Vegetarian recipes from Finland

Finnish cooking was built on what grows in the north: barley and rye rather than wheat, dried peas, potato, swede and roots that keep all winter. The fat is butter, often melted and poured over the dish as it is served, with soured milk alongside. Seasoning stays short: salt, white pepper, mustard, dill, sometimes a touch of molasses or syrup. Long cooked yellow peas make hernekeitto, a thick soup traditionally served on Thursdays, and grated swede bound with milk and breadcrumbs becomes the lanttulaatikko of the Christmas table.

Meals are organised around a single hot, filling dish with bread and dairy alongside. The bread itself takes several forms: a quickly baked barley flatbread eaten warm with butter, such as ohrarieska, or a thin rye shell filled with rice porridge and crimped at the edges, such as the Karelian karjalanpiirakka, served with butter mixed with chopped boiled egg. Berries picked in the forest close the meal rather than open it: the wild bilberry, smaller and darker than the cultivated kind, fills the mustikkapiirakka, a tart on yeasted or short pastry depending on the household, served warm with cold milk.