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Polish recipes served up with tidbits of folklore, customs, and history

Vegan

Gulasz Wegetariański (Polish Vegetarian/Vegan Goulash)

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We recently hosted a friend who has become vegetarian for health reasons. She offered to make exceptions for the evening, but I wanted to add some meatless options to my repertoire. Ed suggested that I make potato pancakes, so I did a Gulasz Wegetariański (Polish Vegetarian/Vegan Goulash) — my favorite topping for placki ziemniaczane.

Gulasz Wegetariański (Polish Vegetarian/Vegan Goulash)

with fried potato dumplings

Adding a host of veggies to the familiar paprika and tomato sauce makes a satisfying entree. Try serving it over potato pancakes, buckwheat kasza, mashed potatoes, potato dumpligs, or pasta.

The very best gulasz comes from sauteing the veggie over a very high heat until they begin to brown. I usually saute the ingredients sepearatley. It will look like things are burnig on the bottom of your pan, but the black stuff will come off with a little scraping when you add liquid. It will dissolve and become part of your broth providing rich color and flavor. . . I say the burnt stuff comes off the bottom of the pan, most of it comes off might be more accurate. My dear husband, who is usually the one washing dishes, has complained about my propensisity for high heat in cooking. You could skip this and just toss the raw veggies into the liquid, just know your broth will suffer for it. It will be just a little less wonderful, but I don’t want to scare you off.

Gulasz Wegetariański (Polish Vegetarian/Vegan Goulash) is a tasty way to get more produce into your diet.

Smacznego!

Lois

 

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Gulasz Wegetariański (Polish Vegetarian/Vegan Goulash)

  • Author: polishhousewife
  • Prep Time: 15 min
  • Cook Time: 40 min
  • Total Time: 55 minutes
  • Yield: 4 - 6 servings
  • Cuisine: Polish
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Description

A colorful and tasty vegetable based goulash!

Ingredients

vegetable oil, as needed

6 carrots, peeled and sliced diagonally, no more than 1/4 inch thick

1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into wedges 3 inches x 1/4 inch

4 onions, sliced

2 bell peppers, any color, sliced

1/4 cup tomato paste

1/2 cup red wine

2 – 4 cups vegetable broth, enough to cover the veggies

2 tablespoons paprika

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

5 juniper berries and/or 5 allspice berries

2 tablespoons Wondra flour

Instructions

In a Duth oven, saute carrots, sweet potato, onions, and bell pepper in a little oil until they begin to brown

Add tomato paste, red wine, vegetable broth, paprika, garlic, thyme, salt, pepper, juniper and/or allspice berries

Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered for 20 – 30 minutes, until the vegetables are tender

Sprinkle in Wondra flour to thicken the broth

Notes

In stead of Wondra flour, you might use a little corn starch mixed into a small amount of water

 

 

 

Wegetariański Smalec – Vegetarian/Vegan Smalec

by 6 Comments

Smalec, referred to a poor man’s butter, is often presented at the beginning of a meal in Poland, something gratis, like chips and salsa or a basket of warm bread. Smalec also goes well with beer or vodka, making it perfect to share with friends late at night when the discussions are getting serious and philosophical. Now you can share Wegetariański Smalec – Vegetarian/Vegan Smalec to be sure all of your friends can join the fun.

Wegetariański Smalec - Vegetarian/Vegan Smalec

Traditional smalec is made with rendered pork fat and something we enjoy a lot, but when I made this meatless version recently even my carnivore husband thought it was fantastic. I’d planned to talk about how I saw a bigger need for meatless recipes in the US compared to Poland. I know all surveys have a margin of error and when the sample size is as small as the people I know, the results can be misleading. Of the dozen people who might gather around our table at Christmas, 4 out of 12 wouldn’t eat traditional smalec. I know Poles give a lot of thought to the health consequences of their food, but 25% of the people I know in Poland wouldn’t be considered vegan, vegetarian, pescitarian. Imagine my surprise to find a report that listed the percentage of the US population that is vegetarian or vegan as 13% and in Poland it was 15%! Wherever you fall on the chart, I think you’ll enjoy this recipe.

I have just a couple of tips for you:

  • Be sure to use refined coconut oil, otherwise the predominant flavor will be coconut
  • Be sure to saute the diced onion in just a little bit of oil. If you put all of the oil in while you’re cooking the onions, they’ll boil rather than brown, and you really want that caramelized onion color. I thought I would cut corners, so I’m speaking from experience here.
  • The melting point of refined coconut oil is 77 – 79 F, so you’ll want to serve this a room temperature. It’s very SOLID straight out of the fridge.

