the Karst.
Layered Prekmurje cake from northeastern Slovenia: on a shortcrust base, sheets of stretched dough alternate four fillings — poppy seeds, fresh curd cheese, walnuts and apple — topped with cream.
