Traditional Polish Christmas Recipes: Barszcz, Pierogi, Kutia and Makowiec

Traditional Polish Christmas recipes are meatless dishes built from beets, mushrooms, sauerkraut, wheat, poppy seed and honey. Five of them appear on most Wigilia tables: red barszcz, a clear beet soup; uszka, tiny mushroom dumplings served in the soup; pierogi filled with sauerkraut and mushrooms; kutia, a wheat-berry pudding; and makowiec, a poppy seed roll. Below you will find each recipe step by step, with metric and imperial measures, and a simple plan for spreading the work over several days.

This article is part of our Wigilia series. If you are new to the tradition itself, start with What Is Wigilia?, and for the full menu see What Are the 12 Dishes of Polish Christmas Eve?.

Quick answer

• Meatless. Wigilia grew out of the Christmas Eve fast, so all of these recipes contain no meat.
• Make-ahead friendly. Kutia, makowiec and barszcz all taste better after a day of resting.
• Two ingredients matter most: dried mushrooms (porcini work well) and poppy seeds.
• Small portions. Custom says to taste every dish, so each recipe serves many people with a small portion each.

A simple cooking timeline

1. Red barszcz (beet soup)

Serves 6 to 8. About 1 hour 15 minutes.

Ingredients

• 800 g (1¾ lb) red beets, peeled and sliced
• 2 carrots, 1 parsnip and 1 small celery root or 2 celery stalks
• 1 onion, halved
• 15 g (½ oz) dried porcini mushrooms
• 2 liters (8 cups) water
• 5 allspice berries, 2 bay leaves, 5 peppercorns
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tsp dried marjoram
• 2 tbsp lemon juice or red wine vinegar
• Salt and a pinch of sugar, to taste

Method

1. Simmer the mushrooms, carrots, parsnip, celery, onion, allspice, bay leaves and peppercorns in the water for 40 minutes.
2. Add the beets and simmer gently for 20 to 25 minutes, until tender. A hard boil dulls the color.
3. Strain the soup. Keep the mushrooms for the uszka filling below and discard the other vegetables.
4. Return the broth to the pot. Add the garlic, marjoram, lemon juice, salt and sugar, tasting as you go. Warm through without boiling and serve very hot.

2. Uszka (mushroom dumplings)

Makes about 40. About 1 hour plus resting.

Ingredients

• Dough: 250 g (2 cups) flour, 1 egg, 100 to 120 ml (about ½ cup) warm water, ½ tsp salt
• Filling: 30 g (1 oz) dried porcini soaked in hot water for 30 minutes, or the mushrooms saved from the barszcz
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp butter or oil
• 1 tbsp breadcrumbs
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. Soften the onion in the butter until golden. Add the drained, finely chopped mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the breadcrumbs, salt and pepper, and let the filling cool.
2. Knead the dough for 5 minutes until smooth. Cover and rest for 20 to 30 minutes.
3. Roll the dough very thin, about 2 mm (1/16 in), and cut into 5 cm (2 in) squares.
4. Place ½ tsp filling on each square, fold into a triangle, then pinch the two long corners together around a fingertip to make a small ear shape.
5. Simmer in salted water for 2 to 3 minutes after they rise to the surface. Serve in hot barszcz.

3. Pierogi with sauerkraut and mushrooms

Makes about 40. About 1 hour 30 minutes plus resting.

Ingredients

• Dough: 500 g (4 cups) flour, 240 ml (1 cup) warm water, 2 tbsp oil, ½ tsp salt
• Filling: 500 g (1 lb) sauerkraut
• 30 g (1 oz) dried mushrooms, soaked in hot water
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 tbsp oil
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. Rinse the sauerkraut if it is very sour. Simmer it in water for 20 to 30 minutes, drain, squeeze dry and chop finely.
2. Simmer the soaked mushrooms for 15 minutes and chop. Fry the onion in the oil until golden, then add the sauerkraut and mushrooms and cook for 10 minutes. Season and cool.
3. Mix the dough ingredients and knead for about 8 minutes until smooth. Cover and rest for 30 minutes.
4. Roll the dough to 2 to 3 mm, cut 7 cm (3 in) circles, put 1 heaped tsp of filling on each, fold over and pinch firmly to seal.
5. Boil in salted water in batches, 3 to 4 minutes after they float. Serve with fried onion or a little melted butter.

