Easter in Slovenia is a holiday closely linked to tradition and ancient customs.
As Easter tradition dictates, there will be a big Easter breakfast on Easter Monday, which will certainly not lack Easter delicacies. Among them will certainly be Easter eggs or pirhi, walnut potica and cooked ham.
Traditional Slovenian Easter dishes
Celebrate Easter surrounded by flavors passed down from generation to generation. Every year, we carefully prepare traditional Easter dishes according to our grandmothers' recipes. This year, get ready for one of Slovenia's favorite holidays and delight your family.
Start your holiday with a typical Easter breakfast, where the table must feature characteristic dishes such as meat, horseradish, bread or potica, and pirhi – colorful boiled eggs that reflect Slovenia's cultural diversity and creativity. You also shouldn't miss the opportunity to try ham in dough, which you can even prepare yourself. Even after a hearty lunch, sweet lovers will find room for potica, a delicious traditional dessert that will certainly spice up every Slovenian holiday.
Horseradish recipe
Horseradish is an essential ingredient on the Easter table. It can be prepared in various ways, just grated (finely or coarsely), or for those who find it too strong, with the addition of apple. This will further enhance your Easter feast.
- 30 g horseradish
- 1 apple
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon oil
- a pinch of salt
Mix all ingredients well. It's important that the horseradish and apple are grated to the same thickness.
Horseradish with sour cream recipe
- 60 g horseradish
- 6 tablespoons sour cream
- a pinch of salt
Mix all ingredients well. The ratio of horseradish to sour cream can be adjusted to taste.
Ham in dough – traditional Easter dish
Ham in dough recipe
Ingredients:
- Ingredients for 8 servings:
- 1 kg smoked ham
- 80 g mustard
- 2 tablespoons rosemary
- 400 g flour
- 10 g fresh yeast
- 2 tablespoons lukewarm milk
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 0.5 teaspoon salt
- 50 g butter
- 3 dl milk
- 1 egg
Preparation
Wash the ham thoroughly in lukewarm water, place it in a pot and add enough water to cover it by two fingers. Cook it for one hour.
While the ham is cooking, prepare the dough. Crumble the yeast into a cup, add a teaspoon of sugar, 2 tablespoons of lukewarm milk and a teaspoon of flour. Mix, cover and let rise for ten minutes. Sift the flour and pour it into a bowl. Salt along the edge, and make a well in the middle, into which pour the risen yeast, mix it with a little flour and let it rise for another ten minutes.
Melt the butter in a small pot with milk, let it cool to lukewarm and pour the mixture over the flour. Knead the dough until it is smooth and pliable and does not stick to your hands or the bowl.
Form the dough into a ball, cover it and let it rest in a warm place until its volume doubles (about one hour), then knead it well, form it into a ball, cover and let it rise again.
Preheat oven to 180 °C. Roll out the dough on a floured surface to one centimeter thick. Chop the rosemary. Place the ham on the dough, spread with mustard and sprinkle with rosemary. Wrap the ham with the dough. Pinch the edges together well so that the dough does not open during baking. Grease and flour a baking dish. Place the ham in dough in the baking dish so that the dough seams are facing down. Brush the dough with beaten egg. Make a small hole in the top of the dough so that steam can escape during baking. Bake for one hour in the preheated oven. Transfer the baked ham to a serving plate and cut it into slices.
Recipe adapted from: Slovenian Tourist Organisation
Cooked ham
- 1 kg homemade smoked ham
Place the ham in a large pot and add enough cold water to fully cover it. Cook the ham on medium heat for 60 minutes. Once the ham is cooked, remove the pot from the heat and let the ham cool in the water it was cooked in. This will make it juicier. I love it when it's still slightly warm when sliced thinly and placed on the festive table.
Easter eggs – pirhi
Easter eggs, called pirhi in Slovenia, are certainly in the spotlight during the Easter holidays. They are an Easter decoration that should not be missing from any table.
