Belarusian Recipes

Belarusian cooking is built on the potato, which appears at nearly every meal, alongside pork, rye bread, sour cream, mushrooms and berries gathered in the forests and wetlands. The climate is cool, so dishes are filling and made to last through winter: soured cabbage, salted and smoked pork, grated potato pancakes, dumplings and thick soups. Polish, Lithuanian, Russian and Jewish traditions all left their mark, and many dishes are shared with neighbors but cooked here with a heavy hand of potato and sour cream. Draniki, the potato pancakes, come with machanka, a pork and sour cream gravy, while cold beet soup keeps summer tables fresh. Mushrooms are dried, pickled and fried, and cranberries go into jellies, drinks and sauces. Families eat a large midday meal of soup, a main course and bread, and holidays bring baked pork, dumplings, honey cakes and krambambulya, a spiced honey spirit served warm.

Staple ingredients

• potatoes
• pork
• rye bread
• sour cream
• forest mushrooms
• beets
• cabbage
• cranberries

• Soups 2
• Main Dishes 6
• Desserts 1
• Drinks 1

Soups

• Kholodnik (Belarusian Cold Beet Soup)BY1 h 20 minEasy
• Hrybny Sup (Belarusian Mushroom and Barley Soup)BY1 h 20 minEasy

Main Dishes

• Draniki (Belarusian Potato Pancakes)BY50 minEasy
• Bulbyanaya Babka (Belarusian Baked Potato Pudding)BY1 h 40 minEasy
• Kalduny (Belarusian Meat-Filled Potato Dumplings)BY1 h 50 minChallenging
• Machanka (Belarusian Pork in Sour Cream Gravy)BY2 hEasy
• Verashchaka (Belarusian Pork Ribs in Spiced Gravy)BY2 h 15 minMedium
• Zrazy (Belarusian Stuffed Meat Patties with Mushrooms)BY1 h 25 minMedium

Desserts

• Zhuravinavy Kisel (Belarusian Cranberry Jelly Drink)BY35 minEasy

Drinks

• Zbiten (Belarusian Hot Honey and Spice Drink)BY35 minEasy