It's impossible to imagine authentic Ukrainian cuisine without homemade sausage. This is an absolutely natural and unique product. Meat (often pork, sometimes beef) and salo (pork fat) are used in order to cook homemade sausage. Pig's gut is stuffed with meat and salo, boiled, and then fried on pan or baked in oven Homemade sausage is traditional Ukrainian dish cooked all around the country. Its recipe is basically the same in all regions, but housewives often add something special to it. For instance, some add cognac to homemade sausage, others never fry it, but leave boiled. Homemade sausage is mostly served as appetizer with piece of brown bread.

Lazy vareniki is a traditional Ukrainian dish. They are called lazy, while they demand less cooking time and efforts than traditional ones. It is nothing else, but boiled dough mixed with stuffing - mostly curd. Lazy vareniki can be also made with potatoes, meat or mushrooms. Depending on stuffing they may be salty or sweet. Both are served with sour cream, though. In addition, sweet vareniki are sprinkled with icing sugar or poured over with syrup. It is healthy, fast, and tasty breakfast.

Ukha is thin hot fish dish, somewhat reminiscent of fish soup. Zaporizhian Cossacks used to cook it during their campaigns, since they could catch fish in the river, and vegetables were always at hand. Different fish - mostly crucian, perch, redeye, carp - is used for making ukha. At the same time it is not recommended to make ukha from herrings, bream, roach, Caspian roach and sea roach. Firstly, the broth is made out of fish: it is boiled at low heat, without bringing to vigorous boil. Boiling time depends not so much on fish kind as on fish size: the larger the fish is, the longer it is cooked. The dish's specific is its totally transparent broth. Then vegetables and different spices - from black pepper to saffron - are added to the broth and attach rich aroma to it. You can also give unusual taste to ukha by adding 50-100 g of vodka. Ukha is the first course that may be served to festive or everyday table. The same as kulish, it is better to cook ukha outdoors.

The green borsht is a very popular dish in Ukraine. It was nicknamed the Spring borsht because of abundance of herbs and vegetables used as ingredients. During summer months, this borsht made with water is served cooled, in the winter months it is cooked with meat stock. Its name “the green borsht” is literal because the soup has green colour. Mostly the main ingredient of the green borsht is a sorrel, which gives it a bright green colour. Nevertheless, the other herbs as parsley, dill and bay leaf are also added. One might use any meat broths either chicken, or pork. However the pork stock can be too greasy for borsht because it is considered to be a light dish. It is peculiar that the sorrel and other herbs can be substituted by stinging nettle. So the dish will have inimitable taste and smell. Traditionally the green borsht is served first seasoned with sour cream and a half of a hard-boiled egg.