Latvia: Food and the National Dish

Simple Baltic farming food, eaten with real pride

Latvian food grew out of a farming and dairy economy suited to a cool Baltic climate, plain and unfussy by design: rye, potatoes, pork, dairy and foraged mushrooms and berries dominate a table built for getting through long winters rather than impressing guests. That same plainness is treated with genuine national pride rather than apology.

The national dish: grey peas with bacon

Grey peas with bacon (pelēkie zirņi ar speķi), grey field peas cooked until tender and served with fried bacon and onion, is Latvia's most widely recognised traditional dish, especially associated with the Christmas and winter table. The peas themselves, grown in Latvia and formally recognised with EU Protected Designation of Origin status in 2015, are treated as a genuinely distinct national crop rather than an interchangeable pulse.

Rye bread, dairy and the everyday pantry

Rupjmaize, a dense, dark rye bread made from coarse rye flour, malt and caraway, has been a national staple for centuries and is included in the Latvian Culture Canon; it is eaten plain, topped, or worked into desserts. Dairy, particularly soured milk products and farmhouse cheese, along with potatoes, pork and foraged mushrooms and berries from Latvia's extensive forests, round out the everyday pantry.

History behind the plate

Latvia's food traditions reflect centuries as a predominantly rural, farming society, shaped further by periods of German, Swedish and Russian influence that each left smaller marks without displacing the older Baltic farmhouse foundation. Foraging for mushrooms and berries remains a genuinely widespread seasonal activity across Latvia today, not a rural relic, reflecting how directly the forest still supplies the table.

Dishes to know

Five more to recognise across Latvia:

• Rupjmaize kārtojums — a layered rye bread trifle with whipped cream

and fruit or berries, a distinctly Latvian dessert.

• Speķrauši — buns filled with finely cut streaky bacon and onion,

served especially at the winter and summer solstice festivals.

• Skābputra — a refreshing cold, soured dish based on fermented dairy,

a traditional farmhouse food.

• Kartupeļu pankūkas — potato pancakes, often served with smoked salmon

and sour cream.

• Sklandrausis — a sweet rye-dough pie filled with mashed potato and

carrot and seasoned with caraway, of Livonian origin.

Drinks

Kvass, a mildly fermented rye bread drink, is a popular refreshment shared with much of the former Soviet world. Riga Black Balsam, a bitter herbal liqueur whose recipe dates from 1752, is the national liquor, and beer, brewed by Latvians since before the 13th century, is the most consumed alcoholic drink, with a flourishing craft scene.

Eating as a traveller

Vegetarians will find rye bread, potato dishes and dairy manageable, though pork and bacon appear in many traditional recipes including the national dish itself. Lunch, eaten between noon and 3 p.m., tends to be the main meal of the day. Visiting Riga Central Market, whose pavilions reuse the frames of First World War German Zeppelin hangars, is a good way to see the range of Latvian produce, bread and dairy in one place.

What to take from the table

Grey peas with bacon, plain and proudly protected by name, is the dish that best represents Latvian food — and a slice of rupjmaize alongside it is the truer everyday taste of what actually anchors the Latvian table.