Latvian cuisine

[1] Common ingredients in Latvian recipes are found locally, such as potatoes,[2] wheat, barley, cabbage, onions, eggs and pork.

Lunch is eaten from noon time to 3 p.m., and tends to be the main meal of the day; as such it can include a variety of foods, and sometimes, there is also soup as an entrée and a dessert.

Between lunch and supper, a smaller meal (launags) is sometimes had, usually consisting of a snack, fresh fruit, sweets or a small portion of savoury food.

In seasoning, dried spices, such as caraway, black pepper, allspice are used, and fresh herbs, such as parsley, spring onions and especially dill, are held in high regard.

Latvian cuisine originated from the peasant culture and is strongly based on crops that grow in Latvia's maritime, temperate climate.

Rye, wheat, buckwheat, oats, peas, beets, cabbage, pork products, and potatoes are the staples.

Meat features in most main dishes, but fish also is commonly consumed, especially in the coastal areas next to the Baltic Sea.

Popular dishes adopted from Soviet cuisine include pelmeni (pelmeņi) with sour cream, Ukrainian borsch (borščs), stroganoff (stroganovs), dressed herring (siļķe kažokā), shashlik (šašliks), rasol (rasols), plov (plovs), kefir (kefīrs), kvass and solyanka (soļanka),[5] as well as dessert dishes such as medovik (meduskūka) and mille-feuille (Napoleona kūka).

[3] Cottage cheese is frequently mixed with sour cream and fresh herbs as a breakfast dish, as well as added to salads and used in cakes and other desserts like the curd snack (biezpiena sieriņš).

[9] For lunch, the cottage cheese is traditionally usually eaten with boiled potatoes, lightly salted herring, spring onions and sour cream.

[3] Rye bread (rudzu maize) has been a national food staple for centuries and is included in the Latvian Culture Canon and the EU Traditional Specialty Guaranteed register.

Fried rye bread with garlic (ķiploku grauzdiņi) and mayonnaise is often served as a starter in restaurants and bars.

[14] A popular pastry is the speķrauši, wheat or rye flour buns filled with finely cut streaky bacon and onions.

[3] Kliņģeris, a large sweet pretzel with dried fruits and spices, is usually served as a dessert on special occasions, such as name days and birthdays.

Sklandrausis is a traditional dish in Latvian cuisine which has a Livonian origin; it is a sweet pie, made of rye dough and filled with mashed potatoes and carrots and seasoned with caraway.