Serve your Wegetariański Smalec – Vegetarian/Vegan Smalec with a wonderful bread and small dill pickles.

Smacznego!

Lois

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1 cup refined coconut oil, divided 2 small onions, finely diced 2 cloves garlic, finely minced 1 large Granny Smith apple, shredded 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 1/4 teaspoon marjoram

Wegetariański Smalec – Vegetarian/Vegan Smalec

  • Author: Polish Housewife
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Description

Refined coconut oil replaces pork fat in the popular Polish spread

Ingredients

1 cup refined coconut oil, divided

2 small onions, finely diced

2 cloves garlic, finely minced (optional)

1 large Granny Smith apple, shredded

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon marjoram

Instructions

Add 2 tablespoons coconut oil and onions to a frying pan and cook over medium high heat until onions are golden brown

Add garlic and cook for just another minute of so (optional)

Add the remaining coconut oil, apple, salt, pepper, and marjoram

Stir until oil and melted and ingredients are combined

Pour into a jar or ramekins

Keep refrigerated, but bring to room temp before serving

Candied Grapefruit Peel Recipe

by 3 Comments

From January to March, Tucsonans are harvesting fruit from their citrus trees. Mature trees yield much more than a family can consume, so it’s common to have friends dropping off as many bags of oranges, lemons, and grapefruit as you’re willing to take. In the past I’ve used this bounty to make marmalade, but this year I tried something different, so here is my candied citrus peel recipe.

Candied grapefruit peel recipe

This only requires the peel, so you have the segments for another use. It takes nose to tail cooking to the orchard! I decided to juice grapefruit segments. I was working with six grapefruit. I don’t have an electric citrus juicer, so I put the segments in the food processor, blitzed them until smooth and then strained the slurry to end up with wonderful pink grapefruit juice.

IMG_2658

You could use this process with other citrus peel, and lest you think you would have to spend months nibbling away at candied citrus peel, I plan to substitute diced candied grapefruit peel for candied ginger in this amazing scone recipe, or maybe candied ginger and candied grapefruit peel together in an amazing scone?

IMG_2665

This and other candied peels could also make an amazing fruitcake. Or add some pizzazz to a pound cake or muffins. You also might try dipping the candied grapefruit peel in tempered chocolate.

Smacznego!

Lois

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Candied grapefruit peel recipe

Candied Grapfruit Peel Recipe

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Description

Use all of your citrus by candying the peel!

Ingredients

  • 2 large red or pink grapefruits
  • 1 cup sugar, plus more for tossing

Instructions

  1. Cut the peel on the grapefruit into quarters by scoring it (picture a globe) from pole to pole and back to the first pole, make a second circular cut 90 degrees from the first, giving you four equal segments
  2. Peel and slice the peel lengthwise (and white pith) into 3/8 inch slices
  3. If you don’t want to use the pith (it provides a bitter sweet that is so characteristic of grapefruit), you could just just a vegetable peeler to take of the zest without the pith
  4. Place in a small pan (large if you’re making multiplying the recipe), cover with cold water
  5. Bring to a boil, and drain
  6. Repeat this process twice to remove some of the bitterness; it seems to also insure that all of the slices of peel are cooking equally, the ones floating on the top will be on the bottom of the next batch
  7. Add 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of water to the peel, bring to a boil, simmer and cook until the peel is translucent, about 15–20 minutes
  8. Drain; move the peel to a wire rack and let dry for 2–4 hours
  9. Toss in more sugar
  10. If your candied peel still seems too wet at this point, place back on the wire racks and put it in the oven on the lowest possible setting. In my case that is 170 F. Prop the oven door open just a smudge with a wooden spoon until you get the desired texture.

Candied grapefruit peel recipe

Polish Cabbage Salad Sałatka z Kapusty

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With my reference point being the Sonoran desert, I’ll say that so much of Poland is farmland. Any drive outside of the city will have you passing cultivated earth. Beautiful yellow fields of flowering rape weed, beets, carrots, and the largest cabbage I have ever seen, seriously, cabbage the size of basketballs. Cabbage is the number one vegetable crop in Poland. It’s so popular; it plays a role in most traditional Polish dishes, and even in some that aren’t so traditional. Think of gołąbki (stuffed cabbage leaves), bigos (a hearty hunter’s stew), cabbage based pierogi fillings, kapusta kwaszona (sauerkraut), cabbage on a hot dog, cabbage on a kabab, even a simple Polish cabbage salad like this one. It’s the sort of thing you’ll find in any buffet line, or served along side your main dish. It reminds me of coleslaw, but it’s lighter, more salubrious.

