Cakes and baking
Grandma’s recipes
Dishes that have been cooked in Slovakia for generations: bryndzové halušky, sauerkraut soup and goulash soup, fučka, stuffed cabbage rolls, Szegedin goulash, crackling biscuits, steamed buns, pirôžky and poppy seed rolls. Most of them only need ingredients that you usually have at home.
The recipes are sorted by popularity; below the list you will find which holidays some of the dishes belong to.
Recipe list
Soups
Slovak sour potato soup with paprika and cream
Dinners
Sedliacka výplata: potatoes with sauerkraut and sausage
Main dishes
Fučka: Slovak mashed potatoes with flour and fried onions
Dinners
Podplameník: potato yeast flatbread with bacon and onion
Main dishes
Bread stuffing with ham and herbs
Soups
Mushroom soup with potatoes – grandma's recipe
Baked goods
Vyskoč z vody: Butter yeast dough that rises under water
Main dishes
Stuffed cabbage rolls with pork and rice in tomato sauce
Soups
Bean soup with potatoes and rice
Main dishes
Potato pancakes with sour cream
Side dishes
Kysnutá knedľa: Slovak steamed yeast dumpling
Baked goods
Podpecníky: Slovak sour cream and bacon flatbread
Soups
Slovak cabbage soup from Orava with smoked bacon
Baked goods
Buchty: Slovak buttery filled sweet buns
Main dishes
Pirohy: Slovak pierogi dough with egg
Main dishes
Yellow split pea stew with garlic and onion
Baked goods
Makovník and orechovník: Slovak poppy seed and nut rolls
Salads
Grandma-style potato salad with pickles and mayonnaise
Dinners
Chamuľa: Slovak potato mash with semolina and fried onions
Cakes and baking
Fánky: Slovak carnival pastries with sour cream and rum
Baked goods
Bryndzové pagáčiky: Slovak cheese and crackling biscuits
Baked goods
Walnut-filled yeast crescent rolls
Baked goods
Oškvarkové pagáče: Slovak pork crackling biscuits
Which holidays the dishes belong to
Christmas Eve. Kapustnica, a soup made from sauerkraut, is on the Christmas Eve table in many Slovak families. It differs by region and family – some cook it with mushrooms and smoked sausage, others with sour cream or prunes. There is also fish with potato salad and bobáľky with poppy seeds, which some regions call opekance or pupáky. More recipes are in the collection Christmas Eve dinner recipes.
St. Martin’s Day. On St. Martin’s Day, 11 November, Slovaks roast goose. St. Martin’s goose is served with braised cabbage and lokše – thin potato flatbreads baked on a dry griddle.
Carnival. The time from Epiphany to Ash Wednesday is a season of parties and sweet fried pastries. Fánky made from egg yolk dough are fried until golden and dusted with powdered sugar.
Christmas and Easter. Makovník and orechovník – yeast dough rolls with poppy seed and walnut filling – are baked mainly for the holidays.
From cabbage, potatoes and flour
Besides kapustnica, sauerkraut is used for Szegedin goulash with pork and sour cream and for strapačky – potato dumplings mixed with braised sauerkraut and bacon.
Fučka and chamuľa are thick potato mashes – fučka is thickened with flour, chamuľa with semolina – and both are served with fried onions. A glass of soured milk goes well with them.
Oškvarky are the crisp pork cracklings left over from rendering lard. Ground, they are worked into a yeast dough that is folded and rolled several times, which is why crackling biscuits are layered. With bryndza you can bake bryndza biscuits with cracklings.
Bryndza. Slovak bryndza, a soft sheep’s milk cheese, is protected in the European Union as a geographical indication. It is also used to fill pirohy made from unleavened dough; sweet pirohy with quark or plum butter are served with butter, toasted breadcrumbs and sugar.
Vyskoč z vody (“jump out of the water”) is a buttery yeast dough that does not rise in a warm place under a towel but submerged in a bowl of water. When it is ready, it floats to the surface by itself.
Sweet main dishes
Sweet main dishes are also cooked in Slovakia: steamed buns with plum butter and poppy seeds, noodles with poppy seeds, potato šúľance, small baked buns with vanilla sauce or semolina porridge with cocoa.
Recipes named after a region
Some recipes carry the name of a region or town: Orava cabbage soup, Záhorie cabbage pastries, Sabinov buns, chamuľa from Detva and poppy seed and walnut rolls from Rača. Is a traditional dish from your family missing here? Write to us.