Polish

Authentic-ish Polish

Name: Authentic-ish Polish: Home Classics, Lightened
Author: Danny Vale

Home Classics, Lightened

Almost no reputation in Britain at all, which is its own problem. The pickles are free, barszcz is beetroot and stock, and kasza carries more protein than rice for the same calories. It is also the easiest cuisine in the series to lighten, because the fat goes in at the end rather than being built into the dish.

Not out yet. The swap kit from chapter 2 is free to read now, and it's the part of the book you'd use most.

What's in it

Recipes	Chapters	Average calorie saving	Dishes rejected
57	8	38%	3

Every dish, and what came off it

Each figure is per serving, computed from the ingredient list. The traditional column is the real dish, not a strawman: it's costed from its own ingredient list so the saving is a measurement rather than a claim.

Dish	Chapter	Traditional	This version	Saving	Protein
Zurek Soup	soup	699 kcal	434 kcal	38%	27.7g
Barszcz	soup	96 kcal	72 kcal	25%	2.5g
Krupnik Barley Soup	soup	512 kcal	256 kcal	50%	20g
Chlodnik Cold Soup	soup	304 kcal	244 kcal	20%	21.3g
Pierogi Ruskie	dumplings	771 kcal	571 kcal	26%	24.2g
Meat Pierogi	dumplings	576 kcal	458 kcal	20%	29g
Cabbage and Mushroom Pierogi	dumplings	656 kcal	495 kcal	25%	21.1g
Plum Knedle	dumplings	575 kcal	364 kcal	37%	21.9g
Uszka Dumplings	dumplings	293 kcal	221 kcal	25%	7.7g
Kotlet Schabowy	meat	675 kcal	333 kcal	51%	35.8g
Golabki Cabbage Rolls	meat	499 kcal	370 kcal	26%	31.6g
Zrazy Beef Roulades	meat	360 kcal	309 kcal	14%	43.4g
Pork Gulasz	meat	600 kcal	293 kcal	51%	33.5g
Zrazy Zawijane	meat	437 kcal	335 kcal	23%	40.3g
Biala Kielbasa	sausage	626 kcal	389 kcal	38%	50.7g
Smoked Kielbasa	sausage	363 kcal	213 kcal	41%	32.1g
Kabanos	sausage	439 kcal	239 kcal	46%	30.3g
Bigos Hunter Stew	cabbage	497 kcal	200 kcal	60%	12.3g
Fried Cabbage	cabbage	276 kcal	157 kcal	43%	11.6g
Potato Pancakes	potatoes	609 kcal	272 kcal	55%	20.6g
Kopytka Dumplings	potatoes	481 kcal	391 kcal	19%	10.9g
Potato Babka	potatoes	292 kcal	257 kcal	12%	12g
Cwikla Beetroot Relish	pickles	56 kcal	39 kcal	30%	1.3g
Mizeria Cucumber Salad	pickles	148 kcal	53 kcal	64%	6g
Sernik Cheesecake	pudding	370 kcal	238 kcal	36%	22.5g
Makowiec Poppy Seed Roll	pudding	480 kcal	374 kcal	22%	11g
Szarlotka Apple Pie	pudding	457 kcal	143 kcal	69%	2.3g
Paczki Doughnuts	pudding	658 kcal	325 kcal	51%	11.5g
Faworki Angel Wings	pudding	554 kcal	294 kcal	47%	15g
Zupa Szczawiowa Sorrel Soup	soup	478 kcal	355 kcal	26%	21.6g
Zupa Ogorkowa Dill Pickle Soup	soup	372 kcal	230 kcal	38%	15.8g
Chlodnik Cold Beetroot Soup	soup	374 kcal	261 kcal	30%	22.9g
Kapusniak Sauerkraut Soup	soup	433 kcal	207 kcal	52%	13.2g
Uszka Mushroom Dumplings	dumplings	360 kcal	309 kcal	14%	11.9g
Knedle Plum Dumplings	dumplings	516 kcal	363 kcal	30%	11.1g
Kopytka Potato Hooves	dumplings	631 kcal	339 kcal	46%	17.2g
Leniwe Lazy Cheese Dumplings	dumplings	402 kcal	212 kcal	47%	20g
Zrazy Stuffed Beef Rolls	meat	449 kcal	339 kcal	24%	42g
Klopsiki Meatballs in Dill Sauce	meat	483 kcal	292 kcal	40%	28.3g
Kaczka z Jablkami Roast Duck	meat	2297 kcal	367 kcal	84%	33.8g
Pieczen Rzymska Meatloaf	meat	513 kcal	286 kcal	44%	37.5g
Biala Kielbasa Baked White Sausage	sausage	561 kcal	311 kcal	45%	23.7g
Fasolka po Bretonsku Beans and Sausage	sausage	510 kcal	245 kcal	52%	19.4g
Leczo Sausage and Pepper Stew	sausage	407 kcal	166 kcal	59%	10.3g
Lazanki Cabbage and Pork Pasta	cabbage	552 kcal	412 kcal	25%	29.5g
Mloda Kapusta Young Cabbage with Dill	cabbage	232 kcal	113 kcal	51%	7g
Kapusta Zasmazana Fried Sauerkraut	cabbage	233 kcal	106 kcal	55%	5.8g
Babka Ziemniaczana Potato Cake	potatoes	341 kcal	281 kcal	18%	16.6g
Placek po Zbojnicku Brigand's Pancake	potatoes	1262 kcal	699 kcal	45%	46.9g
Kluski Slaskie Silesian Dumplings	potatoes	442 kcal	413 kcal	7%	8.3g
Krokiety z Grzybami Mushroom Croquettes	pickles	467 kcal	338 kcal	28%	10g
Surowka z Marchewki Carrot Salad	pickles	122 kcal	74 kcal	39%	1.1g
Cwikla Beetroot and Horseradish	pickles	70 kcal	43 kcal	39%	1.5g
Szarlotka Polish Apple Cake	pudding	427 kcal	329 kcal	23%	6.2g
Oponki Cheese Ring Doughnuts	pudding	489 kcal	355 kcal	27%	16.1g
Karpatka Carpathian Cream Pie	pudding	592 kcal	280 kcal	53%	8.5g
Kisiel Fruit Kissel	pudding	188 kcal	117 kcal	38%	2g