Polish Cabbage Salad

In this case, the shredded cabbage is lightly cooked (chemically) in lemon juice and salt, just enough to wilt it a bit. The addition of shredded apple and a smidge of powdered sugar, along with the lemon juice, add to the sweet and sour combination that I associate with coleslaw. I made this according to the recipe, but if I’d had a carrot, I would have shredded that too to add a bit of color. The recipe comes from Treasured Polish Recipes for Americans, published by Polanie Club In Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was first published in 1948. The used copy I have is from the 15th printing in 1973. I saw something online about a 25th printing, so it’s been a very popular cookbook for decades!

This Polish Cabbage Salad is just what I remember from our time in Poznan. I’ve tried to recreate it on my own, but it was never quite right, the texture, the subtle favors that complement the cabbage. I’m thrilled to be adding this recipe to my collection.

As for the actual preparation, I used the slicing blade on my food processor, but it left the cabbage in bigger pieces that I wanted, so I popped it back in the processor with the steel blade and blitzed it for just a second or two to get finer pieces. I had planned to use a Granny Smith apple, but forgot to buy one. 🙁 The Gala apple I had on hand, worked very well. I didn’t have any dill seed in the spice rack, but I did have an envelope full of dill flowers that had gone to seed in a cupboard waiting to be planted. So I picked out the fine little stems and managed to get the required 1/2 teaspoon.

Give this a try, I think you’ll find a lot of menus that would benefit from a serving of this light and crisp Polish Cabbage Salad.

Smacznego!

Lois

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Polish Cabbage Salad

Polish Cabbage Salad Sałatka z Kapusty

  • Category: Salad
  • Cuisine: Polish
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Description

A light and crisp salad of shredded cabbage and apple, dressed in lemon juice and oil

Ingredients

  • 1 small head cabbage, finely shredded
  • juice of one lemon
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 apple, grated
  • 1/2 teaspoon dill seed
  • Dash of garlic powder
  • 1 tablespoon powdered sugar (granulated will work too)
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 small carrot, grated (optional)

Instructions

  1. Mix the cabbage with the lemon juice and salt.
  2. Let stand for 4 hours or refrigerate overnight
  3. Add the apple, dill seed, garlic powder, sugar, oil, and carrot (optional)
  4. Toss lightly

Polish cabbage salad


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Date Bars, Matrimonial Cake

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Date Bars seem like an old fashioned treat, simple, wholesome, sneaking a bit of fruit into the mix, as moms love to do. Date Bars, Matrimonial Cake in Canada, are something I’ve only recently made, but I’m sure the new tradition will continue.

Simple, wholesome date Bars, Matrimonial cake in Canada

We celebrate staff birthdays monthly, and my friend and colleague, Sue, is our only December birthday. We’ve shared enough meals together that I know she’s not terribly big on sweets, preferring savory treats like olives in puff pastry. As I was trying to decide what to bake last December, I got in touch with Sue’s sister, and she recommended Date Bars.

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The recommendaton was spot on! Sue appreciated the effort and the research. We all enjoyed the snack. Another colleague said about the date bars this year, “I love that the crust tastes buttery.” Sue, with long standing family ties to Canada, told us that our American Date Bars are often called Matrimonial Cake in Canada. The blog Little Gray Bird offers some reasons for the name.

It appears to be a western Canadian thing to refer to date squares as matrimonial cake.  Some feel it is called matrimonial cake because of the two separate layers brought together by dates which symbolizes two people courting and solidifying the relationship in marriage.  Others feel that the smooth and rough textures of the date squares represent the easy and difficult times of a marriage.  Some believe that it was individually wrapped, handed out at weddings, and then single gals would place it under their pillow and dream about their future husband.

date bars on a slab of slate

 

For the last two Decembers, I’ve made two pans of date bars, matrimonial cake, one for work, one for my cookie tray at home on Christmas morning. I can tell you that they freeze well and can easily be made vegan, substituting something like Earth Balance for the butter.

Whether you decide to make them with butter or a vegan version, I hope you and your friends will enjoy.

Smacznego!

Lois

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Simple, wholesome date Bars, Matrimonial cake in Canada

Date Bars, Matrimonial Cake

  • Prep Time: 30 mins
  • Cook Time: 30 mins
  • Total Time: 1 hour
  • Yield: 36
  • Category: Dessert
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Description

A wholesome, fruit filled dessert in about an hour!

