Visiting my Serbian grandma ~ A little something on traditions and veganism

Emily and I have known each other for ten years, and it has been a long journey of many different phases, adventures and lots of laughter.

Some of the things that have stuck through all of this time is visits to my Grandma’s house for dinner. In our teens we slept over at her house ever so often, where she would serve us all kinds of crazy breakfasts, lunches and dinners. We have also visited my family’s house on the country side of Serbia together several times, and if it’s something we both love and enjoy, it is Serbian food. This post is a little tribute to our early food experiences together and my wonderful grandma. There will be no recipes today, only love and happy memories.

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Pita sa krompirom: Potato pies made of a flaky dough similar to filo pastry and potatoes. One of the main attractions for breakfast when we visit my family farm, always fresh out of the oven.

Serbian and Balkan food culture is often heavily meat-based, and one of the things I struggled a bit with letting go of on my way towards plant-based eating. My grandma was definitely very worried about the whole change, and I think it was a good mix of her worrying I wouldn’t survive of pure plants and the thought of having to change up all the traditional meals we all have been enjoying together. There is something about getting together, and eating what you've always been eating, right? And changes can be very scary, especially when it comes to food, traditions, and family. But we believe that most changes are good changes. The change of diet to one that is kind to our bodies and the animals around us was definitely one of those.

Luckily, I am blessed with a grandma who is a gifted cook, and not one to give up easily. One of her favorite things to do is to invite friends and family to dinner and to stop inviting us was never an option. Neither was letting us do the cooking ourselves… so she’s been reading Serbian cookbooks, magazines and blogs, to find ways to recreate our favorite traditional dishes. Today, she can pull of pretty much any dish she used to make with meat, and I will go as far as saying that the food is even more delicious now than it was back in the days when it still contained animal products.

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Grašak: Simply means "peas", and is a very basic soup/stew made from peas, carrots, smashes tomatoes and some other magic ingredients we have yet to figure out...

Last weekend I took a quick trip over to Oslo, and Grandma was quick to invite Emily and I for a dinner together, with some awesome Serbian food. It is something magical about these dinners, and the fact that we can keep having them in the good old traditional spirit, minus the animal products that usually goes with it. What is even cooler, is that Grandma has invited us for a food workshop in December, so we can finally learn her tips and tricks on how to make everything from scratch the Serbian way.

Pita sa jabukama: Sweet apple pies, also made from a flaky dough like filo, filled with apples and also often nuts. A wonderful desert to finish a good traditional meal with.

We cant wait to finally get or hands on these amongst many other recipes from the Balkans in a little months time. Both so we can share them all with you, and serve some of them for our future events. And of course, for the sake of being able to make and eat them again and again. Just thinking about it draws a big smile on my face... Oh, those sweet old traditions...

Do you have any favorite traditional meals that gives you those sweet flashbacks of the old days? What are they, and have you ever tried to make them plant-based?

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Love and light, Ada - Ambrosia crew.

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