What to eat for Easter in Slovenia

Easter time is the time when families come together and this has to be accompanied with delicious food, as it usually happens during the holidays. The 40-days Lent is over and now the tables are laden with delightful food. Do you want to know what kind of food is put on Slovenian tables? Let me share some of the typical Easter dishes with you.

The famous, traditional Slovenian nut roll can have many fillings, there are known to be more than 80 different ones that vary from sweet to salty. Potica with tarragon is the version that is most distinctly Slovenian, other fillings are made with poppy seeds, coconut, and nowadays the most popular variation – the walnut potica. This is the one my grandma used to bake for me. It was made in a special, circular shape that is called “šarkelj” and she decorated it with a red Easter egg she put in the hole in the middle of this nut roll. Even though one can buy some tasty potica in supermarket, it is usually baked at home.

In the westernmost part of Slovenia there is another type of sweet bread present, called “pinca”, which is more popular in countries south of Slovenia. This delicious Easter bread comes in the shape of birds, nests, and braids and can be decorated with colored eggs, often made even more delicious with added raisins and candied fruit.

An Easter egg in Slovenia has many names (pirhi, rumenke, pisanke…) and the ways, how to decorate them, are even more numerous. You can really let out your creative beast, since there are no rules and limitations on how to decorate Easter eggs nowadays. Quite popular are the natural dyes like red onion skins, spinach leaves, beetroot, or teran wine. People usually decorate the eggs by themselves, making a nice home decoration or lovely Easter presents.

Easter eggs are used in many types of dishes and are often combined with salads or horseradish. An interesting and popular dish is a cold horseradish sauce, prepared with eggs, apples, pumpkin oil and vinegar. It is best to be served with the smoked ham or other meat, that is popular in the Easter time, like smoked pork or sausages.

These were some of the Slovenian Easter dishes, hopefully you will get to taste a few of them. Maybe you can even manage to get to see the Easter egg exhibition in Ljubljana Castle or stroll through the food markets, there are definitely many things worth seeing – and tasting. Sorry, only talking about all this delicious food made me gain a few pounds, but don’t worry, there are enough activities to do in this beautiful green country. Gotta go now, there is another piece of potica waiting for me ;)