Slovenian Food Trends compared to Latvian

July 24, 2015

Similar like the landscape, Slovenian food is also quite diverse. Some of the Slovenian foods are more international and they don’t come as a surprise, but some are special and have specific names.

Many elements have made an impact on Slovenian cooking. Slovenia borders on four other countries and has an extremely dynamic landscape. It has a stretch of the Pannonian Basin in the north-east; the hilly greenery of the Dolenjska region in the east; the picturesque Alps, the Ljubljana Marshes, as well as the wine producing hills of Stajerska in the north-west; whereas in the south (-west), you can visit the Kras and the Adriatic coastline. Each region has their special dishes.

The most popular and widespread dishes in Slovenian cuisine are soups, meat and potatoes. Slovenes love soups, mainly beef or chicken. For vegetarians and people who are not fans of meat soups, there are also other kinds of soup. One soup that is influenced by the Hungarian cuisine is turnip peel soup. The taste of soup highly depends on the ripeness of turnips. Smaller turnips have sweeter favor, but bigger ones have bitter taste. Additions to the soup are potatoes, onions, unsalted butter and some spices (ground white pepper, clove garlic, salt). The most common meats are pork (svinjina) and poultry (perutnina) but also beef (govedina), whereas potatoes are the most common side dish and are eaten roasted, mashed, baked, boiled, fried etc. The majority of dishes is normally not spicy and includes at least some vegetables. The main dish is usually eaten with a salad spiced with pumpkin or olive oil of Slovenian production.

Bled cream cake. Source:

Secrets of the Cuisine in Slovenia

Mushrooms are not as popular as in Latvia, which is a shame as Slovenia has even more forests. Slovene cuisine does offer a variety of dishes with mushrooms, such as mushroom soup, parasol mushrooms, mushroom risotto, but mushrooms are not such a staple as in Latvia. Latvians tend to pick mushrooms themselves and make numerous dishes. From my childhood, I remember going to the woods to pick mushrooms as often as possible and then enjoying them boiled with sour cream. There were always many people in the woods and the best places for picking mushrooms were a secret as everyone wanted to get more for themselves. For many Latvians the most popular mushroom dish is potatoes with mushrooms and some home-made sauce. There are hundreds of other recipes that can and are made like mushroom chops (sēņu karbonādes), laminated salad with mushrooms (kārtainie salāti ar sēnēm), mushroom meatballs (sēņu kotletītes), spicy mushroom scones (pikantie sēņu plācenīši), pasta with mushrooms (makaroni ar sēnēm), borsh with mushrooms (borščs ar sēnēm), mushroom pudding (baraviku pudiņš). In Latvia the majority of the middle class cannot afford to eat in restaurants and the dishes with mushrooms are generally quite expensive. However, even champignons that are less expensive are mainly prepared at home instead of being eaten in some eating place.

In the windy Kras region, a highly popular dish kraški pršut (prosciutto) is produced. The tradition of pršut production goes centuries back and thus salting and drying of the pork in the Kras wind have been perfected. The Kras pršut has a full taste and goes well with a glass of dry red wine Teran. Only a few hours’ drive from Kras, the region around Idrija serves another special and tasty dish -Idrijski žlikrofi. Žlikrofi are made from dough and filled with potatoes, and are served together with sauces such as meat sauce.