Українська Кухня · The Sunlit Table

Ukrainian Cooking Without Vegetable Oil

Sit down at the long village table, where the borshch turns deep ruby in the pot, varenyky rise to the top of the water, and every loaf begins with sweet butter. Honest ingredients and patient flavor, the way the black earth country has always cooked.

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Масло✦ Смалець✦ Топлене Масло
A warmly plated Ukrainian dish on a dark rustic table
◆ Український Борщ
From the recipe collection
Смалець

Butter and Lard First

The Ukrainian pantry was built on sweet butter and golden pork lard. Every soup, braise, and pastry in this collection begins with one of them, never with a refined seed oil.

Поволі

Slow Simmered, Never Rushed

A borshch is ready when the beets have surrendered their color and the pot smells sweet and sour at once. We cook the village way, over patient heat, with time as the main ingredient.

Ніколи

Never Vegetable Oil

No seed oils, no shortcuts. Only the traditional fats that the farmhouse kitchens of the steppe have trusted for generations.

◆
From Our Kitchen

Ukrainian Recipes

Six beloved dishes from the village table and the holiday feast, each cooked with the honest fats that bring out the best in every ingredient.

Полтава Ukrainian borshch, a deep ruby beet soup in a rustic bowl

Український Борщ

Beet and beef borshch with sour cream

2 hr 30 min·6 servings·Medium

The soul of the Ukrainian table. Beef simmered to tenderness, then a pot built up with beets, cabbage, and beans until it turns deep ruby and tastes of sweet earth and gentle sour, crowned with a spoon of sour cream.

Ingredients

  • 700 g beef shin or short rib, on the bone
  • 2 tbsp lard (смалець)
  • 2 large beets, peeled and coarsely grated
  • 1 onion and 1 carrot, chopped
  • 300 g white cabbage, finely shredded
  • 3 potatoes, cut into chunks
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 tin white beans, drained
  • 2 tbsp white vinegar and 1 tsp sugar
  • Sour cream, dill, and garlic, to serve

Instructions

  1. Cover the beef with cold water, bring to a gentle simmer, skim well, and cook 90 minutes until tender. Lift out the meat, pull it into pieces, and keep the broth.
  2. Melt the lard in a pan and soften the onion and carrot, then stir in the grated beets, the tomato paste, the vinegar, and the sugar and let them stew 12 minutes.
  3. Bring the broth back to a boil, add the potatoes, and cook 8 minutes.
  4. Add the cabbage and simmer 8 minutes more until just tender.
  5. Stir in the beet mixture, the beans, and the shredded meat, then season with salt and pepper.
  6. Simmer 10 minutes so the color deepens and the flavors marry, adjusting the sweet and sour balance to taste.
  7. Rest off the heat, then serve with sour cream, a shower of dill, and crushed garlic on the side.
Свято Holubtsi, cabbage rolls baked in a rich tomato sauce

Голубці

Cabbage rolls baked in butter and tomato

2 hr 15 min·5 servings·Medium

The dish of every celebration and Sunday lunch. Soft cabbage leaves wrapped around pork and rice, laid snugly in a pot, and braised low in butter and tomato until the parcels are meltingly tender.

Ingredients

  • 1 large head of white cabbage
  • 500 g ground pork
  • 150 g rice, parboiled and cooled
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 3 tbsp butter, plus more for the dish
  • 1 carrot, grated
  • 400 g crushed tomatoes
  • 250 ml beef or chicken stock
  • 1 bay leaf and a pinch of marjoram
  • Salt, black pepper, and sour cream to serve

Instructions

  1. Core the cabbage and simmer the whole head 8 minutes, peeling away the leaves as they soften, then trim the thick ribs flat.
  2. Melt 1 tbsp butter and soften half the onion, then mix it with the pork, rice, salt, and pepper.
  3. Place a spoon of filling on each leaf, fold in the sides, and roll into a snug parcel.
  4. Melt the remaining butter and stew the rest of the onion with the carrot, then add the tomatoes, stock, bay, and marjoram.
  5. Butter a deep pot, pack the rolls seam down in tight layers, and pour the sauce over to just cover.
  6. Cover and braise gently on the stove or in a low oven for about 90 minutes until very tender.
  7. Rest 10 minutes, then serve the holubtsi with the sauce and a generous spoon of sour cream.
Тісто Varenyky dumplings resting on a floured board

Вареники

Potato and cheese dumplings with butter onions

1 hr 20 min·4 servings·Medium

The tender half moons that fill every Ukrainian kitchen with steam. A soft dough pinched around a warm potato and cheese filling, boiled until they float, then bathed in butter and slow gold onions.

