FREE TRADITIONAL BULGARIAN COOKING PDF Silvia Vangelova Zheleva | 78 pages | 22 Dec 2015 | Createspace Independent Publishing Platform | 9781519718792 | English | United States Bulgarian Food: 18 Traditional & Tasty Dishes • A Little Nomad BulgariaWhere to Eat. If Bulgaria has a national dish, it is certainly shopska salad, the queen of all Bulgarian food. This Bulgarian dish is simple and best eaten in the height of summer, when tomatoes are at their very best. It is somewhat similar to a Greek salad but the ingredients and preparation are slightly different. A true shopska salad is made of roughly chopped fresh summer tomatoes and cucumbers, plus sweet green peppers and red or green onions with a truckload of finely grated sirene cheese a local Bulgarian feta and some parsley on top. This coats each bite of salad with delicious, salty cheese — just how it should be. Fun fact: the salad is the same colors of the Bulgarian flag! Funner fact: It is often served with a shot of rakia at the beginning of a meal, which is how I think all future salads should be consumed, tbh. Banitsa is a traditional breakfast pastry or anytime snack. It is similar to borek which is found in other Balkan countries but the filling is a little different and so is the shape of Traditional Bulgarian Cooking pastry. Made of a phyllo dough brushed with butter, inside it houses a blend of Bulgarian dairy deliciousness. Local Traditional Bulgarian Cooking, sirene cheese, and eggs are all mixed together and baked in their phyllo house, rolled into a snail-like coil which is then served in slices. Sometimes you will find variations including spinach or pumpkin, but the cheese and yogurt banitsa is the classic. Virtually all banitsa is vegetarian-friendly. One of my all-time favorite Bulgarian dishes, tarator is a cold yogurt soup best Traditional Bulgarian Cooking in the sweltering summer months. If you have a dill aversion, look the other away as dill is Traditional Bulgarian Cooking key ingredient in this delicious soup. This is friendly for vegetarians. Bean soup is one Traditional Bulgarian Cooking the most beloved Bulgarian dishes you can eat in a Bulgarian mountain hut, and I will forever associate the joy of finishing a tough hike with eating a slightly underseasoned bowl of bob chorba in an unpretentious mountain Traditional Bulgarian Cooking. Bob chorba is simple, utilitarian food, made of nothing more than dried white beans, onions, tomatoes, savory herbs, and carrots. Occasionally it will include meat Traditional Bulgarian Cooking generally it is a vegetarian dish though it may use meat-based stock, so strict vegetarians should inquire. If no broth is used, it is likely vegan. This tripe soup is considered a hangover cure by many Bulgarians the rakia or cold beer that is recommended to go alongside it may also have something to do with that. While in general Bulgarian food is not very spicy, shkembe Traditional Bulgarian Cooking is a rare exception, usually streaked with plenty of Traditional Bulgarian Cooking chili flakes. Many people add even more vinegar to taste. Some versions Traditional Bulgarian Cooking include tomato and onion, but this is not essential. Now back to a Bulgarian food I love — lutenitsa! Lutenitsa is made of roasted Traditional Bulgarian Cooking peppers usually picked in their summer primetomatoes, and carrots, sometimes adding eggplant as well though this is not mandatory. It is enjoyed basically anywhere and everywhere. Ah yes, I mentioned it above and you may have wondered what it is! Put simply, kashkaval is one of the two Traditional Bulgarian Cooking beloved Bulgarian cheeses check out the section on sirene below. Kashkaval is a mild white cheese sort of similar to swiss or edam in terms of taste, like a much milder cheddar. The other essential Bulgarian cheese, you will Traditional Bulgarian Cooking this in banitsa, grated on top of a shopska salad, or sometimes just served plain in a giant slice at an IKEA waiting for some weirdo like my boyfriend to order it to go alongside his Swedish meatballs…. Sirene can be made of sheep, cow, or goat cheese. It is rather similar to Greek feta, only that it is only allowed to be Traditional Bulgarian Cooking with a Traditional Bulgarian Cooking Bulgarian bacteria the good kind, I promise in Bulgaria. This is the most essential Bulgarian cured meat, quite similar to salami. It is rather dry compared to Italian Traditional Bulgarian Cooking but no less tasty. It is often compressed quite a bit into a semi-rectangular, almost cylindrical shape, which makes it look a bit odd in stores but makes it taste no less delicious! It is served plain as a snack, sliced on the diagonal, or as part of a larger Bulgarian platter with fresh cheeses and dips like lutenitsa. Occasionally, the skin of a