What’s Swedish food all about?
I get so excited thinking about all there is to share surrounding Swedish food. Growing up in Colorado with a Swedish mother, I had my fair share of Swedish dishes as a child. No pasta sauce, no problem! Ketchup on pasta does the trick as long as you add heaps of parmesan cheese. However, we also visited Sweden every few years where I formed core memories around family experiences and food. I remember eating fresh strawberries in cold buttermilk on the porch in Dalarna County Midsommar months and struggling through my (small, but obligatory) serving of pickled herring covered in mustard before dinner.
Sweden’s climate and geographical location make for cold, dark winters and shorter warm summer months. Throughout Sweden’s history, mealtime included ingredients that were in season in addition to a lot of preserved and fermented foods (yes, even fish!). Because of Sweden’s longstanding history and openness to exploring unique dishes, there’s a lot of international influence in Swedish cuisine. Often, Swedes will incorporate local ingredients to a foreign dish to add their own spin. One example is the kebab from Turkey. Swedes love a kebab plate or a kebab pizza! The same goes for the Swedish hot dog, a popular street and late-night food. Hot dogs were believed to originate from German immigrants in the 1600s and Swedes added their local fresh baked flatbread and cold bay shrimp salad. Additionally, exotic spices are used in Swedish cooking and baking, including cardamom, star anise, and saffron.
While there are dozens of staples to Swedish cooking, here are a few that stand out and what they’re used in.
Lingonberries
Lingonberries are small, red, bitter berries that grow in the wild in Sweden in August and September. They are an important side dish to many Swedish dishes, particularly köttbullar or Swedish meatballs. They’re often made into jam!
Pickled herring
Pickled herring is the staple of any smörgåsbord in Sweden and comes in a variety of flavors, including creamy mustard and dill. It’s often served alongside boiled potatoes, crispbread, cheese, and hardboiled eggs. Oops, I’m drooling!
Fennel, dill, cardamom and saffron
Swedish food is bursting with fresh dill, including atop of boiled new potatoes, gravlax, and cold shrimp salad (known as skagenröra). Roasted fennel is used alongside other root vegetables and meat as part of “husmanskost” or comfort food dishes. Cardamom and saffron are used in sweet bread bases and baked goods paired with cinnamon and sugar. There is nothing quite like a fresh baked Swedish cinnamon knot or “kanelbullar”.
Seafood and grilled meat
Swedes are huge consumers of shellfish, especially wild bay shrimp which is the main ingredient in the open-faced shrimp sandwich räksmörgås. They also salt-cure salmon, which is called gravlax (not to be confused with smoked salmon). And on summer nights you’ll often find BBQ meat (pork and chicken) on the menu!
Crispbread and cheeses
No smörgåsbord would be complete without including a Swedish crispbread. Usually baked with rye and a variety of seeds, they’re the vehicles for butter, slices of cheese, and other accompaniments. When it comes to cheese, Sweden is home to more hard cheeses than most countries (although you may not know it). In addition, Swedes also enjoy semi-hard cows milk or farmers cheeses like hushållsost.
Sweets or “fika”
The Swedish tradition of fika or taking a tea/coffee break in the afternoon is a favorite pastime of mine. Each afternoon, whether you’re at home or out and about, you take an hour to wind down over a hot beverage and sweet treat with friends or family. My favorite fika is the chokladboll, an oatmeal, sugar, and cocoa powdered sweet rolled in coconut. I had one the size of my head at a cute cafe in Gamla Stan, Stockholm’s old town and I think about it often!
If you leave remembering one thing from this post, let it be that Swedes take mealtime very seriously. Three square meals a day (and full ones too) with a fika each afternoon. Bonus points if there’s Swedish bin candy involved!
Amelia 🍓
