Bulgarian Sarmi with Minced Meat and Sauerkraut

Bulgarian Sarmi are the small cabbage or vine leaves stuffed with delicious mixture of mince, rice and spices (for meat lovers) or just with rice and spices, for vegetarians. During summer when there are a lot of fresh vine leaves (Bulgaria is a famous wine producing country), the stuffed vine leaves are prepared widely. Here are the recipes for the meat-including and vegetarian version. If you visit Bulgaria in summer, I highly recommend you to try them. Every winter there are a lot of sauerkraut heads sold on every farmer’s market and this is the time for the sauerkraut sarmi (Sarmi s kisselo zele), which meat versions are with chopped meat (recipe here) or minced meat (today's recipe).

This dish is very traditional for the Christmas eve and for the New Year’s menu. 

Happy New Year!

Cremini Mushroom Soup for the Winter Solstice

One of my favorite days every year is the day of the winter solstice - the shortest day of the year, after which I know, the day starts growing and the mornings and evenings will not be so dark. 

The soup in my today's menu is easy to prepare and very, very tasty. Do you know what makes it special? The mixture of cremini and wild mushrooms and, of course, the cognac, which adds its specific aroma. This is the source of the recipe.

Marinated Raw Red Beet Salad with Shredded Greens

The red beets included in this salad are nearly raw - they are not boiled or roasted as most of the recipes call for. They peeled and cut into chunks beets are just added to a hot marinade for some hours. Hot marinated beetroot is crisp, but not as hard as the raw one and it is packed full of flavor due to absorbing the taste of the marinade. All the important nutrients are preserved that way. Vinegar prevents the nice red color from leaking out and balances well with the clear sweetness of the honey.

So you get a salad which is healthy, beautiful and full of taste.

If you wanna try a delicious salad with raw red beet without marinade, I highly recommend you this one.