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From the community’s kitchens

Macedonian Cuisine

A central collection of Macedonian recipes — begun by the home cooks of the Macedonian community in Ontario, and widened to the dishes cooked across Macedonia itself.

140 recipes

10 home cooks

48 fasting

6 courses

48 recipes
Photograph Recipe Course Contributor Time Ingredients
It’s Friday — tavče gravče day! It’s Friday — tavče gravče day! The national dish: Tetovo beans, a great deal of paprika, and an earthenware pan. It is fasting food by nature, which is why it is on every... Main course Fasting Туѓино Јабано 2 hr 50 min 10
Ajvar Ajvar A slow-cooked roasted red pepper relish that families make together each autumn and jar for the winter. Starter Fasting Туѓино Јабано 4 hr 10 min 7
Macedonian salad (roasted pepper) Macedonian salad (roasted pepper) A late-summer salad of roasted peppers and tomato, dressed with oil and vinegar and eaten with bread. Salad Fasting Туѓино Јабано 1 hr 15 min 9
Turli tava (fasting) Turli tava (fasting) Mixed summer vegetables baked slowly in an earthenware dish; the name is the Turkish *turli*, meaning mixed. Main course Fasting Туѓино Јабано 1 hr 40 min 12
Pindjur Pindjur The softer cousin of ajvar: roasted peppers and aubergine with tomato, garlic and vinegar, for the end of summer. Starter Fasting Туѓино Јабано 2 hr 30 min 9
Malidzano Malidzano A cold spread of roasted aubergine and green peppers, eaten with bread on any meze table. Starter Fasting Туѓино Јабано 2 hr 11
Kompir mandža Kompir mandža Potatoes braised in onion and paprika — the plainest of the fasting dishes and the one most often cooked through Lent. Main course Fasting Туѓино Јабано 1 hr 10
Roasted pepper salad Roasted pepper salad An autumn salad of roasted peppers with garlic and parsley that keeps in the fridge and improves for days. Salad Fasting Туѓино Јабано 1 hr 10 min 7
Lutenica Lutenica A winter preserve of roasted peppers and tomatoes with carrot and chillies — sharper and looser than ajvar. Starter Fasting Туѓино Јабано 2 hr 30 min 9
Anyone fasting? Come and have fish gjuveč! Anyone fasting? Come and have fish gjuveč! River fish under an enormous quantity of onion, cooked until the onion disappears into the sauce entirely. Fasting food, written for the fas... Main course Fasting Туѓино Јабано 1 hr 30 min 13
Turshija (pickled vegetables) Turshija (pickled vegetables) Autumn vegetables put down in brine and eaten right through the winter, beside beans, stews and bread. Starter Fasting Туѓино Јабано 1 hr 15 min 14
Bean chorba Bean chorba The looser relative of tavče gravče: beans simmered with root vegetables and finished with a paprika roux. Soups & chorba Fasting Туѓино Јабано 2 hr 20 min 13
Semolina halva Semolina halva Semolina fried in oil until it darkens, then drowned in hot syrup — a fasting sweet made for memorials and for Lent. Sweet Fasting Туѓино Јабано 40 min 8
Gjevrečinja Gjevrečinja Rings of dough boiled first in honeyed water, then rolled in sesame and baked. Suitable for fasting exactly as written. Pastry & pies Fasting Кире Банишки 1 hr 55 min 7
Stuffed carp Stuffed carp A whole lake carp stuffed with onion and carrot and baked in white wine, eaten during the fast. Main course Fasting Туѓино Јабано 1 hr 45 min 11
Cold bean salad Cold bean salad Boiled beans with two kinds of onion, garlic, oil and vinegar, chilled well and finished with mint. Fasting food, and a summer dish. Salad Fasting Донка Цапова 1 hr 50 min 9
Lentil chorba Lentil chorba A thick fasting soup of brown lentils and paprika, eaten right through Lent and on any cold day. Soups & chorba Fasting Туѓино Јабано 1 hr 20 min 16
Fried cironki Fried cironki Small lake fish rolled in flour and fried whole — fasting food from the shores of Ohrid and Dojran. Main course Fasting Туѓино Јабано 30 min 9
Kachamak Kachamak Cornmeal porridge stirred until it leaves the sides of the pot — mountain food, and fasting food when made with oil. Main course Fasting Туѓино Јабано 45 min 6
Cabbage with rice Cabbage with rice Braised cabbage and rice in one pan — cheap, fasting food, and one of those dishes everybody remembers from home. Main course Fasting Туѓино Јабано 1 hr 5 min 10
Roasted peppers with garlic Roasted peppers with garlic Three ingredients and a way of roasting that every Macedonian household knows by heart. Starter Fasting Туѓино Јабано 1 hr 10 min 6
Makalo Makalo A thick garlic and dried pepper sauce for dipping bread — what went with the grill in every old tavern. Starter Fasting Туѓино Јабано 25 min 7
Cironka with garlic and vinegar Cironka with garlic and vinegar Salted, sun-dried lake fish from Prespa, softened and dressed with garlic and vinegar for the fasting table. Starter Fasting Туѓино Јабано 1 hr 5 min 9
Cabbage salad Cabbage salad Finely shredded white cabbage with vinegar and oil, the winter salad set beside tavče gravče. Salad Fasting Туѓино Јабано 45 min 9

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Every recipe on this site is published in all three languages. Write yours in whichever one you cook in — we will take care of the other two.

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Fasting means no meat, no dairy and no eggs. Fish is treated as permitted.

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About the collection A cookbook written by a community

At the core of this collection are 32 recipes gathered from readers of Tugjino Jabano, a newspaper of the Macedonian community in Ontario. Each was written out by the cook herself, measured in cups and spoons, the way a dish is made at home.

The collection has been widened with dishes cooked across Macedonia.

The archive recipes keep their original substance; where the instructions were too brief to follow, clarifications have been added. The untouched 2005 text is preserved in the society’s archive. The photographs on these pages are modern illustrations made for the collection — the contributors’ own photographs stay in the archive beside their words.

The Fasting mark means the recipe as written contains no meat, dairy or eggs. This collection treats fish as permitted throughout the fasting periods; for the stricter days, check the ingredients yourself.

The cooks

The original page tugjinojabano.com/cuisine.php was created by Aco Lukaroski and donated to the Canadian Macedonian Heritage Society.