Poland Turns Plant-Based: How Vegan Cooks Transform Traditional Polish Flavours
Vegan food has been gaining popularity worldwide, and Poland has turned out to be one of its most surprising hubs. Poles fell in love with vegan burgers, ramen, sushi and pizza – and 2020 is seing a spike in interest in vegan Polish dishes and Polish vegan cookbooks. Is this just a passing trend? Or are vegan pierogi here to stay?
With Warsaw being one of the world's friendliest cities for vegans (according to HappyCow), and more great vegan restaurants continuously popping up in Wrocław, Kraków, Gdańsk and Katowice, Poles are clearly searching for meatless alternatives. Yet in 2020 – a very, shall we say, ‘particular’ year for all of us – a new trend emerged. Just as so many people across the globe, Poles have begun to look for comfort and safety. When it comes to food that make us think of childhood and unconditional bliss. For many that means heavy, fatty, meaty dishes so popular in Polish cuisine. If so, are plant-based versions of traditional Polish comfort foods becoming this season’s newest trend. And is it just a trend?
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House of Seitan, Gdańsk, photo: Michał Ryniak / Agencja Gazeta
For the past few years vegan restaurants and their take on traditional Polish cuisine have become more and more popular: in Warsaw the social cooperative Margines has been serving plant-based schabowy, tartare and liver and onions to tattooed anarchists, as well as white-collar businessmen from local offices alike at Lokal Vegan Bistro. In the hip district of Wrzeszcz in Gdańsk a bunch of loud and fearless girls opened House of Seitan, the 'kingdom of the potato', and the place to eat Polish comfort food at its finest – and sometimes at its fattiest. The first-ever vegetarian bar in Poland – Vega in Wrocław’s market square – has been serving an all-vegan menu since 2013, and is perfect for anyone who wants to experience a homemade Polish obiad.
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Lokal Vegan Bistro, photo Adam Stępień / Agencja Gazeta
Some of the most popular recipes on Poland's most beloved vegan blog Jadłonomia (more than 300,000 followers on Facebook and Instagram) were meatless versions of Polish classics such as the perfect Polish vegetable broth, mielone cutlets and tomato soup straight from your babcia’s kitchen. And it was probably the publication of Marta Dymek's latest book Jadłonomia Po Polsku (Jadłonomia in Polish) in May 2020 that really set this trend in motion. Dymek – a thirty-year-old blogger, cook, TV host and food writer – is the most famous ambassador of veganism in Poland and one of our most prominent food personalities. She has written two bestselling cookbooks, which showed readers the incredible variety of plant-based cuisine and taught the masses about things like tofu and aquafaba, yet never before did she focus solely on traditional Polish fare. The premiere of her latest book was preceded by a workshop organised by the Roślinniejemy campaign – which aims to encourage food producers, restauranteurs and shop owners to introduce and use more plant-based products – where she cooked a vegan meal with and for the Housewives' Organisation (Koło Gospodyń Wiejskich) in the small village of Brzóze.
Presenting some of the evergreens from her blog – such as the aforementioned mielone cutlets made with cauliflower and a bean mash with fried onions and apples which resembles the traditional lard spread smalec – Dymek succeeded in convincing them that vegan food can be simple to make and very tasty, but also – which seems to be the main concern of many – satiating and cheap.
Marta Dymek, "Jadłonomia po polsku", photo Wydawnictwo Marginesy Despite some radical changes that took place in recent years and Dymek's amazing efforts, many Poles still believe that a typical vegan meal consists either of a bunch of vegetables (which means you are going to be hungry ten minutes after eating it) or a lot of fancy, imported, expensive ingredients such as quinoa, goji berries and cashew milk; that veganism is a big city trend for young hipsters, and has nothing to do with traditional Polish cuisine. –For so many, real Polish food is synonymous with the invented tradition of 'peasant food' served in karczmy and at weddings: sausages, lard with pickled gherkins, pork hocks, cracklings, and so forth. Dymek decided to prove that that’s not the case and that it's possible to keep up traditions and make a wonderful meal eliminating all animal products at the same time.
When she decided to write a whole book about traditional Polish food, she made it clear that no one – or at least no Pole – should feel intimidated, cooking with Jadłonomia Po Polsku. And so the list of ingredients sounds familiar to every home cook: there are tons of lentils, beans, buckwheat, potatoes, mushrooms and cabbage, along with seasonal vegetables such as asparagus, Swiss chard, tomatoes and pumpkins. On the sweet side there are poppy seeds, apples and berries. The flavour profiles are traditional: we have the sourness of pickled cucumbers and sauerkraut; the earthiness of beetroot and dried mushrooms; the smokiness of paprika which flavours some of the dishes that would normally include smoked bacon or sausage. And we have the strong flavours we love: horseradish, garlic, mustard and dill. The techniques are classic as well: potato pancakes are fried, dumplings are appropriately shaped, beets and gherkins are pickled, and yeast dough is left to rise, just like it would in a 'normal' collection of recipes.
