Posted by Yara Coelho on Jan 26, 2014 in Local foods, Recipes, Swiss recipes |

Easy vegetarian recipes: Swiss Raclette

Easy vegetarian recipes: Swiss raclette is a very popular Swiss food which doesn’t require much preparation. It’s not a vegan dish at all but it can be veganized and turn into a really fun meal!

On my recipe posts, I try to use traditional vegan recipes only, or at least veganized versions of meat dishes from countries who have no vegetarian meals, but i believe this one can be veganized… Switzerland is a meat eating country mostly and finding at least a vegetarian dish, that is so traditional from this area is already a plus.

I never heard of the Swiss Raclette before… How could I if I *never* ate cheese? I got to know about the Potato Raclette one night when I was invited for dinner with my wonderful host family, whose menu was potato Raclette. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me, but I didn’t think twice to add this to the blog.

Easy vegetarian recipes: Swiss Raclette

Raclette is a traditional dish from Valais, a semi firm cow’s milk cheese, which melts easily on high temperatures and this is the commonly used cheese for the Raclette dish.

This dish is native of Switzerland and the word comes from the French Racler, which means to scrape, referring to the fact that the melted cheese has to be scraped from the 6kg cheese wheel. There are 2 ways of preparing the Raclette, one can use half of a cheese wheel and melt the internal half near the fire and then scrape it out or, use an electrical table-grill, which is practical and can be set in the center of any dinning table. This machine has a few small pans, called coupelles, where you put the cheese you want to melt, place it later on a heating shelf. You then scrape the melted cheese on top of your potatoes.

The Raclette is usually served with small firm potatoes (Bintje, Charlotte or Raclette varieties) , gherkins, pickled cucumbers.

The Raclette was already mentioned in medieval times, in Swiss-German texts from around 1291, referring this dish as a traditional meal for poor mountain peasants from both Switzerland and France. Later on, it became known as Bratchäs in German part of Swiss, meaning roasted cheese.

Traditionally, the Swiss cow shepherds used to take the cheese with them when they were moving the cows through the mountains and in the evening,around the camp fire, after melting the cheese, scrape it and pour it on top of their food or bread.

Nowadays the Raclette is a symbol of slow food, where people gather together for a long meal and socialize., so if you’re in a rush… forget about it!

There’s no formal recipe for this Swiss dish, you just boil some potatoes, get pickled cucumbers and any other veggie you might love and pour the toasted / grilled vegan cheese all over it, with a glass of wine.

Here’s a video of the traditional Swiss Raclette!

On the next post, I’m exploring another typical Swiss recipe, so keep your kitchen ready to rumble!