👉 Ash reshteh is a thick, comforting Persian soup packed with herbs, beans, lentils and noodles, served with tangy kashk, crispy fried onions and mint oil. It is traditionally made for Nowruz (Persian New Year) and on cold days. Don’t worry about the long ingredient list – it’s mostly herbs…
👉 Lángos is Hungary’s favourite street food: a big disc of yeast dough fried until puffy and golden, brushed with garlic water and piled with sour cream and grated cheese. You’ll find it at every beach, market and festival in Hungary. A little mashed potato in the dough keeps it…
👉 Varenyky (also spelled vareniki) are the beloved boiled dumplings of Ukraine: soft, thin dough folded into half-moons around a savoury or sweet filling. The classic savoury version is filled with creamy mashed potato and fried onion, often with a little farmer’s cheese, while in summer families make them with…
👉 Mercimek çorbası is the soup you find in every Turkish home and lokanta: silky red lentils blended with onion, carrot and a little potato, finished with sizzling mint-and-paprika butter and a squeeze of lemon. It costs very little, is ready in about 35 minutes and is naturally vegan if…
👉 Soko ketsze (სოკო კეცზე) means “mushrooms on a ketsi” – a Georgian clay dish. Whole mushroom caps are filled with butter and sulguni cheese and baked until the cheese melts and the mushrooms release their juices into the pan. Just three main ingredients and 25 minutes – a favourite…
👉 Harira is Morocco’s national soup – thick, warming and full of tomatoes, lentils, chickpeas, herbs and gentle spices. It’s the traditional dish to break the fast in Ramadan, but it’s perfect any cold evening. The flour-and-water mix stirred in at the end (tedouira) gives harira its signature velvety body.…
👉 Bacalhau à Brás is one of Portugal’s favourite home dishes: flaked salt cod, soft onions and thin crispy potatoes, all bound together with creamy, just-set eggs. Comfort food from Lisbon’s Bairro Alto. Take the pan off the heat while the eggs are still a little runny – they keep…
👉 Mujadara is a classic Levantine dish of lentils and rice topped with a mountain of dark, crispy onions. It’s vegan, filling, very cheap – and one of the most satisfying things you can cook in one pot. Don’t rush the onions: their deep caramel colour is where all the…
👉 Placki ziemniaczane are Poland’s beloved potato pancakes: golden and lacy-crisp outside, soft inside. Cheap, quick and made from things you already have. The trick for crispy pancakes is to squeeze out the potato water and fry in hot oil, not too many at once. How to Make Placki Ziemniaczane…
👉 Çılbır (chil-burr) is a classic Turkish breakfast: soft poached eggs on cool garlic yogurt, finished with sizzling red chili butter. It takes 15 minutes and tastes like a restaurant brunch. The contrast of warm, runny yolks, tangy yogurt and spicy butter is what makes it so addictive – have…
👉 Khinkali are Georgia’s famous soup dumplings: a thin, pleated dough purse filled with spiced meat and its own hot broth. You hold one by the twisted top, bite a small hole, sip the juice, then eat the rest – the top knot (kudi) traditionally stays on the plate. The…
👉 Shah plov (“the king’s pilaf”) is the festive centrepiece of Azerbaijani cuisine: fragrant saffron rice, tender lamb, dried apricots, raisins and chestnuts, all baked inside a golden crust of buttered lavash. It’s turned out whole and cut open at the table. It takes some time, but every step is…
