Skip to content
FriendsPantry

Cuisine

Balkan

South-east European cooking of grilled minced meats, filo pies, stuffed cabbage, roasted-pepper relishes, fresh white cheese and yogurt, shaped by centuries of Ottoman rule.

Flavour character: Smoky, savoury and dairy-rich: char-grilled meat, roasted peppers and eggplant, paprika, fresh white cheese and kajmak, sour cabbage, yogurt and garlic.

34 recipesBrowse recipes
Plate of flavorful grilled cevapi with fresh vegetables and red pepper sauce. Perfect traditional Balkan meal.

History

Ottoman rule from the 14th–15th centuries to the 19th–20th left burek, ćevapi, sarma, baklava, coffee and many Turkish food words across the region. Central European (Habsburg) influence is strong in Slovenia, Croatia and northern Serbia, and Venetian influence along the Dalmatian coast. The yogurt bacterium Lactobacillus bulgaricus was named after Bulgaria by researcher Stamen Grigorov, who identified it in 1905.

Well documented

Geography and influences

Mountainous peninsula between the Adriatic, Aegean and Black seas: peppers, tomatoes and stone fruit in the valleys, sheep and goats in the hills, seafood on the Dalmatian coast.

  • Ottoman cuisine
  • Byzantine and Orthodox fasting
  • Habsburg Central Europe
  • Venetian Adriatic
  • Slavic roots

Regional variations

Serbia and Bosnia
Ćevapi, pljeskavica, burek, kajmak, slow-cooked bosanski lonac.
Croatia (Dalmatia)
Adriatic seafood, peka, black risotto, pašticada.
Bulgaria
Yogurt, sirene cheese, shopska salad, banitsa, tarator.
Albania and North Macedonia
Tavë kosi, tavče gravče, byrek and peppers.

Festive and seasonal food

  • Česnica bread and roast pork or piglet at Orthodox Christmas
  • Sarma made from whole fermented cabbage leaves in winter
  • Lamb on the spit at Easter and Đurđevdan
  • Banitsa with fortune slips at New Year (Bulgaria)

Signature dishes

Not on the site yet: Musaka (Balkan style), Kajmak with lepinja, Lutenica, Rakija (fruit brandy)

Balkan recipes

22 more