EGGS IN ONION SKINS
We start collecting onion skins about a month before Easter. There must be enough skins to cover the eggs well. The more red onion skins there are, the darker the eggs-pirhi will be. How many eggs you will dye is up to you. To decorate the eggs, we collect various spring grasses, leaves, and flower blossoms from our home lawn. They should be as branched as possible, as this will make the pattern on the egg more distinct.
- eggs
- Dry onion skins (red and brown onions) – 60 g onion skins
- a few pinches of salt
- Various grasses, leaves, and flowers
- Thread
- Nylon stockings – cut into 10×10 cm pieces
To dye the eggs, we need a larger pot into which we put the onion skins. Add enough water to cover the onion skins and a few pinches of salt. Bring the mixture to a boil, remove from heat, and wait for it to cool. Boiled onion skins will give the eggs a more intense color.
Meanwhile, prepare the eggs. Place a chosen grass or flower on the raw egg, so that the top part of the grass or flower is facing the egg. Stretch a piece of nylon stocking, place it on the egg, carefully embracing it. Lift the egg and at the other end, squeeze the nylon stocking together and tie it securely with thread. As if tying candies.
Carefully place the prepared eggs into the already prepared water with onion skins. Once the water boils, cook the eggs on moderate heat for 10 minutes. Carefully remove the eggs and wait for them to cool slightly. Cut the nylon stockings with scissors and remove the plant from the shell with your fingers. For a nicer shine in the Easter basket, grease them with butter or lard.
EGGS IN TERAN WINE
- 1 liter of Teran wine
- Eggs
Pour Teran wine into a pot, place eggs in it, and cook on moderate heat for 10 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and leave the eggs in the wine until it cools. Carefully remove them and place them somewhere to dry. The Teran will provide a crimson color, and the sugar crystals in the wine will give the eggs a wonderful shine.
REVERSE EGGS
- eggs
- 3 tablespoons vinegar
- 5 bags of rosehip tea
- A few pinches of salt
Decorate raw eggs with plants in the same way as when dyeing in onion skins. In a large pot, put water, salt, vinegar, and loose rosehip tea bags. Place the decorated eggs in the liquid and cook on moderate heat for 10 minutes. Due to the acidity, the eggshell discolors, but where the plant is placed, the egg retains its original color.
Potica
Potica holds the top spot among Slovenian traditional holiday pastries. It is made from rolled and coiled yeast dough filled with various fillings. Slovenian housewives gladly bake it even on non-holiday days to pamper their loved ones. We know more than 80 different fillings that are rolled into the dough, which is how the rolled potica (po-vitica) got its name. You can read more about potica here.
WALNUT POTICA
Ingredients
Yeast dough:
- 1 kg flour,
- 3 dag yeast,
- 3–4 egg yolks,
- 3 dcl lukewarm milk,
- 12 dag butter,
- 1 teaspoon salt,
- 2 tablespoons sugar,
- lard for the mould.
Filling:
- 60–70 dag walnuts,
- 20 dag honey,
- 5 dag sugar,
- 1–2 dcl milk,
- 1 egg,
- cinnamon,
- a little rum or homemade brandy.
Preparation:
Prepare the dough in a warm place. Mix a teaspoon of salt into the flour, and mix the yeast with a teaspoon of sugar, 2 tablespoons of lukewarm milk, and ½ dcl lukewarm water or milk. Let it rise in a warm place. Make a well in the center of the flour, pour in the beaten eggs, yeast, melted butter, and sugar. Gradually add lukewarm milk while mixing. Beat for 15 minutes or until bubbles form and the dough separates from the bowl. Then sprinkle the dough with flour, cover with a cloth, and let it rise in a warm place.
For the filling, scald the crushed or ground walnuts with sweetened milk. Heat the honey until it becomes liquid. Add it to the walnuts and mix in the cinnamon. Let the filling cool, then add one or two eggs and mix until smooth. Roll out the dough to ½ cm thick and spread it with the still warm filling. Roll it up tightly and place it in a baking dish. Let the potica rise slowly. It will rise a little more in the oven. Before baking, brush the potica with beaten egg.
Bake it for one hour, and once baked, let it cool in the mould for another 15 minutes. If desired, sprinkle with powdered sugar at the end.