The ones I wouldn't touch

Dishes drafted for this book that didn't survive. If every dish survived lightening, that chapter would be a marketing device and you should trust none of the rest.

Dill Pickles

Dill pickles are cucumbers in salt water with dill and garlic in it. 21 kcal a serving, and no version of that number moves. The pickle jar is the free half of the Polish table and this is the recipe for it.

Golonka Roast Pork Knuckle

Golonka is a pork knuckle roasted until the skin blisters. The fat under that skin is what bastes the meat for three hours, and the skin is the reason anyone orders it. I put turkey alongside it and more sauerkraut under it and moved the number by 1%, because the knuckle is the dish and the knuckle is 1.2kg of pork. Order one between two people, eat the meat, leave the fat cap on the plate, and do not pretend that was a recipe.

Kogel Mogel Beaten Egg Yolks

This one can't be done without wrecking the dish. Cutting the sugar leaves you with liquid yolk, and switching to sweeteners gives you grit with no structure. Kogel Mogel isn't just sugar and yolk-it's what sugar does to yolk. Try to fix it, and you'll wish you hadn't.

Where the numbers come from

FoodData Central, SR Legacy Release (April 2018). U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. Public domain (U.S. Government work).
McCance & Widdowson's Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset (CoFID) 2021. Public Health England / Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. Open Government Licence v3.0.
FoodData Central, Branded Foods (October 2024 release). U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. Public domain (U.S. Government work).

Retrieved 2026-08-21. Nothing in these books is dietary or medical advice. Danny Vale is a cook.