Brussels Sprouts
For a long time, these little round cabbages didn’t have the best reputation; when boiled too long, they start to smell funny and lose all of their nice green colour. Now they are having a bit of a comeback in Poland, thrown into vegetable ‘harvest soups’, shredded as a slaw, or baked.
Garlic
Foreigners often notice Poles really love their garlic – although it is an indispensable ingredient in most cuisines, it’s pungency is so appreciated here, we even tend to serve pizza and kebabs with garlic sauce (to the horror of Italians and Turks). It has a presence in our oldest cookbook, Stanisław Czerniecki’s Compendium Ferculorum, which uses it in sauces and marinades. It gives flavour to the rye soup żur, twarożek, and many types of Polish sausage.
Kale
We grew kale for centuries, then forgot about it, and then fell in love with it again just as the rest of the world. Although, compared to other types of cabbage, there aren’t as many traditional kale dishes, a recipe for kale and chestnuts can be found in the 18th century cookbook by Paul Tremo, the chef of Poland’s last king Stanisław August Poniatowski. Nowadays we appreciate its health benefits and add it to soups, stews, and salads.
Horseradish
One of the most distinct tastes in Polish cuisine, horseradish flavours our traditional żur soup, is added to the pickling liquid when we make ogórki kiszone (pickles), mixed with beetroot to make ćwikła (the oldest recipe we have was written by the forefather of Polish literature Mikołaj Rej in the 16th century), and served in copious amounts with eggs, sausages, and cured meats during Easter. Creamy horseradish soup with potatoes and eggs is delicious as well.
Button Mushrooms
Although not as noble as forest mushrooms, pieczarki should be proud of their own place in Polish food culture. The career of this humble ingredient is connected, yet not limited to Poland’s favourite fast food – zapiekanka. In Gorzów Wielkopolski, buns filled with mushrooms and onions, almost became a symbol of the city. In Warsaw’s Nowe Miasto, in the politically incorrectly named Murzynek (Negro) bar, introduced the capital city to pasta dishes when it started serving a socialist version of spaghetti with button mushrooms and cheese in the 1970s. The dish is still served today as a nostalgic reminder of the times gone by.