lukanka will be white — this is part of the curing process and it is perfectly safe to eat. I can tell you that it is basically no different than most others except that Turkish kebab and Bosnian cevapcici will likely not contain pork due to religious reasons, whereas a Bulgarian kebapche is almost certain to include pork or at least a blend of pork and Traditional Bulgarian Cooking. It is spiced, but rather simply, with salt, pepper, cumin, and maybe some garlic if the chef is feeling particularly whimsical. Basically kebapche … but flat. These minced meat patties are made of the same meat blends as kebapchewith a little extra onion or garlic thrown in. They are then flattened like a hamburger and grilled. Note that the picture above is of Turkish kufte — shock, horror! This will typically include kebapchekuftea pork steak, and a skewer of pork meat similar to a souvlakiand sometimes if the chef is feeling particularly healthy a thinly pounded chicken breast will also be in the mix. However, Dr. Atkins would approve. Jokes aside, moussaka is widely loved on both sides of the Bulgaria-Greece border, but there are a few small but key differences. Stuffed grape leaves are another dish Traditional Bulgarian Cooking people often confuse with Turkish or Greek cuisines… mainly because they are in both. Bulgarian sarmi are stuffed with rice, onion, and spices, so they are generally vegetarian-friendly. They are extra good with a drizzle of yogurt on top! Generally, these are not vegetarian and are stuffed with a minced meat like pork as well as rice, then poached gently in a tomato sauce. Have you figured out yet that Bulgarians love stuffing things? However, a vegetarian version featuring cheese and whisked eggs also exists aka a low-carb banitsa — I kid, I kid. Have you ever wanted just a plate of meat and vegetables… but you also wanted it to feed a family of four and also be on fire? Bulgarian food is not always the most vegetarian-friendly but there is one dish that is sure to make any vegetarian happy and vegan cry — yea, sorry vegans, Bulgaria is a tough place for you! Generally, they are served with jam, but Nutella is slowly taking over. On top, extra sweet goodness is added, such as powdered sugar or chopped nuts. Originally from California, Allison has been living in Bulgaria for the last two years and is obsessed with traveling around the Balkans. She loves befriending dogs, drinking coffee, geeking out about wine, and cooking food from around the world. My mouth is watering all over again after returning from Bulgaria. Thanks for presenting Shopska salad. I have dreams about this until I found it on your web site. Now to find Sirene cheese! Very good article! Many details and choices From vegetarian to meat lovers Dishes Article is written with care and love Of the ethnic food Thank you Keep up the good work Now where can none find the Sirina cheese? In Bulgaria — literally everywhere! Your email address will not be published. This post may contain affiliate links. This means that if you click a link, we may make a small commission off any subsequent purchase, at no extra cost to you. For more information, please check our privacy policy. Allison Green. Related posts. Tori on December 5, at am. Very colorful review. Great photos. Thanks for sharing. I definitely want Traditional Bulgarian Cooking try Bulgarian food. Jerry Baumgarten on March 23, at pm. Thanks ever so much! Stephanie Craig on April 4, at am. Good luck! Gita St John on April 27, at Traditional Bulgarian Cooking. Allison Green on May 11, at am. Submit a Comment Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Welcome to Sofia Adventures! We're Stephanie and Allison, two American travel bloggers who moved to Bulgaria. We use Sofia as our base to discover our favorite region in the world - the Balkans! Search for:. Bulgarian cuisine - Wikipedia Bulgarian food is tasty, fresh and hearty. Bulgaria is famous for its quality vegetables and dairy products and its variety of mild spices. Pork and chicken are the most common forms of meat, though seafood, fish and veal dishes are also popular and lamb has a special traditional place in Bulgarian cooking. This piece of greasy pastry deliciousness can be purchased in bakeries all over the country. For your sweet tooth, you can also try banitsa with apples and walnuts. Banitsa Traditional Bulgarian Cooking any of its forms is an inseparable part of a traditional Bulgarian breakfast. Combine it with the thick fermented wheat drink boza for a quintessential Bulgarian experience. On those dates, banitsa is filled Traditional Bulgarian Cooking lucky paper charms which are sometimes easy to chew Traditional Bulgarian Cooking. Though Bulgarians may argue about that, whether the beer is a Kamenitza or a Zagorka makes no big difference.