Ingredients

  • 3 cups chopped pitted dates (1 lb)
  • 1 1/2cups water
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1cup butter, softened (or Earth Balance for vegan version)
  • 1 3/4 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 400
  2. Combine dates, water, and 1/4 cup sugar over low heat until thickened, stirring constantly, about 10 minutes
  3. Cool 5 minutes
  4. Grease the bottom and sides of 13×9-inch pan
  5. Cream the brown sugar and butter until well mixed
  6. Stir in flour, oats, baking soda and salt until crumbly
  7. Press half of the crumb mixture evenly in bottom of pan
  8. Spread the date mixture over the bottom crust
  9. Top with remaining crumb mixture; press lightly
  10. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until light brown
  11. Cool 5 minutes in pan
  12. Cut into 6 rows by 6 rows while warm

Notes

Recipe can be halved and made in a 8×8-inch square pan.

 

Broccoli ~ Raisin ~ Nut Salad

by 6 Comments

My friend, Chris,  brought this salad to work one day.  It must have been a potluck occasion.  She was kind enough to share the recipe.   I served it tonight and had multiple requests for the recipe – always a good sign. In fact, I’ve never served this to guests or at a potluck party without at least one person asking for the recipe. It’s that reliable!

You’ll often see this salad in the deli case at your supermarket. It takes just a few minutes to put together, so you might as well save some money making your own.

The broccoli isn’t cooked, per se, but the vinegar in the dressing does soften it a bit, so it’s just right –  crunchier than cooked but a little softer than raw. This also makes it important that you do allow the salad to sit for at least four hours.

I can also make this vegan by using a vegan mayonnaise, such as Veganaise. It’s an easy adaptation, making it perfect for everyone.

My favorite version of this uses dried cranberries (I find myself using cranberries rather than raisins in almost everything) and peanuts. The light, tart dressing reminds me of so many side salads I tried in Poland, although those usually involved thinly shredded white cabbage, although, I wouldn’t call them coleslaw. It’s a recipe I’m still trying to master.

A wonderful salad for warm weather, it’s cool, it’s crunchy, it’s creamy, it’s sweet-and-sour — love it! 🙂

 

 

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Broccoli ~ Raisin ~ Nut Salad

  • Author: Polish Housewife
  • Category: Salad
  • Cuisine: American
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Description

A lightly crunchy salad with a sweet and sour dressing

Ingredients

  • 1 head broccoli, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
  • 3/4 c. raisins or dried cranberries
  • 3/4 c. dry-roasted peanuts or pecans (I used peanuts)
  • 1/4 c. finely chopped onion

Dressing

  • 1 c. mayo
  • 1/4 sugar
  • 2 T. vinegar (I used rice vinegar)

Instructions

  1. Coarsely chop nuts
  2. Combine first four ingredients
  3. Whisk together remaining ingredients for the dressing
  4. Pour over the salad
  5. Stir until everything is lightly coated in dressing
  6. Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight

 

Vegan Cupcakes

by 4 Comments

Is it a cupcake or a muffin? I’ve been asked this several times by Polish friends. What differentiates between the two? Does it have to do with the texture, add-ins like fruit and nuts, or the topping? It’s a tough question to answer, but for me, frosting always makes it a cupcake. What’s the deciding factor for you? I whipped up these vegan cupcakes, made with sweet potato, for our daughter, Lisa. She liked them a lot, but she LOVED the cashew cream cheese frosting. She thought it was so cream cheesy! I know there are other things you can do with cashews along this line. Vegan cashew cheese seems to be turning up in both sweet and savory recipes.

Vegan sweet potato cupcakes with cashew cheese frosting

I found this on Pinterst, which I find to be  a great source of inspiration. I’ve come across several recipes I want to try from Alissa at Connoisseurus Veg. Her pumpkin muffins were the first one to get a test run. A few substitutions to use what I had on had, and now we have sweet potato cupcakes.

Because it uses so much sweet potato purée, the cake is very dense and moist. You may have used applesauce in place of oil before, but in this case, the sweet potato purée is replacing the eggs, as well as providing the main flavor.

The frosting made about three times as much as we needed for the “cupcakes,” so if you’re baking for a crowd, go ahead and triple the cupcake batter portion of the recipe. I’d love to be able to tell you that these are so moist that they’ll keep for days, or that they freeze well. The truth is, we may never know, they disappear too quickly. If you find out, let us know!

