Ajvar

Ajvar

Open sandwich with home-made ajvar
Type	Relish
Region or state	The Balkans
Main ingredients	Bell peppers, eggplant, garlic, chili peppers

Ajvar ([ǎj.ʋaːr], Serbian Cyrillic: ajвар; Bulgarian: aйвар; Macedonian: aјвар) is a type of relish, made principally from red bell peppers. It may also contain garlic, eggplant and chili peppers. Ajvar originates in Serbian cuisine and was therefore long known as "Serbian salad" or "Serbian vegetable caviar". It became a popular side dish throughout Yugoslavia after World War II and is nowadays popular in the Balkans.

Homemade ajvar is made of roasted peppers, while some industrial producers use cooked peppers, which leads to a lower quality. Depending on the capsaicin content in bell peppers and the amount of added chili peppers, it can be sweet (traditional), piquant (the most common), or very hot. Ajvar can be consumed as a bread spread or as a side dish.

The name ajvar comes from the Turkish word havyar, which means "salted roe, caviar" and shares an etymology with "caviar". Prior to the 20th century, there was a significant local production of caviar on the Danube, with sturgeon swimming from the Black Sea up to Belgrade. Domestic ajvar, meaning "caviar", used to be a very popular dish in Belgrade homes and restaurants. However, the domestic production of caviar was not steady starting in the 1890s because of labor disputes, and eventually a special pepper salad was offered as a substitute in Belgrade restaurants under the name "red ajvar" (crveni ajvar) or "Serbian ajvar" (srpski ajvar).