Ingredients

  • 400 g plain flour, plus more for the board
  • 200 ml warm water
  • 1 egg and 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp melted butter, for the dough
  • 500 g floury potatoes, peeled
  • 150 g farmer cheese or dry curd cheese
  • 60 g butter, for the filling
  • 2 onions, finely sliced
  • 80 g butter, for the onions
  • Sour cream and dill, to serve

Instructions

  1. Whisk the egg, water, salt, and melted butter, work in the flour, and knead 8 minutes to a soft, smooth dough. Rest it covered 30 minutes.
  2. Boil the potatoes until tender, drain well, and mash with the 60 g butter and the cheese, then season and cool.
  3. Melt the 80 g butter and cook the onions slowly for 20 minutes until deep gold and sweet.
  4. Roll the dough thin, cut out rounds, and place a small ball of filling on each.
  5. Fold into half moons and pinch the edges tightly so they seal.
  6. Drop the varenyky into a wide pot of gently boiling salted water and cook 3 to 4 minutes until they float and puff.
  7. Lift them straight into the butter onions, turn to coat, and serve hot with sour cream and dill.
Город Braised cabbage side dish with caraway in a rustic bowl

Тушкована Капуста

Braised cabbage with butter and caraway

45 min·4 servings·Easy

The humble golden side that meets any roast or sausage. Shredded cabbage stewed slowly in butter with onion, carrot, and caraway until it softens into something sweet, silky, and deeply savory.

Ingredients

  • 1 small head of white cabbage, finely shredded
  • 3 tbsp butter
  • 1 onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 carrot, grated
  • 1 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 tsp caraway seeds, lightly crushed
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 150 ml light stock or water
  • 1 tsp mild vinegar, to taste
  • Salt, black pepper, and chopped dill

Instructions

  1. Melt the butter in a wide pot and soften the onion for 5 minutes without letting it color.
  2. Add the carrot and the caraway and cook another 3 minutes until fragrant.
  3. Pile in the cabbage and turn it through the butter until it begins to wilt.
  4. Stir in the tomato paste, bay leaf, and stock, then cover and stew gently for 25 minutes, stirring now and then.
  5. Uncover and let any liquid cook away so the cabbage turns glossy and just begins to catch gold at the edges.
  6. Season with salt, pepper, and a little vinegar to lift it, then finish with plenty of dill.
Великдень Paska, a tall golden Ukrainian Easter bread

Паска

Golden Easter bread

4 hr with rising·1 tall loaf·Advanced

The tall, gilded loaf that crowns the Easter basket. An enriched dough soft with butter, egg yolks, and warm milk, scented with lemon and vanilla, baked until it rises proud and burnished.

Ingredients

  • 550 g strong white flour
  • 10 g instant yeast
  • 180 ml warm whole milk
  • 100 g sugar
  • 4 egg yolks and 1 whole egg
  • 110 g butter, softened
  • Zest of 1 lemon and 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 80 g raisins, soaked and drained
  • 1 egg yolk with 1 tbsp milk, to glaze

Instructions

  1. Whisk the yeast and a spoon of the sugar into the warm milk and let it foam for 10 minutes.
  2. Mix the flour, remaining sugar, salt, yolks, whole egg, zest, and vanilla with the yeast milk, then knead to a soft dough.
  3. Work in the softened butter a little at a time, kneading 12 minutes until smooth and elastic, then fold in the raisins.
  4. Cover and let it rise in a warm spot for about 90 minutes until doubled.
  5. Butter a tall round tin, knock back the dough, shape it into a smooth ball, and set it inside to fill a third of the tin.
  6. Let it rise again 45 minutes until it climbs near the rim, then brush with the egg glaze.
  7. Bake at 170 C for 40 to 45 minutes until deep gold and hollow sounding, tenting the top with foil if it darkens too fast, then cool fully before slicing.
Мед Medivnyk, a layered honey cake dusted and sliced

Медівник

Layered honey cake with sour cream

1 hr 30 min·10 slices·Medium

The honeyed cake of feast days and long welcomes. Warm spiced layers built with honey and butter, rested overnight under a soft sour cream frosting until they turn tender and fragrant throughout.

Ingredients

  • 4 tbsp honey
  • 100 g butter
  • 150 g sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 420 g plain flour
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon and a pinch of cloves
  • 500 ml thick sour cream
  • 80 g icing sugar
  • Toasted walnuts, to finish

Instructions

  1. Warm the honey, butter, and sugar in a wide pan until melted, then stir in the bicarbonate of soda and watch it turn pale and foamy.
  2. Off the heat, beat in the eggs one at a time, then fold in the flour and spices to a soft dough.
  3. Divide into six pieces, roll each thin, and bake at 180 C for 5 to 6 minutes until firm and golden, then trim to neat rounds.
  4. Whip the sour cream with the icing sugar to a soft, spreadable cream.
  5. Stack the layers with cream between each, saving enough to cover the top and sides.
  6. Crush the trimmings and press them around the cake, then scatter over the walnuts.
  7. Chill overnight so the layers soften into the cream, and slice thin to serve.
A rustic table set with warm home cooked dishes
Our Kitchen

The Kitchen Behind Rebhol

Rebhol is a small home kitchen devoted to the cooking of Ukraine, the land of wheat fields and sunflower rows, where lunch begins with a bowl of borshch, arrives with a dish of varenyky, and always ends with something honeyed from the oven. We write these recipes down the way they are still cooked in village kitchens, patiently, precisely, and with a generous hand on the butter.

Our only house rule is an old one: butter from the churn, smalets rendered slowly on the back of the stove, ghee clarified over a low flame, and nothing else. Vegetable oil never comes through our door, because it never sat on the tables we learned from.

Смачного, and may your table be full.