Vegan cupcakes

PS – The Penzy’s Baking Spice is similar to pumpkin pie spice that you can find from other brands, or just mix your own to achieve a similar volume. My recommendation would be, in descending amounts, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and clove (very light on the clove).

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Vegan Sweet Potato Cupcakes with Cashew Cream Cheese Frosting

  • Cook Time: 20 mins
  • Total Time: 20 mins
  • Yield: 12
  • Category: Vegan
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Description

A moist vegan cake with an amazing cashew cream cheese frosting

Ingredients

  • 1 cup raw cashews
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3 teaspoons Penzy’s Baking Spice
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup sweet potato purée (you can bake and purée your own, I had a can from Sprout’s)
  • 1/2 almond milk
  • 1/4 cup oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • Almond milk, approximately, 1/4 cup

Instructions

  1. Soak the cashews in water for 6 hours or overnight, drain
  2. Preheat oven to 350
  3. Spray or line 12 muffin cups
  4. Add the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt to a bowl, whisk together until uniformly combined
  5. In another bowl, combine the sweet potato, milk, oil, and vanilla
  6. Combine the wet and dry ingredients, stirring just until incorporated
  7. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups
  8. Bake for 18 – 20 minutes or until the tops spring back when lightly touched (if you’re not using paper liners, you should see the cake just begin to pull away from the pan)
  9. Cool before frosting
  10. In a blender or a food processor, process the cashews with the vanilla and lemon juice, scraping down the sides
  11. Blend in the powdered sugar and enough almond milk to achieve desired consistency

 

Ratatouille – French Veg

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Ratatouille

Ratatouille is a traditional French stewed vegetable dish from Provence. We were served ratatouille many times during our trip though France even though we were not in Provence. Similar to Spanish pisto manchego or Italian ciambotta. Ratatouille gets its color from tomatoes and its vivid flavor from the mix of summer vegetables. Its bright taste makes ratatouille the perfect accompaniment for any protein.

Ratatouille Serving Suggestions

If you want to keep the dish vegan, you might sprinkle the ratatouille with nutritional yeast. Serve this along side white beans.

If you’re looking for a vegetarian or Meatless Monday meal, try topping it with a little freshly grated Parmesan cheese and a poached egg.

I made a very small batch, just  to try this out, but it’s a recipe that you could double or triple or. . . you get the idea. If you’re harvesting vegetables or they’re in season and priced right, make a big batch. Ratatouille tastes even better the next day. It will keep in the fridge for four or five days. For longer life, freeze it in small containers.

There is much debate among the experts on the proper way to prepare ratatouille. Should everything be cooked separately or all together? Should it be  finished in the oven or on top of the stove? This is what I did and I can’t tell it apart for what sampled in France.

I hope you’ll bring this taste of the French countryside to your dinner table. Bon appetit!

 

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Ratatouille

  • Prep Time: 15 mins
  • Cook Time: 1 hour
  • Total Time: 1 hour 15 mins
  • Yield: 4 - 6
  • Category: Vegetable
  • Cuisine: French
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Description

A bright, colorful side dish from the French countryside

Ingredients

  • 1 eggplant
  • 1/2 onion, diced
  • olive oil
  • 1/2 red bell pepper
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 dried tomatoes, diced
  • 1 zucchini, diced (peel on)
  • 1/4 cup tomato paste
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 tablespoon each fresh thyme and parsley
  • salt, pepper, cayenne

Instructions

  1. Dice the eggplant (I left the peel on) into 1/2 inch (1 cm) chunks
  2. Place in a colander and sprinkle with salt
  3. In a large frying pan, saute the onion in 2 tablespoons of olive oil until translucent
  4. Add the red bell pepper and cook until the union begins to brown, add a little more oil at any point as needed
  5. Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes
  6. Add the tomatoes
  7. Press down on the eggplant to remove any water and add to the dish, along with the zucchini, continue stirring and cook for 5 more minutes
  8. Stir in the tomato paste and water, season with salt, pepper, and a dash of cayenne
  9. You want the texture to be like a thick stew or gravy. If it seems to watery, skip the lid in the next step
  10. Cover and simmer for 40 minutes to 1 hour, until all the vegetables are tender

Notes

I used dried tomatoes because that’s what I had on hand. You certainly could substitute a fresh tomato, diced. In which case, I would probably reduce the amount of water added to 1/2 cup.

If you don’t have fresh herbs, you can substitute 1 teaspoon of dried herbs.

