cevapi: Balkan dish including pieces of minced meat served in flatbread or on a plate. Typically eaten with chopped onions and sour cream, similar to a kebab.

White beans and caramelized onions are seasoned with paprika, garlic, and bay leaves in this casserole.
Pebranac is a satisfying and inexpensive dish that has been created by farmers to greatly help them complete the harsh winters.
Recipes differ from one family to the next because this is a dish that is passed down through the years.
It’s a traditional Balkan comfort food served at room temperature with warm crusty bread.

• Ajvar is a type of food called a ‘zimnica’ in the former Yugoslav states, meaning a winter preparation.
• Ćevapi is a type of grilled minced meat produced from the famous Turkish
• Goulash is popular in many parts of the Balkans like Albania, Croatia, and Slovenia, though it’s especially popular in Serbia.

Its founded on Ottoman cuisine and draws from the culinary traditions of Turkey, Greece, Persia, and the Arab countries.
Influences from Mediterranean and Central European cuisines are also prevalent.
The Balkans refers to a geographic/geopolitical region in southeastern Europe.
It takes its name from the Balkan Mountains and can also be known as the Balkan Peninsula or Southeast Europe.

Balkan countries have a lot of things in common, like the love for Pljeskavica, that is a type of grilled dish.
Despite being among Serbia’s national dishes, it is hugely popular in Bosnia as well.
Drawing its name from the famous Turkish Kebab, Ćevapi is a mixture of grilled minced beef and/ or mutton.
It is seasoned with spices and shaped into short phallic shapes.

Another national dish that alternates layers of vegetables and beef into a stoneware pot and is cooked all night before meat just melts in your mouth.
Vegetables can include anything grown in the garden including tomatoes, potatoes, cauliflower, carrots, peppers and garlic.
Mekitsa dough is normally made with flour, eggs, yogurt, water, oil, salt, and a leavening agent.
After the dough rises, it’s torn into small pieces and then flattened into discs before being deep-fried in oil.

Prior to the 1930s, they spread to the rest of Yugoslavia, including east of Serbia and the Macedonia region.
By 1932, ćevapčići were regarded a local specialty in southern Serbia, Skopje and Peć.
In 1933, the first street food vendor appeared in Maribor, Slovenia, who came from Leskovac, and served grilled meat, including ćevapčići.
In the second half of the 20th century, ćevapčići along with other Oriental dishes entered Croatian cuisine.
The Leskovac-styled grilled meat, including ćevapčići, have today become part of everyday-diet in Slovenia.
Today, ćevapčići are located outside former Yugoslavia in the diaspora communities.

It can also be filled with other ingredients like cottage cheese , spinach and cheese , and potatoes (krompiruša).
As described, sarma is a type of dolma made with cabbage leaves wrapped around a filling comprising rice or bulgur, minced meat, herbs, and seasonings.
It can be made with vine or chard leaves however the most popular version is wrapped inside pickled cabbage leaves.

It can also be served in a thin bun called lepinja, like the Turkish Pide.
The traditional, and preferred, way of grilling ćevapčići is by using glowing coals beneath a grill.
Although ćevapčići is a formal diminutive, ćevapčići from Leskovac are longer (10–12 cm) than Bosnian ćevapi (5–8 cm).
The Leskovac recipe was the one that became popular in Belgrade through the 19th century and spread all over Yugoslavia, Europe and United States.
Typically 5-10 pieces of Ćevapi are served on a flatbread or on a plate with the ajvar, sour cream, salt, chopped onions and kajmak.
Different meats can be utilized in different variations of the dish but the traditional Serbian type usually contains lamb, beef or pork, or a mix of these.

True to its simple and rustic roots, Prebranac doesn’t take much to get ready.
Boiled beans are baked with sauteed onions and herbs for flavoring; that’s what it’s about.