COPPERWhat is the national dish of Latvia?
Latvia has no single official national dish. The one most often cited is grey peas with bacon (pelēkie zirņi ar speķi): large dried grey peas boiled until just tender, then tossed with fried fatty bacon and onion, a traditional Christmas dish. Sklandrausis, an open rye tart filled with potato and carrot, is the other main candidate.
What are Latvian grey peas?
Grey peas are not green garden peas left to dry. They are a separate, old type of field pea with large brownish-grey seeds. Latvians have eaten peas for hundreds of years: with barley and beans, they were one of the main foods until the potato took over in the 19th century.
Latvia still grows a variety selected for the table. In 2015 "Latvian large grey peas" were entered in the European Union register of protected geographical indications. The preferred variety, Retria, is notable for its size: 1,000 peas weigh 360 to 380 g. The State Priekuļi Plant Breeding Institute is probably the only place in the world where large grey peas are selected and grown for food. The Latvian Ministry of Agriculture lists them among the six Latvian foods protected under EU quality schemes.
The dish is not unique to Latvia: grey peas and bacon also survive as a traditional meal in the Black Country of England. But Latvians present it as a representative dish of their own country, and older food customs show how central peas were. In autumn, fresh grey field peas were boiled in salted water, shelled and eaten warm with sweet milk, and on Maundy Thursday families ate pinka, boiled peas mixed with hemp, after church.
How grey peas with bacon are made
The method is short, but timing matters. In our grey peas with bacon recipe, 500 g of dried peas soak in cold water for at least 12 hours, then simmer in fresh, unsalted water for 45 to 60 minutes. The water should barely move: a hard boil bursts the skins and the peas turn to mush.
Meanwhile 200 g of fatty smoked bacon is diced and fried slowly in a dry pan for 8 to 10 minutes until the fat renders and the cracklings turn golden. Two chopped onions go into that fat for another 5 to 7 minutes. The drained peas are tipped in with the bacon, fat and onion, salted and peppered, and stirred for two minutes over low heat.
How grey peas are served
Grey peas are served on a plate, not as a soup. The usual pairings are:
- a glass of cold kefir or sour milk alongside;
- extra bacon cracklings and fried onion on top;
- radish, as served in Riga restaurants;
- beer, when the peas are eaten as a snack.
Sklandrausis, the other national candidate
Sklandrausis is an open tart from Kurzeme (Courland) in western Latvia, of Livonian origin. A firm unleavened rye dough is rolled thin, cut into rounds and pinched up into a rim about 1.5 cm high. A thin layer of salted mashed potato goes in first, then a thicker layer of carrot mash sweetened with sugar and flavoured with caraway, sour cream and egg. It bakes 20 to 25 minutes and is eaten at room temperature, often with milk and honey.
Its claim to national status is written down. The application published in the Official Journal of the European Union in 2012 states that sklandrausis "can be considered a Latvian national dish", and in October 2013 the European Commission registered it as a Traditional Speciality Guaranteed, the first Latvian product protected under an EU scheme. A sklandrausis festival has been held in Dundaga since 2013.
Why there is more than one answer
No Latvian law names a national dish, so the answer depends on what you count. Grey peas with bacon are the dish travel guides present as typically Latvian and the one served at Christmas markets. Sklandrausis has the EU paperwork. Rye bread, a staple for centuries, is in the Latvian Culture Canon, and Jāņi cheese, eaten at the summer solstice, has also been described as a national treasure in an EU filing.
Other dishes to know from Latvia
Pīrāgi, also called speķrauši, are crescent buns of slightly sweet yeast dough filled with raw smoked bacon cut by hand into 5 mm cubes, with onion and caraway. The bacon renders inside the dough as the buns bake for 15 to 18 minutes at 200 °C. They are traditional at both the winter and summer solstice.
Latvia's neighbours have their own versions of this potato, rye and pork cooking: compare the national dish of Lithuania and the national dish of Estonia, or read our guide to Eastern European food. All three recipes are on our page about the food of Latvia.
The recipes
- Grey peas and ham🇱🇻 Latvia · 13 hours and 20 minutes
Sklandrausis🇱🇻 Latvia · 2 hours and 20 minutes
Piragi🇱🇻 Latvia · 3 hours and 5 minutes
Questions people ask
Is grey peas with bacon the official national dish of Latvia?
No dish has official national status in Latvia. Grey peas with bacon are the most often cited, while sklandrausis is described as a national dish in its EU protection file.
When do Latvians eat grey peas?
Grey peas with bacon are a traditional Christmas dish, but they are also eaten year-round, including as a snack with beer.
What is served with grey peas?
They are served on a plate with fried bacon cracklings and onion, usually with a glass of cold kefir or sour milk.
What is sklandrausis made of?
A rye dough tart filled with a thin layer of mashed potato and a thicker layer of sweetened carrot mash with caraway. It has EU Traditional Speciality Guaranteed status since 2013.
Why do grey peas turn to mush?
They have been boiled too hard. Soak them overnight and simmer them in unsalted water that barely moves, as in our recipe.
Keep reading
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- What is the national dish of the Czech Republic?
- What is the national dish of Estonia?
- What is the national dish of Hungary?
- What is the national dish of Lithuania?