Chef Lesia
Adzhyka po-Ukrainsky (аджика, tomato-pepper relish)
The tomatoes go from garden-red to brick-red while the peppers slump and the garlic waits. By the end, the spoon leaves a path and the whole south fits in one jar.
Culinary Explorer
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Chasnykovyi Sous (часниковий соус, garlic sauce)
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Raw garlic, salt, and green sunflower oil turn into a sauce that announces itself from the doorway, sharp enough for pampushky, potatoes, grilled meat, and any tired Tuesday plate.
Sauces & Condiments
Ukrainian
Comfort Food
Weeknight
Quick Meal
10 min
Active Time
0 min cook•10 min total
Yield1 generous cup, enough for 6 to 8
Raw garlic does not whisper. Crush it with salt and it turns glossy, sticky, almost creamy under the pestle, then the green sunflower oil loosens it into something bright enough to reach you before the plate does. This is the sauce you want beside pampushky, yes, but also beside boiled young potatoes, roast chicken, buckwheat cutlets, or yesterday's bread that needs a reason to live again.
The one why is this: crush first, loosen second. If you chop the garlic and drown it straight away, you get bits of garlic floating in oil. If you pound it with salt until the smell changes, sharp, sweet, and a little hot in the nose, the salt breaks it down and the oil can carry it. Aunt Nadia wrote only "rub until it sounds right," which is comedy until you hear it: gritty at first, then soft, wet, and quiet.
Use unrefined sunflower oil if you have it, Ukraine in a bottle of oil. Use smetana if you want a softer, rounder sauce for children, tired people, or dumplings that need gentleness. Both belong at the table. A living kitchen has more than one bowl.
Garlic sauces sit all across Ukrainian home cooking, but the raw oil version is most tightly tied to pampushky, the small wheat buns brushed or dipped after baking, especially in the wheat and sunflower belt of central and southern Ukraine. Unrefined sunflower oil became one of Ukraine's defining pantry fats after sunflower cultivation spread widely through the region in the nineteenth century, giving everyday sauces their green-gold smell. Smetana versions are a modern home-table cousin, softer and quicker, often served with potatoes, kotlety, and varenyky when raw garlic needs a little manners.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
garlic cloves
Quantity
6 large
peeled
coarse sea salt
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon, plus more to taste
unrefined sunflower oil
Quantity
5 tablespoons
warm water
Quantity
2 tablespoons
fresh dill
Quantity
1 tablespoon
finely chopped
fermented tomato brine or sauerkraut brine (optional)
Quantity
1 teaspoon
smetana (optional)
Quantity
4 tablespoons
for a softer version
freshly ground black pepper (optional)
Quantity
to taste
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| garlic clovespeeled | 6 large |
| coarse sea salt | 1/2 teaspoon, plus more to taste |
| unrefined sunflower oil | 5 tablespoons |
| warm water | 2 tablespoons |
| fresh dillfinely chopped | 1 tablespoon |
| fermented tomato brine or sauerkraut brine (optional) | 1 teaspoon |
| smetana (optional)for a softer version | 4 tablespoons |
| freshly ground black pepper (optional) | to taste |
Equipment Needed
- •A mortar and pestle or a heavy knife
- •A small mixing bowl
- •A spoon or small whisk
Instructions
- 1
Crush the garlic
Put the garlic and salt in a mortar and crush hard until the cloves collapse into a wet, sticky paste. At first it will scrape and jump under the pestle. Keep going until it smells hotter and sweeter, and the paste clings to the bowl instead of sitting in pieces.
No mortar is fine. Mince the garlic, sprinkle with salt, then drag the flat side of a knife through it again and again until it smears. - 2
Loosen with oil
Drizzle in the sunflower oil slowly, stirring as you go, until the garlic turns glossy and loose. It will not become a perfect mayonnaise, and it doesn't need to. You want a raw, shining sauce with tiny golden beads of oil around the garlic.
- 3
Wake it up
Stir in the warm water a spoonful at a time. The sauce should thin enough for dipping and brushing, but still taste brave. Add the dill, then taste. If it feels flat, add the fermented brine or another pinch of salt.
- 4
Make it softer
For the smetana version, spoon half the garlic oil into a second bowl and stir in the smetana until it turns pale, thick, and creamy. This is a bit more modern, and very useful with potatoes or cold leftover meat.
- 5
Serve at once
Let the sauce sit while the bread or potatoes come to the table, just long enough for the garlic to settle into itself. Spoon it over hot pampushky, use it as a dip, or drag torn bread through the bowl. It should announce dinner before anyone sees it.
Chef Tips
- •Use fresh firm garlic, not sprouting cloves with green shoots. Old garlic can taste bitter and metallic when raw.
- •Unrefined sunflower oil matters because it goes in raw. Refined oil works, but it will taste quieter.
- •The garlic paste is the step that decides the sauce. The water, oil, dill, and smetana all forgive adjustment.
- •Make the oil version first, then divide it if you want the smetana bowl too. One sharp bowl and one gentle bowl keeps everyone at the table happy.
- •If the sauce tastes too fierce, give it ten minutes, then fold in smetana or a spoon of thick yogurt. Don't cook it. Cooked garlic sauce is another thing.
Advance Preparation
- •The garlic oil base is best made just before serving, but it can sit covered for 2 hours at cool room temperature.
- •The smetana version can be made up to 1 day ahead and kept in the fridge; stir before serving.
- •Leftover sauce keeps 2 days refrigerated, though the garlic gets louder as it sits.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 19g)
Calories
90 calories
Total Fat
10 g
Saturated Fat
1 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
8 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
150 mg
Total Carbohydrates
1 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
0 g
Protein
0 g
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