Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Kavarma
A slow-cooked Bulgarian clay-pot stew of meat, peppers, onions, and mushrooms in a savory sauce.
Bulgarian · easy · serves 4
prep 20 min · cook 75 min
~475 cal · 46g protein · 17g carbs · 21g fat · 4g fiber · 8g sugars · 4g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Kavarma is a Bulgarian claypot dish, a slow that concentrates humble ingredients into something deep and savoury. Meat, usually pork or chicken, is cooked down gently with onions, peppers, tomatoes, and mushrooms until everything softens and melds into a thick, richly flavoured sauce.
Traditionally it is made and served in individual earthenware pots called gyuveche, sealed and baked so each diner gets their own bubbling portion, the clay holding the heat and rounding the flavours. A common flourish is an egg cracked over the top in the last minutes so it just sets into the stew.
Warming, rustic, and unpretentious, it is winter food and a fixture of the traditional Bulgarian tavern, the mehana. Served with crusty bread to mop the sauce, kavarma is exactly the kind of unhurried, homely dish a cold evening calls for.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy-, egg- and nut-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
1.5 lb pork or chicken, cubed
2 onions
2 bell peppers
8 oz mushrooms
2 tomato
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp savory (chubritsa)
Hard to find? dried thyme, or thyme with a pinch of oregano - the closest common herbs, but chubritsa (summer savory) is more peppery, and Bulgarians will tell you the difference shows
1/2 cup white wine
3 cloves garlic
2 bay
3 tbsp oil
to taste salt
Instructions
1
Brown the meat (or mushrooms and tofu) with the onion.
2
Add the peppers, mushrooms, garlic, and paprika and cook a few minutes, until fragrant.
3
Add the tomato, wine, savory, and bay.
4
Cover and bake or simmer low for about an hour, until the meat is tender and the sauce rich.
✎ Chef’s note
Kavarma rewards a long, gentle cook. Keep it low and covered so the meat turns meltingly soft and the flavours concentrate.
5
Season and serve hot, with crusty bread.
Sofia tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Sofia. Sofia bakes banitsa, coiled filo layered with white cheese and egg, and hides a fortune inside it at new year. Bulgarian cooking leans on yogurt and sirene cheese, in cold tarator soup, shopska salad, and slow-cooked clay-pot dishes.
🗺️
Bulgaria. Shopska salad is a modern invention with a good story attached. It was created for the state tourism agency Balkantourist and named in 1956 at a Black Sea resort near Varna, a Bulgarian answer to the Greek salad, and only later became a national symbol. That its colours match the flag was noticed afterwards and used, which is more interesting than a peasant origin would have been.
🌍
Europe. European cooking is built on the land and the seasons, wheat, butter, and cured pork in the north; olive oil, tomatoes, and seafood around the Mediterranean; preserved vegetables and hearty stews through long winters. Centuries of peasant tradition, guild craft, and royal courts refined techniques from French mother sauces to Italian fresh pasta and Central European baking. Regional identity runs remarkably deep, with a single dish often changing from one valley to the next.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Bulgaria
Tarator (Cold Yogurt and Cucumber Soup)A chilled Bulgarian summer soup of thinned yogurt, grated cucumber, garlic, dill and walnuts, finished with a drizzle of oil.
BanitsaCoiled phyllo layered with tangy white cheese and egg, baked into a golden spiral, Bulgaria’s breakfast and New Year charm.
Shopska SalataDiced tomato, cucumber, and pepper under a snowy blanket of grated white cheese, Bulgaria's national salad.
Browse all Bulgaria recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven.
Storing it: Stews and braises keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated and often taste better the next day. Reheat gently, adding a splash of water if it has thickened.
Make it a Bulgaria meal
Garash TortaDessert
Shopska SalataLunch
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Frequently asked questions
What is Kavarma?
A slow-cooked Bulgarian clay-pot stew of meat, peppers, onions, and mushrooms in a savory sauce.
Where does Kavarma come from?
Kavarma is a Bulgarian dish from Sofia, Bulgaria.
Can Kavarma be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Kavarma recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Kavarma safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Kavarma take to make?
About 95 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 75 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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