Ratatouille

Zucchini Pesto Salad

by 4 Comments

zucchini pesto salad

For this recipe, I’m using raw zucchini as if it were pasta!

I have a recipe from Six O’Clock Scramble on my Summer Celebrations Pinterest board. With this in the back of my mind, we woke up late one morning, the result of a night out. After tea and coffee and checking our iPads to see what we’d missed while we’d been sleeping (the new equivalent of reading the morning newspaper), I remembered that we were out of our usual breakfast foods! 🙁

The one thing we did have was a couple of zucchini. It was late enough to call our meal brunch, so this is what we made. A veggie based, pasta-like salad, enough to keep us going until we made a trip to the supermarket. While not as fancy as Aviva’s on Six O’Clock Scramble; it was still very enjoyable! I think grated zucchini could be a great low-carb carrier for many of the sauces we usually put on pasta. I’m thinking about a red sauce next time.

I don’t have a tool for making julienne strips, so I simply peeled and grated the zucchini using the coarse side of my box grater. The grated squash went into a large strainer, sprinkled lightly with salt. After 5 minutes, I pressed the water out and tossed with some pumpkin seed pesto that I picked up at Market Hall Number 9 in Berlin. A grating of fresh Parmesan cheese and we were ready to eat. If I can find vegan pesto and substitute nutritional yeast for the Parmesan, I could make this for our vegan daughter.

Vinegar Rolls (Grandma’s Recipe)

by 48 Comments

Hey, if you’re new here, welcome! Thanks for stopping by. You’ll find family favorite recipes here from the perfect chocolate chip cookies   to a Sangria recipe that I perfected during our four years in Spain.  You’ll also find a lot of traditional Polish recipes that I picked up on our most recent stint overseas. Hearty comfort food whether you’re Polish or like me (not Polish). Bon appetit!

 


Cinnamon swirl pastry on a white platter

I’ve been wanting to blog about Vinegar Rolls ever since I read Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. As Kingsolver’s family documents their decision to eat locally for one year, the beginning is tough. They’re waiting for fruits to come into season, craving a dessert.

I know they would have enjoyed one of my grandma’s recipes during this lean time. Vinegar rolls always remind me of apple pie without using a bit of fruit.

As a young boy, my dad and his family lived on a ranch in southeast Arizona. My grandparents and great-grandparents homesteaded back when Arizona was still a territory.

They raised and grew most of what they ate just like Kingsolver was attempting to do. There were no quick trips to the supermarket to pick up a missing ingredient or to satisfy a craving.

They made due with what they had on hand. Vinegar rolls are comfort food for our family – something my grandmother learned to make from her mother-in-law.

I don’t know a lot of family history, but I do know my paternal ancestors came from Germany. The use of vinegar fits in with my ideas of German cooking. It’s used in many ways that would seem uncommon in an American kitchen.

Made with only pantry staples, vinegar rolls are something you can whip up anytime to mimic the taste of apple pie, both sweet and tart with a bit of cinnamon. The liquid will become thicker during baking and gel a bit. It couldn’t be simpler. I’ve included two simple substitutions to make this a vegan dessert.

Enjoy!

Lois

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Vinegar Rolls

★★★★★ 4.6 from 5 reviews
  • Prep Time: 15 mins
  • Cook Time: 60 mins
  • Total Time: 1 hour 15 mins
  • Yield: 6-8
  • Category: Dessert
  • Cuisine: American
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Description

Simple ranch house cooking, an old family recipe

Ingredients

  • single pie crust, purchased or your favorite recipe (vegan pie crust)
  • 2 tablespoons butter, soft (vegan margarine such as Earth Balance)
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
  • 2/3 cup water
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 425
  2. Roll dough into a 12 inch square
  3. Spread with butter
  4. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons sugar and cinnamon
  5. Beginning with one side, tightly roll up the dough and place in a baking dish, seam side down
  6. Combine water and 2/3 cup sugar in a saucepan and stir over medium heat until the sugar dissolves
  7. Add the vinegar, and check the taste, your looking for a pleasant balance of sweet and sour, adjust as needed
  8. Pour the liquid into the pan with the dough
  9. Bake for 10 minutes, reduce heat to 350 and bake for another 50 minutes, occasionally brushing the top of the pastry with the liquid.
  10. Cool a bit before serving

Notes

Can easily be doubled
It’s very nice served warm with a little vanilla ice cream

(Vegan substitutions are in parenthesis)

vinegar roll Collage