TARRAGON POTICA
Dough ingredients:
- 400 g all-purpose wheat flour
- 200 g strong wheat flour
- 42 g fresh yeast
- 100 g sugar
- 5 g salt
- 1 tablespoon rum
- 300 ml lukewarm milk
- 8 g vanilla sugar
- 50 g butter
- 4 egg yolks
- ½ grated lemon zest
Filling:
- 50 g butter
- 4 tablespoons breadcrumbs
- 1 egg
- 180 g sour cream
- 150 g sugar
- 8 g vanilla sugar
- 200 g fresh tarragon (leaves only) or 15 g dried tarragon
Additionally:
- Butter for greasing the potica mould
- Strong flour for dusting and rolling
- Powdered sugar
Thin wooden stick - Potica mould diameter 27 cm
Before we start preparing the dough, take the eggs and yeast out of the refrigerator at least half an hour beforehand to reach room temperature.
Sift the flour into a bowl, this will make it light and airy (a plastic one works best for me) in which we will knead the dough. Stir gently to combine both flours. If you are using any other bowl, make sure it is not cold, as this is not good for yeast dough.
Yeast starter: Crumble the yeast into a small bowl or cup, add 1 teaspoon of sugar, 4 tablespoons of lukewarm milk and 1 tablespoon of sifted flour. Stir gently, cover with a cloth and let rise at room temperature to double its volume (10-15 min).
Yolk mixture: In a bowl, cream together the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla sugar, rum, lemon zest, salt, and finally add the warm milk.
Melt the butter in a pan and wait for it to cool. It should not be too hot when we add it to the flour.
Make a well in the center of the sifted flour and pour in the yeast starter. Mix with a wooden spoon, taking flour from the edges of the bowl.
Add the egg yolk mixture and mix again, finally add the melted butter. Knead everything well (20 min) to get a smooth, silky dough that does not stick to the bowl or hands. If necessary, add a little strong flour. Form into a ball and cover with plastic wrap (or a lid) and let rise to double its volume (1-1.5 h). When rising, it is very important that the room is warm, as the dough rises best at temperatures above 25°C
While the dough is rising, prepare the filling. Fry the breadcrumbs in butter and wait for them to cool. Add the egg yolk, sour cream, vanilla sugar and mix. Beat the egg white until stiff, then add one tablespoon of sugar and a pinch of salt. Gently fold it into the other filling ingredients.
On a work surface, prepare a sufficiently large kitchen towel or a larger cotton cloth where you will roll out the risen dough and lightly dust it with strong flour.
Roll out the dough to a thickness of one finger (1cm). You will get a square of approx. 55x55 cm, which is the ideal size for a potica mould with a diameter of 27 cm.
Spread the filling evenly to all edges and sprinkle with tarragon and sugar.
Start rolling from the edge closest to you, pulling the dough slightly towards yourself each time. Continuously tuck in and press the edge of the dough firmly to prevent air from getting trapped inside. Roll the potica all the way to the end. When rolling the potica, it's important to roll the entire potica with your fingers, because if the potica is not rolled well, holes will form in the dough during baking.
Grease the potica mold very well with butter and use a kitchen towel to measure how long the rolled dough needs to be.
This way, we know how much to cut off each side of the edge so that the rolled dough fits snugly into the potica mold. Once the dough is transferred to the potica mold, pierce it multiple times down to the bottom with a thin wooden stick so that air has a clear path during rising, then cover it with a kitchen towel and place it in a warm spot for the potica to rise again (1 hour). Before baking, prick the potica once more and place it in an oven preheated to 180°C (fan oven) and bake for 1 hour.
If you see that the top of the dough has already turned golden brown before the end of baking, you can place baking paper on top of the potica; otherwise, do not open the oven during baking.
When the potica is baked (you can check this with a knife; if nothing sticks to the blade, it's baked), remove it from the oven and immediately turn it out of the mold, preferably onto a wooden surface, to cool. Once it's well-cooled, sprinkle it with powdered sugar.
The recipes are taken from the cookbook Cook Eat Slovenia, available in our online store.