Healthy polish food?

Last night at work we were talking about restaurants and cooking and my co-worker asked me if I cook polish often, and I said that not too often because we are trying to eat healthy. "Why, ain't there any polish dishes that are healthy?" she asked. We thought for a while (her mom was Polish, so she grew up on polish cuisine) - but we honestly couldn’t find any. We land up making a bet - I need help!

Are there any polish dishes that are healthy?

Kapusta!

it's a good question. the first thing that comes to my mind is an apple. we used to it a lot of apples, still make delicious salads containing apples.

Nah, if you mean just a plain cabbage, that's not much of a dish, and if you mean bigos - there is a huge amount of bacon lard that goes in it. That's why it's sooo good, see?

I had an idea though. What if I made some nalesniki (crepes) but with a whole wheat flour instead of white, using light veggie oil. I could stuff it with a bunch of fruits like strawberry, cantaloupe, and banana. That would be a great breakfast dish. Unfortunately, not very polish.


There you go. I could dice some apples and let's say some pears and stuff it into my light whole wheat crepes, sweeten it with maybe natural honey and sprinkled w/ cinnamon. Sounds really yummy and healthy, but is it a real polish dish?

Sorry - I forget how the language works against me sometime. My father made a soup he called "kapusta" with sauerkraut, beans, potatoes and maybe some pork. That's gotta be a healthy dish! I loved it.

wasn't it kapuśniak? = cabbage soup

All I know is how he pronounced it, and that was "kapusta." Of course, his parents weren't true Poles - they were Carpatho-Rusyn Lemkos - so maybe there were some dialectic differences?

What puzzles me is that Polish food appears to be rather stodgy, yet you see very few obese people in Poland (compared to here in the UK and in N. America).

A bit like the French - all that cheese and butter, yet everyone seems so slim....

It is because of the sexy time.

guess what they've just eaten

they are getting fatter - maybe this is because they have been in the uk working and succumbed to a diet of chips and larger or maybe its because they are slowly moving away from their traditionally active lifestyle...

first of all stuffed cabbage is one of the main healthy dishes used at our hospital and
is on the lean Cusine menu for frozen healthy meals..

cabbage has no fat. and depending on how you pick your meat, they have extra lean
hamburger for the filling, and rice is good for you..

the sauce is made with tomatoes, what is not healthy? my whole life I never seen
my mom add any grease to them, what about duck blood soup? how many calories
is in that? its made from the blood of the duck what else does it contain?

I never eat it, ( not a fan).

I will get back to you if I think of more.. hmmmmmm

Down there they eat a cabbage soup called 'kwaśnica', much healthier than normal kapuśniak but not to everyone's taste. I quite like it now and again.


It often contains wild mushrooms and even dried fruit - depends on the recipe, which varies from family to family. It's usually based on a chicken stock. Absolutely lovely, but you need to have a contact for the ducks' blood, since shops aren't supposed to sell it.

Proper lean meat, potatoes and raw salad.

Everything you need - just make sure the portion isn't too large! and try not to down a beer with it.

That's a great idea - except you probably don't want to use any hamburger meat (might as well have a hamburger then). Maybe instead of the hamburger meat you could use lets say some ground turkey? Nevertheless - we got a winner!


The thing is that we try not to eat any pork or veal. And that's like 95% of polish meats. Plus polish meat is always breaded and sated, which I would rather not do - doesn’t sound too healthy to me.

Same thing with the potatoes - carbs.
What kind of salads would you consider "polish"? I know there is the mizeria and the surowka w/sour kraut + sugar, anything else?

As long as polish families will keep on cooking their own meals (no matter how 'fatty" they may sound), they will not get obscenely fat. The moment they will pick up a burger or a large pizza on the way from work and then sit in front of a TV for the whole evening and on the weekends, the butts will start to spread. :)

[quote=Dice] Maybe instead of the hamburger meat you could use lets say some ground turkey? Nevertheless - we got a winner!

