Vegetable-Forward Recipes from Eastern Europe

Kapusta

"Come for the food and stay for the stories &ndash; every curious cook will take a leaf out of this book."&#160;&ndash; Yotam Ottolenghi 
 
 "A rare cookbook that engages our thinking and delights our senses."&#160;&ndash; Olia Hercules 
 
 "This book is just as warm and inviting and shines a fresh light on the world of Eastern European food."&#160;&ndash; Zuza Zak 
 
A culinary journey across Eastern Europe,&#160;Kapusta&#160;celebrates the humble vegetables that have shaped some of the most vibrant culinary traditions in the world. Focusing on five key vegetables to the region &ndash; cabbage, beetroot, potato, carrot and mushrooms &ndash; it&#160;honours a philosophy of cooking that has affordability, seasonality, sustainability and, above all, great flavour at its heart.&#160;With chapters on dumplings and pickles and ferments as well, you&rsquo;ll find a diversity of dishes which exemplify the Eastern European culinary DNA. Recipes are accompanied by beautiful photography and include a range of both meat-based and vegetarian dishes such as A Cabbage Strudel, both Vegan and Beef Borsch, Potato Babka, Pierogi, a Tzimmes Carrot Cake, Bulgarian Mushroom and Walnut P&acirc;t&eacute;, and a range of sauerkrauts. Kapusta bursts with original recipes and shines a spotlight on the whole kaleidoscope of little-known culinary cultures and history from across the extensive region.

Alissa&lsquo;s recipes speak to my stomach. I am especially a lifelong fan of cabbage, and her cabbage chapter is fantastic.

Alissa turns the cabbage clich&eacute; on its head in this joyful celebration of Eastern European cooking. Come for the food and stay for the stories&mdash;every curious cook will take a leaf out of this book.

Kapusta is a word that&rsquo;s close to my heart, as it brings to mind my favourite dish of young cabbage cooked in buttery dill. The book is just as warm and inviting. Alissa&rsquo;s writing soothes the soul and her recipes always inspire. Kapusta is filled to the brim with beautiful, imaginative recipes that have the power to revitalise the kitchen, comfort the spirit and shine a fresh light on the world of Eastern European food.

Just like the vegetable for which this book is named, Alissa&rsquo;s recipes are always full of layers: of flavour, of history, of intention. Kapusta will fill your heart with gladness and your belly with buckwheat.

If the measure of a cookbook&#39;s success is whether it inspires you to try the recipes then&#160;Kapusta&#160;goes one better. It is a book of plenty, a meal in itself.

Alissa Timoshkina

At last, food eaten with a spoon is given its due! This original and soulful collection of recipes from Alissa Timoshkina celebrates some of the many cuisines of Eastern Europe through their soups and stews; their dumplings and goulashes. The pages seem to be scented with dill and caraway and many kinds of broth. There is a wonderfully soothing quality to Alissa’s recipes; her food will make you feel looked after. While paying homage to the traditional dishes of her grandmother’s generation, Alissa's recipes are also lighter and more vegetable-centric. For anyone, like me, who sees soup in all its forms as the eternal comfort food, Lozhka is a deeply consoling book to read and to cook from.

Lozhka is brilliant! The spoon is the most seductive of utensils, with its curved, sensuous shape. It is also the most comforting, possessing the power to soothe and uplift, as the recipes in Lozhka abundantly show. Dumplings, soups and stews get star billing as spoons accompany us on a journey through the culinary cultures of Eastern Europe. Alissa’s recipes are both nostalgic and innovative, each one promising solace and delight.

Journey across countries and cultures with nothing but a spoon in your hand and Alissa’s voice in your ear. Lush and magical.

Bonny Reichert, bestselling author of How to Share an Egg: A True Story of Hunger, Love and Plenty

Lozhka feels like it’s been here all along; lived in, loved, ready to offer cosy comfort in the form of a bowl of borsch and a book of tales to curl up on the couch with too.

A glorious collection of entirely new recipes and flavour combinations (at least to me).  I couldn’t love this book more.

Just as you would tuck into a bowl of Alissa’s quince borscht or linger over her boozy, chocolate and smetana-layered trifle, I promise you will want to do the same with this deeply felt gem of a book. Like the most generous Eastern European tables, it will not let you leave you hungry.

In this brilliant book, Alissa uses the humble spoon as the jumping-off point for a rich, loving take on the soul food of her native region. The recipes and writing are equally nourishing, leaving anyone who cooks (or reads) from its pages well-fed in every sense of the word.

Alissa DID IT again! Recipes, memories, and whimsical traditional folklore visuals woven together in perfect unison creating a magical reading and cooking experience. Colours and images invite you to cook something new yet ancient, decadent yet delightfully light every night of the season. Reading through Lozhka feels like sitting down with your Babtsia and leaning into her warm wise embrace as she whispers to you the secrets of a happy and long life.

Zikki Siman-Tov, chef and author of Eat Small Plates

Alissa’s new book delivers soulful, spoonable wonders that will keep you nourished and happy all year round. With evocative photographs, lively writing, and recipes that are simple to make yet full of surprises (borsch with quince! beetroot and hazelnut jam!), it is a loving homage to Eastern European cuisine. Warm, generous, and deeply personal.

Anya von Bremzen, author National Dish and Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking

Although my mother's family left Eastern Europe for America four generations ago, a deep and persistent craving for the flavours of my ancestors' homeland—vibrant dill and pungent garlic; meaty mushrooms and thick sour cream—lives deep within me. Alissa's book welcomes me, and anyone with a curious or yearning palate, to the table with generosity and homey sophistication.

Leah Koenig, IACP-Award Winning author of Portico: Cooking and Feasting in Rome's Jewish Kitchen

Eastern European Soups, Stews & Other Things We Eat with a Spoon

I couldn’t love this book more. -- Diana Henry 
 
Just as you would tuck into a bowl of Alissa’s quince borscht or linger over her boozy, chocolate and smetana-layered trifle, I promise you will want to do the same with this deeply felt gem of a book. -- Polina ChesnakovaIn Lozhka, award-winning writer and co-founder of #CookforUkraine, Alissa Timoshkina celebrates Eastern Europe through one of its most humble and powerful symbols: the spoon. Blending soulful recipes with rich storytelling, she brings together history, memory and cookery in a portrait of the region that is both deeply comforting and strikingly contemporary. 
 
From herb-scented soups and hearty grain stews to pillowy dumplings and custard-soaked desserts, each dish carries a sense of meaning, memory and belonging. Drawing on a wide range of traditions, including Ukrainian, Jewish, Tatar, Hungarian, Polish, Slovak and Roma, amongst others, Lozhka reveals a borderless cuisine shaped by resilience and generosity. 
 
Vibrant, vegetable-led and full of smoky, tangy and creamy flavours, these recipes are made for today’s kitchens while honouring centuries of tradition. More than a cookbook, Lozhka is a journey through kitchens, cultures and shared histories – an invitation to slow down, gather round and savour the stories carried in every spoonful.

Alissa Timoshkina

Books by Alissa Timoshkina

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