A good sumptuous meal is enough to make a holiday merrier. When your family is coming to visit and catch up over delicious dishes is heartwarming. Forget about the usual food you have been preparing over the years. Here are some fantastic Polish food recipes that are a must-try during the festive season.

1. Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Cooking the cabbage rolls requires having several ingredients, but it is an easy dish to prepare. You will need a whole cabbage, beef, rice, onions, garlic, and tomato sauce. The cabbage gets boiled whole for about fifteen minutes to make the leaves soft.

Cabbage rolls are some of the best Polish recipes to have during festive occasions. You can then use the soft leaves to wrap around minced beef or pork, rice, and chopped onions, which you will later bake or cook on a slow cooker. For topping and serving, you will use tomato sauce, preferably homemade.

2. Kotlet Schabowy

It may not have Polish ingredients, but this dish has its deep roots in Poland. You can find it in most traditional Polish restaurants. You can prepare it at home using pork chop, preferably without bones, and served with cabbage, potatoes, or mushrooms.

You can use milk and sliced onions to marinate the pork for two hours though this is optional. Apart from the boneless pork, you will need flour, eggs, breadcrumbs, oil, salt, and pepper. You will use a cutting board to pound the pork chops flat and season using pepper and salt. In separate plates, put flour, beaten eggs, and breadcrumbs. You will dip the chops in the flour, followed by eggs, and finally breadcrumbs.

In medium heat, fry the chops in a pan, turn both sides, and serve while still hot.

3. Golonka Pieczona

Golonka Pieczona is roasted pork, and it is one dish that hardly misses at parties and banquets. You can serve it with cabbage, potatoes, rice, or mixed vegetables. To prepare it, you need Golonka, beer, stock, vegetables, beer, and honey.

Season the Golonka with pepper and salt. Brown it on a medium heat using olive oil. You will then add the beer and stock and simmer for two hours. Add the vegetables when the meal is halfway cooked. When they are ready, you will baste the mixture using beer and honey and bake for at least 20 minutes.

4. Chłodnik

Chlodnik is a beetroot soup served cold with dill and a halved boiled egg served inside it. The soup consists of rich pink colour. It is usually consumed as a starter. You can have it with bread on a hot summer day for a refreshing meal.

Chlodnik has a bright pink colour due to the use of beetroots in its preparation. Other ingredients include cucumbers, radishes, dill, green onions, plain yoghurt, buttermilk, sour cream, boiled eggs, and salt or pepper to taste. You will simmer the grated beets with salt in a soup pan. After 15 minutes of simmering, cool the mixture and add other ingredients. Season with pepper and salt and serve cold with a hard-boiled egg inside it.