Finland Cuisine Recipes: 7 Hearty Dishes You Can Cook Tonight

 Haven't you once pictured having a cozy, beautiful thing for yourself and then having to eat that boring pasta and stir-fry until you couldn't bear it for any longer? That was it until I decided to spend a week living in snow-covered Helsinki.

. During this time, I moved from market halls to grandma-run cafés, and in the process, I discovered the reason why Finnish cuisine recipes taste so good and sometimes even spicy with a little bit of sour. They combine the comforting taste of a farmhouse with the freshness of a forest ingeniously.

I have listed the seven sure-to-work dishes here along with the tips, shopping hacks, and Finnish “why-do-they-do-that?” stories that were my companions throughout the journey. Get a mug of glögi —We're going to cook.

Quick Glance: What You'll Cook (and Why You'll Love It)

1. Karjalanpiirakka (Karelian Rye Pies)

Why These Babies Matter

Ingredients

• 1 cup rye flour (Finnish "tumma ruisjauho" if you can find it)
• ¼ cup plain flour (gives elasticity)
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ cup cold water
• 1 tbsp melted butter

• ½ cup short-grain rice (risotto rice works)
• 1 cup water
• 1½ cups whole milk
• pinch salt

• 2 hard-boiled eggs
• 3 tbsp softened butter
• pinch salt

Step-by-Step

1. Cook the porridge: Simmer rice in water 10 min, add milk, stir on low 30 min until thick. Cool.
2. Dough: Mix flours, salt, water, butter. Knead 2 min, roll into log, cut 12 pieces.
3. Roll each piece into an oval as thin as cardboard (3 mm).
4. Dollop 1 tbsp rice in the middle, fold ½ cm edges over, pinch into tiny waves.
5. Bake 220 °C (425 °F) 10-12 min until speckled.
6. Brush hot pies with butter, slap on egg butter, try not to eat six at once.

My Fails & Fixes

• Dough cracks? Add 1 tsp water; rye is thirsty.
• No rye flour? Swap in ⅓ buckwheat + ⅔ whole-wheat; taste is nuttier, still legit.
• Make-ahead: Freeze unbaked pies on a tray, then bag. Bake from frozen +2 min.

2. Lohikeitto (Creamy Salmon Soup)

Ingredients

• 400 g (0.9 lb) salmon fillet, skin off, 2 cm chunks
• 1 leek, white+light green sliced
• 2 carrots, half-moons
• 3 medium waxy potatoes, cubed
• 4 cups fish stock (or 2 cups veg + 2 cups water + 1 tsp fish sauce hack)
• 1 cup whole milk
• ½ cup heavy cream
• 6 white peppercorns (or pinch ground)
• big handful dill, chopped
• salt to taste

Method

1. Sweat leek in 1 tbsp butter 5 min.
2. Add carrots, potatoes, stock; simmer 15 min until veg are tender.
3. Tip in salmon, milk, cream; cook 5 min—no boiling or salmon turns rubber.
4. Season, add dill. Serve in deep bowls with rye bread and... more dill.

Table: Soup Texture Troubleshooter

3. Hernekeitto (Pea Soup with Ham)

Key Trick

Ingredients

• 500 g (1 lb) dried green peas, soaked overnight
• 400 g smoked ham hock (or Canadian bacon bone-in)
• 1 onion, 1 bay, 1 tsp marjoram
• water to cover +2 cm
• salt at the very end (salt toughens peas while cooking)

Slow-Day Method

1. Drain peas, chuck everything in pot, bring to boil, skim.
2. Simmer 1½-2 h until peas mush against the roof of your mouth.
3. Lift ham, shred meat, return to pot, discard bone.
4. Check salt, thin with water if glue-like. Serve with mustard spoonful and rye.

Vegan Flip

4. Lihapullat (Allspice Meatballs & Lingonberry Jam)

Mix Ratio (The 3-2-1)

• 300 g ground beef
• 200 g ground pork (fat = flavour)
• 100 g breadcrumbs soaked in ½ milk (panade keeps them fluffy)

Flavour Bombs

• 1 small grated onion (juice = moisture)
• 1 egg, 1 tsp salt, ½ tsp white pepper, ¾ tsp ground allspice

Pan-Gravy

Serve

5. Ruisleipä (No-Knead Malt Rye Bread)

Overnight Dough

• 2 cups rye flour
• 1 cup lukewarm water
• ½ cup buttermilk (or kefir)
• 2 tbsp dark malt syrup (molasses works)
• 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp instant yeast, ½ tsp fennel seeds (optional but authentic)

Method

1. Stir everything 1 min—no knead, just a thick brownie-like batter.
2. Cover, let sit 8-12 h on counter.
3. Pour into greased loaf tin (Finns use Pullman), smooth top wet hand.
4. Bake 200 °C (390 °F) 60 min, mist oven first 5 min for crust.
5. Cool overnight under tea towel—flavour matures, slicing gets easier.

External Link Worth Clicking

6. Mustikkapiirakka (Summer Blueberry Pie)

Press Crust

• 1 cup plain flour
• ¼ cup sugar
• ½ tsp cardamom
• 80 g cold butter
• 1 egg yolk, 1 tbsp cold water

Custard Flood

• 1 cup blueberries (fresh/frozen)
• ½ cup sour cream
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp sugar, ½ tsp vanilla

Assembly

1. Press crumbly dough into 24 cm tart tin, chill 15 min.
2. Scatter berries. Whisk custard, pour over.
3. Bake 200 °C 25 min until centre jiggles like cheesecake.
4. Serve lukewarm with "vaniljakastike" (basically melted vanilla ice cream).

7. Korvapuustit (Cardamom Cinnamon Buns)

Quick Dough (1 h total rise)

• 2½ cups plain flour
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup lukewarm milk
• 1 egg + 1 egg for wash
• ¼ cup soft butter

Filling

• 75 g butter, ¼ cup brown sugar, 2 tsp cinnamon

Shape Hack

Bake & Top

Shopping Outside Finland (Nordic Pantry Cheat-Sheet)

Nutrition Nerd Corner

Drinks to Sip Between Bites

• Sima (lemon mead, May Day staple)
• Glögi (spiced berry juice, non-alcoholic unless you "accidentally" pour vodka)
• Pale Finnish lager like Lapin Kulta—light, cuts creamy soups

Hosting a Finnish Friday Night

1. Cook hernekeitto Thursday, chill.
2. Friday: reheat soup, bake korvapuustit, brew strong coffee.
3. Queue Spotify "Finnish Indie" playlist (Helsinki knows how to rock).
4. After dinner, go sauna if you have one; otherwise run a very hot bath and beat yourself with birch twigs—totally optional, slightly weird, very Finnish.

FAQs That Keep Popping Up