Recipes of Ukrainian cuisine stand out for how hearty and richly flavored each dish is; you can't confuse it with any other cuisine in the world. Ukrainian cooks add garlic to almost every dish. It serves as a universal seasoning for borscht and holodets, it's used to lard bacon and to rub meat before baking. Ukrainians love vegetables — the table always has potatoes as a mash or boiled whole, stewed beets with nuts, and fried zucchini and eggplant with a spicy dressing.
The five most commonly used ingredients in recipes:
For the first course, it's customary to serve the red borscht already mentioned, with garlicky pampushky, soup with millet dumplings, or fish soup from river fish. For the second course they're sure to bring varenyky with all kinds of fillings, kruchenyky, shpundra, lezhni, and homemade sausages. Unusual names hide delicious "stravy." And a feast isn't complete without something sweet. Home cooks make makivnyky, vatrushky, khmyz, syrnyky, kysil, fruit compotes and pinnyky. Try to immerse yourself in the colorful atmosphere of Ukraine and cook national dishes for your family.