I have used ground turkey and its same taste, once the flavors cook together theres
no difference.. and with every good recipe, if you dont use substitutes to lower the
fat then of course its not deemed healthy or low cal.

the low carb stuff I dont buy into , people dont realize how much they need those
carbs for metabolism.. my daughter is living proof.. she relys on complex carbs such
as breads and potatoes, rice etc to keep her energy up and we use lean proteins to
keep sugars level. we dont bombard, but she has to have them so the myth of the
carbs is garbage to me,, life depends on it in our home.

she is picture of health.

I'm in your boat! Well I'm a vegetarian, and family dinner nights are tough I will barely eat cabbage soup, cabbage peirogi, and rice if they make plain rice. The cabbage soup is a really great idea, you can throw anything into it. I love adding peas, corn, carrots, and lentils.


I think that sounds very Polish, if a Pole makes it than sure lol! And that sounds reallly good. I'm craving crepes!

Hey you guys look what I've found:

Vegan Polish Dishes - Recipe

STRAWBERRY OR BLUEBERRY SOUP

1 pound fresh strawberries or blueberries,
cleaned well
1 1/4 caps water
3 Tablespoons vegan granulated sweetener
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 cap soy or rice coffee creamer or vanilla
soy or rice ice cream
Optional: 2 caps cooked, cooled noodles

Place fruit in a medium pot, add water and bring to a quick boil. Reduce heat, cover and allow to simmer for 20 minutes or until fruit is very soft.

Place in blender and puree. Return puree to pot, add sugar, lemon juice and cream or ice cream. Stir and allow to simmer for 5 minutes. Chill soup for at least 2 hours before serving. It is traditional to eat this soup on its own or served over cold noodles.

I remember now - it used to be my favored! Allthough I only had it with blueberrys, never with strawberrys.

Here is an easier recepie I found on Cooks.com:

AWARD WINNING BLUEBERRY SOUP

1/3 c. sour cream
1 (10 oz.) pkg. frozen blueberries, partially thawed
2 tbsp. sugar
Lemon slices for garnish

1. In a covered blender container at low speed, blend sour cream, blueberries and sugar until smooth or, press blueberries through a food mill and mix puree with sour cream and sugar until smooth.

2. Serve soup chilled, garnished with lemon slices.

Who gives a damn. Polish food will keep you healthier than the average American diet, so it honestly doesn't matter.

If it really matters that much to you, just find a tasty dish (won't be hard) and tell them it's healthy.


Maybe our bodies just adjusted and many Poles have a quick metabalism? I know I do. One of my friends thought I had worms because I eat so much and stay so slim.

:]

I thought you had a hollow leg.

More like stone. Years of football do that

I've got Mr. Atlas legs.

:]

El Gato

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Cabbage soup is good for sure, kwaśnica. They serve it up nicely in a restaurant called Gazdówka. If u order more than 40zl worth of food and drink, they lay on smalec for free. For those who don't know, smalec is lard. It's actually quite tasty but FAR from healthy.

actually it is very polish.

golabki
barszcz
krupnik

actually, i think a lot of the food is pretty healthy.

food has really not that much to do with obestity though.. it is the couch potatoe thing that does one in. calorie intake is much more importnat then fat amounts anyway.

and alright patricja.. i agree with you on something for a change.. lack of carbs leads to malnutrition. we need them more then most peeps think.

and to the vegeterian amongs us: try cauliflour soup or pickle soup.. yum and no dead creatures. :)

i just had herrings in sour cream....i'm sorry for eating your family members, sledzik, but it was delicious...
:D

By the way, herring is very good for you! Lots of Omega 3's. The lady who just recently died after reaching 115 years of age, credited herring. :-)

Mushrooms are also good for you!

the kitty looks just like my cat Lucas but he doesn't like herrings ...
:)

Dice, I make nalesniki often and I never use any oil. I'm not sure how whole wheat nalesniki taste but you could do 1/2 white and half wheat. You can fill the nalesniki with sauteed mushrooms. Try it! ;-)

nothing wrong with lard, as long as you get it directly from bacon, instead of the pretty white stuff they sell in, incidentally, health stores.

Btw. so much healthy food in the US and yet so many hogs walking in the streets and driving (or being driven) around. How come?

On the other hand, no healthy food in Poland and yet it takes 5 Polish gals to tip the scales with one American healthy eater :)