4. Kutia (wheat-berry pudding)

Serves 8 to 10. Soaking overnight, then about 2 hours.

Kutia is a sweet, sticky pudding of wheat berries, poppy seed, nuts and honey. It is especially popular in eastern Poland, and poppy seed is traditionally linked with abundance.

Ingredients

• 200 g (1 cup) wheat berries
• 100 g (¾ cup) poppy seeds
• 250 ml (1 cup) milk
• 3 tbsp honey, or to taste
• 60 g (½ cup) chopped walnuts and almonds
• 60 g (½ cup) raisins

Method

1. Soak the wheat berries overnight in hot water. Drain, cover with fresh water and cook for about 90 minutes until tender. Drain and cool.
2. Simmer the poppy seeds in the milk for about 40 minutes, strain, and grind twice in a grinder or blender until they form a paste.
3. Combine the wheat berries, poppy seed paste, nuts, raisins and honey.
4. Chill for a few hours. The flavor deepens overnight.

5. Makowiec (poppy seed roll)

Makes 1 large roll. About 2 hours 30 minutes including rising.

Ingredients

• Dough: 500 g (4 cups) flour, 7 g (2¼ tsp) instant yeast, 60 g (¼ cup) sugar, ½ tsp salt, 250 ml (1 cup) warm milk, 2 egg yolks, 60 g (4 tbsp) melted butter
• Filling: 250 g (1½ cups) ground poppy seeds, 250 ml (1 cup) milk, 100 g (½ cup) sugar, 50 g (3½ tbsp) butter, 60 g (½ cup) raisins, 40 g (⅓ cup) chopped almonds, zest of 1 orange
• 1 beaten egg, for brushing

Method

1. Mix the flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Add the milk, yolks and butter, knead for 10 minutes and let rise, covered, for about 1 hour until doubled.
2. Simmer the poppy seeds with the milk, sugar and butter for about 20 minutes until thick. Cool, then stir in the raisins, almonds and orange zest.
3. Roll the dough into a rectangle about 30 × 40 cm (12 × 16 in). Spread the filling, leaving a 2 cm (¾ in) border, and roll up tightly.
4. Place seam-side down on a lined tray, let rest for 30 minutes, brush with egg and bake at 175°C (350°F) for 40 to 45 minutes until golden.
5. Cool completely before slicing.

Short on time? Store-bought poppy seed filling is a perfectly good shortcut.

Tips for cooks outside Poland

• Dried mushrooms: dried porcini are the closest substitute for Polish forest mushrooms.
• Sauerkraut: buy the refrigerated, naturally fermented kind if you can, and always squeeze it dry.
• Poppy seeds: look in the baking or spice aisle, and grind them fresh for the best flavor.
• Vegan guests: the barszcz and pierogi are easy to keep vegan, and kutia works with plant milk and maple syrup in place of honey.

If you want the full story behind each dish, plus 150 recipes across six regions of Poland with metric and imperial measures and substitution notes, see Wigilia: A Polish Christmas Cookbook of Three Tables.

Key takeaways

• Five recipes cover the classic Wigilia flavors: barszcz, uszka, sauerkraut pierogi, kutia and makowiec.
• Everything is meatless, following the Christmas Eve fast.
• Most of the work can be done one to two days ahead.
• Dried mushrooms and poppy seeds are the ingredients to buy first.

Coming next in this series: How to Plan a 12-Dish Wigilia Feast.

Sources

• Kutia (Kutya): Poppy Seed Dessert with Wheat Berries, Polonist (kutia ingredients, wheat-berry and poppy seed preparation, regional popularity and poppy seed symbolism).
• The Foods & Traditions of ‘Wigilia’, In Your Pocket Warsaw (meatless meal, twelve dishes, customs of tasting each dish).