Reth’s Lettuce Soup from Palia {Romanian Edition // Supă de Salată Verde}

Since having my second child last year, I haven’t had much time to myself (read: none), so my gaming habits have… suffered, to say the least. When I do find twenty minutes of quiet, I turn on my Switch and load my newest favorite cozy game: Palia. (Brought to you by the original developers of The Sims franchise).

While playing, I met Reth—the local Palian chef. And one soup he’s constantly mentioning is his famous Lettuce Soup.

Lettuce Soup… where have I heard that before?

That’s when I realized I have a favorite Romanian lettuce soup! It’s called Supă de Salată Verde {Green Lettuce Soup} and, yes, it is what you’re thinking: lettuce in a broth.

But it’s also so much more than that, too… there’s also sour cream! (Go figure.)

Since I thought others (especially fellow Palia players) might be interested in trying a lettuce soup, I’m sharing this recipe from my cookbook!

↓ Recipe below ↓

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Budincă de Dovlecei {Zucchini Pudding}

Budincă de Dovlecei (pronounced boo-deen-kuh deh dov-leh-chay) leans more into the realm of a pie than a pudding. However, regardless of the sugary terminology used, this dish is far from being a dessert!

As summer draws to a close, those who planted zucchini this year might find themselves inundated with this bountiful summer squash. Enter the recipe that lets you make the most of your harvest: Budincă de Dovlecei. Much like a crustless quiche, this dish offers a swift and simple way to prepare a delightful breakfast, brunch, or dinner!

↓ Recipe below ↓

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Biscuiți Șprițați {Sprinkled Cookies}

Biscuiți Șprițați (pronounced bee-s-choo-eats sh-preet-z-atz), also referred to as omidă (pronounced oh-mee-dah), which stands for caterpillar because of its shape, are buttery cookies that are just perfect for your holiday festivities, and can be decorated to your liking, like with a snowy dusting of powdered sugar, or dipped in fudgy chocolate!

Traditionally these cookies rely on a meat grinder and special attachment to form their funky shape (similar to the churro attachment that can be purchased here), however, these can also be cut by hand. The shape won’t affect how these taste (which is delicious, by the way).

↓ Recipe below ↓

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Ciorbă de Lobodă {Wolf Soup}

I was sitting out in my backyard with my mom when she looked over to our untamed planter box (we have a newborn aka our garden has sort of fallen by the wayside) and pointed out a weed that she said her grandmother, my great-grandmother, used to make a soup out of, and they’d call it Ciorbă de Lobodă (pronounced chore-bah day low-bow-dah). Naturally, I had to look up what this weed was (and taste it, but that’s beside the point…). Turns out, it goes by many names, like Lamb’s Quarters or Wild Spinach. Sure enough, tasting it, it did sort of resemble spinach!

So, instead of ripping it out, I decided to hang onto it, harvest it, and make some summer soup!

↓ Recipe below ↓

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Pasta de Cartofi cu Pâine și Zahăr {Romanian Potato Pasta with Bread and Sugar}

Bună băieți. De mult timp, nici un chat!

Hey guys. Long time, no chat!

I know it’s been a while since I’ve blogged. I could say life got in the way (it did), or I haven’t been cooking Romanian foods as often (I haven’t), but really I just didn’t prioritize blogging as much as I should have. I know my blogging schedule was lax to begin with (every/other Monday), but it became really lax, more like every/other half year.

So sorry. I hope to make From Dill to Dracula more of a priority in my life, because this food—and this country—really do fill me with happiness, joy, and warmth, and I still want to share these feelings and recipes with the world.

Guys… I’m back!

This past weekend, my little—but not so little—sister came to visit this past weekend. I like her more and more as we get older. Here we are out for drinks one evening:

Good people 🙂

And she brought with her the request to make this recipe during her visit. As kids, we affectionately called it Noodlies (pronounced: nude-lees), though I can tell you with great confidence that this is not the authentic name, no matter how fun it is to say. Noodlies. Noo-oo-d-lee-ee-ss.

C’mon, you know what I’m talking about.

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Romanian Flatbread

Romanian Flatbread | From Dill To Dracula www.FromDillToDracula.com

You’ll notice I don’t have the Romanian translation of this blog title. That’s because I’m not entirely sure it’s a Romanian recipe, though it is a family recipe and as many generations back as I can document my family has come from Romania. So I’m going to go with this recipe having Romanian roots. We call it Coca Bread (pronounced coke-ah) but I wasn’t able to find an equivalent recipe anywhere online so that might just be a family name.

That being said, this recipe is awesome and easy when you want (and/or need) a quick bread to sop up soup or sauce. It’s quick to make, doesn’t need time to rise, and I’m pretty sure you have all the ingredients already in your pantry/refrigerator. I’d liken it to a pita bread or naan, but there are still differences between those recipes and this recipe.

This is a fantastic recipe to have in your back pocket should you realize midway through cooking a meal that bread would really take it out of this world.

↓ Recipe below ↓

—But first, some pretty pictures—

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Gomboti / Găluște cu Prune {Plum Dumplings}

Găluște cu Prune {Plum Dumplings} | From Dill To Dracula www.FromDillToDracula.com

I’m back from an unexpected hiatus, where I spent almost all of September, and a bit of October, writing and revising one of my novels. It’s set in 1989 Romania, so I’m able to feature a lot of the dishes on From Dill To Dracula within the story, which is an exciting meld of my two hobbies.

And, well, I’m back! I’m ready to kick off the fall season with fall colors, warm drinks, and these delicious plum dumplings otherwise known as Gomboti (pronounced gom-boat-ee) or Găluște cu Prune (pronounced gah-lou-sh-tay coo proon-ay). To me, everything about these scream fall, and after Milwaukee teased us with a little Summer in October, we’re back in fall temperatures and I’m ready to embrace everything that comes with it.

To be honest, we didn’t have these dumplings very often. I remember my grandma making them a couple of times, but that was enough to hook me. It has to have been at least a decade and a half since I’ve been able to savor the flavor (thanks for the writing tip, Ariana Grande).

By the way, my husband calls these Plumplings, which I don’t have a Romanian translation for, but I’m okay if you call these that, too 🙃

↓ Recipe below ↓

—But first, some pretty pictures—

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