Alicja Rokicka, "Świętujemy", photo Wydawnictwo Marginesy Marta Dymek is, of course, not the only one: Alicja Rokicka known in the Polish blogosphere as Wegan Nerd, published the book Świętujemy (We Celebrate) a couple of months earlier. Although her book is not entirely focused on Polish traditions (she also writes about modern parties, where most young Poles would bring focaccia and hummus), she looks at the traditions of Polish holidays and celebrations, and turns them on their head with plant-based recipes. It might seem tricky when you think about Christmas fish dishes (Polish Christmas Eve, though meat-free, is heavy on fish) and cured meats eaten traditionally on Easter. Rokicka proposes fun alternatives – which use more than just tofu or seitan, which to some can still seem quite foreign and weird.
Celeriac, which – contrary to many Western countries –is actually more popular than celery in Poland, can be easily be turned into a fish fillet when it's wrapped in nori, or can mimic herring, when marinated in cider vinegar, mustard and spices. Oyster mushrooms with their slightly slimy consistency are also a great herring alternative. Rokicka prepares them in a 'Kashubian' marinade with tomato paste, paprika and flaxseed oil (another Polish specialty!). When well-seasoned and crumbled, they can also play the role of crispy schabowe cutlets, or they can stand in for meat in comforting stews. Potatoes and beans can be used to make sausages, traditionally spiced with garlic and marjoram. Rockicka explains:
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We must underline that Polish cuisine is not just meat. For most of our country's history, only the richest and the most privileged could afford meat. The poorer classes had to 'manage somehow'. (…) Beans, peas, other pulses and grains, which are worth introducing into our everyday diet, have been present on the Polish table for centuries.
When asked, what traditional Polish dish she would serve to a vegan foreigner, without much hesitation she says: bigos!
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The meatless version is wonderful. The magical ingredient can be either smoked prune or smoked paprika. Bigos has many facets. You can add cooked lentils or Piękny Jaś beans, pumpkin or zucchini when the season comes. Fresh and fermented cabbage are also important, as well as mushrooms from the forest, and the right spices: bay leaves, allspice, juniper berries, marjoram, cinnamon, lovage and caraway seeds are a must. Adding a bit of alcohol – such as wine – makes the cabbage brittle, as it should be. Bigos is often considered simple and not worthy of much attention, but when well made, it's actually very smart, has a deep aroma and a complex flavour profile.
Ida Kulawik, "Roślinna kuchnia polska", photo Wydawnictwo Dwie Siostry Ida Kulawik (aka Veganbanda) – another blogger and author who also published her Polish-inspired, plant-based book Roślinna Kuchnia Polska (Plant-based Polish Cuisine) this year, agrees:
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Polish cuisine is actually quite a graceful subject for me. We have many plant-based dishes, and most others can be easily veganised. I suppose many people have already heard of bean 'lard', sunflower 'cream cheese' or vegan bigos.
Some of her recipes are surprising and really cool: have you ever heard of making 'scrambled oats' instead of eggs? Using tofu instead of duck and baking it with apples, onions and lots of marjoram? Even the old-school kogel-mogel – the simplest dessert there is, made with egg yolks whipped with sugar – now has a vegan version, which consists of aquafaba (the water left from a can of chickpeas) whipped with sugar and vanilla. Yet Kulawik agrees that although there's some sweetness to Poland, most often it tastes sour:
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If I were to choose one flavour that I associate with Polish cuisine the most, it would be the sourness of fermentation: dill pickles, sauerkraut, halfsour gherkins, fermented beets, and what comes next – dishes based on fermented products: gherkin soup, sauerkraut soup, bigos, fried sauerkraut, barszcz made with fermented beets.
Paweł Ochman, "Roślinna kuchnia regionalna", photo Wydawnictwo Marginesy The newest addition to this cookbook collection is a fascinating one: Roślinna Kuchnia Regionalna (Plant-based Regional Cuisine) by Paweł Ochman, author of the Weganon blog, reaches another level when it comes to culinary expertise and ethnographic research. The author goes far beyond the usual beetroot soups and potato dumplings: he looks for dishes that are known only in specific regions of Poland – sometimes even just in specific towns or villages – and either presents them as they are, or, when needed, 'veganises them'.
One can only hope that one day at least one of these many wonderful books will be translated into English, so that more people can learn about this new plant-based facet of Polish food (the success of Fresh from Poland by Michał Korkosz should encourage publishers to experiment!).
Many of the dishes we find in this book are fascinating and foreign even to most Poles: bomby legnickie – gingerbread balls filled with marzipan – were created in mid-19th century but are currently making a comeback in the city of Legnica in Lower Silesia. Dziędziuchy z Dokudowa – cookies made with cooked potatoes (!) and bilberries – are just another example of what Polish housewives can do with a potato. Radomszczański tatarczuch – a gluten-free, buckwheat bread from the town of Radomsko – has Tatar origins, while fuczki and łężnie – two types of cabbage and potato pancakes – were invented by the Lemko people, who lived in the south-eastern Poland. There's even a (traditional) layer cake made with beans!
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Vega Bar, Wrocław, photo Kamila Kubat / Agencja Gazeta
One could say 'vegan Polish' is just another trend that will soon be replaced by something new. But there's much more to it than just food. The passion for Poland's culinary heritage is combined with the concern for the environment and the fight for animal rights – both of these subjects are now widely discussed in Poland and all over the globe. Plus, there's the concern for public health and the undeniable truth that people should eat more locally and seasonally. Comfort and tradition meet sustainability and health – and this is a combination that should last for years to come.
Written by Natalia Mętrak-Ruda, Nov 2020
