veggie

This Friday, my regular walk to the market was marked by the white and red colors of the martenitsa. Martenitsa is a small piece of red and white woven yarn symbolizing a wish for good health. It's part of a pegan tradition, popular on the Balkans, in which people exchange martenitsa as a gift on the first day of March and wear them to welcome spring.

This vegetarian dish is typical for the Balkan cuisine and is known largely by its Turkish name. The legend about the origin of the name tells about a Turkish imam (spiritual leader) who swooned with pleasure when presented with the dish. There are many ways to make the dish, but I will show you my favorite one, where the eggplants are stuffed like boats.

My regular Friday visit to the market resulted in a couple of pounds of zucchini from Greece, red and green cayenne peppers from Turkey and a bunch of fresh dill from a local farmer lady. And since the snow is finally gone and it smells like spring outside, I decided to cook a light spring meal to celebrate the awakening of nature - zucchini stuffed with vegetables.

Today starts Lent in the Eastern churches and in the next few weeks I will try to offer many interesting and tasty recipes to those of you who have decided to fast. I will start with a light, yet full of vitamins zucchini stew.

Sauté the onions and leaks in a boiling pot until they get soft. Season with salt and paprika, and mix in the tomato purée.

This is my favorite Christmas Eve dish and in my humble opinion one of the most traditional Bulgarian recipes.

Wash the sun-dried peppers and soak them in hot water to expand and soften. Remove the stalks and deseed the peppers.