Christmas food is one of the most exciting parts of the holiday season, but it can be hard to figure out what to cook, especially when you aren’t familiar with what’s available in your area! These traditional Russian Christmas foods are sure to inspire you this year.
These relatively simple recipes use ingredients that may be hard to find outside Russia and Eastern Europe.
We’ve included links to where you can purchase them online. Let’s explore the list of Russian Christmas foods!
1. Olivier Potato Salad
This list of Russian Christmas foods starts with the Olivier Potato Salad. It is a traditional Russian French dish that is a part of the many dishes that make up the classic Russian Christmas feast.
The Olivier Potato Salad comprises chopped boiled potatoes, celery, carrots, and hard-boiled eggs mixed with mayonnaise and mustard.
Going further, the salad is garnished with chopped parsley or tarragon. It can be served hot or cold as a side dish to accompany other dishes.
The Olivier Potato Salad was made famous by chef Marie-Antoine Carême, who was born in France in 1784.
When Marie Antoine Carême was hired as Chef de Cuisine at the Court of Tsar Alexander I of Russia, he created this dish for his employer’s family for their Christmas meal.
2. Aromatic Spice-Rubbed Pork Roast Stuffed with Herbs and Garlic
This comes second on our list of delicious Russian Christmas foods. In this recipe, the pork roast is rubbed with a mixture of freshly ground pepper, thyme, garlic, salt, and sugar. The pork is then stuffed with parsley, chervil, and tarragon.
It’s cooked on the stove in a pot with carrots, celery root, and onion. Once it’s finished cooking, it’s taken out to cool for about 15 minutes before being carved into slices.
This dish can be served warm or cold – either way, it will taste delicious!
3. Russian Liver Cake Recipe
Russian Liver Cake Recipe is one of the traditional Russian Christmas foods.
The cake comprises pork livers, bacon, onion, and bread crumbs. It’s a savory dish that will warm your heart during the colder seasons.
To cook up, cook bacon in a large skillet until crisp. Then, remove the bacon from the pan and set it aside on paper towels to drain excess grease.
Next, cook the liver in bacon grease until browned on both sides. Finally, remove it from the skillet and place it on a paper towel-lined plate to drain excess fat.
4. Russian Piroshki
There are many traditional Russian Christmas foods that you may not know about. One of the most popular and delicious is Russian Piroshki.
These meat hand pies can be filled with any filling you like. But the most common one is meat with potatoes and onions.
Moreover, the dough for this dish is made from flour, eggs, salt, and cold water or milk.
The dough will then be rolled out into a thin circle and filled with the desired filling. It can then be cooked in oil until golden brown on both sides.
5. Russian Deviled Eggs
Deviled eggs are a staple at any celebration, but these festive deviled eggs are made with mayonnaise and ketchup instead of mustard and pickle juice for a deliciously different flavor.
These deviled eggs can be served as an appetizer or a side dish alongside traditional dishes like borscht, pelmeni, and blini.
To prepare this delicacy, one of the Russian Christmas foods, start by hard boiling your eggs in a pot of water. (You can do this on the stove if you have one, or use your electric kettle.)
Once they’ve been boiled for 10 minutes, carefully remove them from the pot with tongs to cool them off. Afterward, you can remove their shells with a knife.
6. Russian Pork Aspic-Kholodets or Studen
Kholodets, or Studen as it is called in some areas of Russia, is a traditional dish served on the Eastern Orthodox Christmas holiday.
Kholodets is a pork jelly seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic. It is usually served in small bowls with horseradish sauce and pickles.
Surging, this dish can be made from either fresh or salted pork broth.
When using salted broth, the kholodets must be soaked for three to four days before cooking so that the salt leaches out of the meat.
The meat should be boiled for three hours until it falls off the bone and becomes soft enough.
Once cooled, it should be soft enough to make a jelly-like consistency.
This dish is not excluded from our list of various Russian Christmas foods!
7. Farmer’s Cheese Tvorog
As a food passed down for generations, Russians enjoy their favorite dishes on the biggest day of the year. One of the most traditional Russian Christmas foods is tvorog or farmer’s cheese.
According to some sources, this dish is made from milk boiled with a generous amount of salt and then left to cool.
The resulting curds are placed in molds and pressed until solid enough to be cut into cubes. The taste varies depending on how long they have been allowed to sour before serving.
Some people like it very sour, while others prefer a milder flavor. Tvorog can be eaten as part of a meal or as an appetizer before dinner, either by itself or served with fruit preserves.
8. Kurnik Pie with Chicken, Potatoes, and Onions
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! No, not really. But it is a time to be with family, eat good food, and enjoy each other’s company.
And what better way to celebrate than with some traditional Russian Christmas foods? One popular dish is Kurnik pie, which consists of chicken, potatoes, and onions.
It’s an Eastern European dish served during Christmas as a main course or dessert. The ingredients for the recipe can be found below:
- Large onions
- Butter or margarine
- Peeled and chopped potatoes
- Chopped raw chicken
- Eggs, beaten lightly
- Salt.
9. Salmon Coulibiac
Kulebyaka is also one of the many traditional Russian Christmas foods often prepared for the holiday season.
It is often seen as one of the more festive dishes to prepare for the celebration. It can be made with either salmon or white fish.
Specifically, the name Kulebyaka translates to little cake, which refers to its appearance when baked.
Kulebyaka is often served with a side of sour cream and garnished with chopped hard-boiled eggs, parsley, and dill weed.
10. Mimosa Salad
If you’re looking for a light and refreshing dish this holiday season, look no further than mimosa salad. This recipe layers tuna salad with cucumbers, eggs, and mayonnaise.
Then, smother it with sugar and vinegar to create the perfect sweet-and-savory combination.
The whole thing is chilled in the fridge for about an hour before serving—so if you’re running around on Christmas Eve morning like most people, this recipe is for you!
Once chilled to just the right temperature, this dish can be served as a side dish or as the main attraction at your holiday meal.
No matter how you serve it up on December 25th, this specialty of traditional Russian Christmas foods will soon become one of your favorites!
11. Russian Vinegret Salad
In Russia, the most traditional dishes served on Christmas Eve are roasted meats, pickles, and baked or fried pastries.
However, one of the most popular Russian Christmas foods and must-haves is the vinegret salad.
Vinegrets are pickled cucumbers with carrots, onions, garlic, and spices boiled in vinegar and water.
This dish has existed since medieval times, when people made it to preserve their summer harvest.
Vinegrets are essential to any Russian Christmas dinner table, symbolizing fertility and abundance for the New Year.
12. Delicate and Tender Layer Cake
Speaking of Russian Christmas foods, this is a popular and traditional holiday dish. It’s made of two layers of dough, separated by a layer of sour cream or curdled milk.
The filling can be anything from berries to red wine to nutmeg, cinnamon, and sugar. Usually, the cake is eaten with tea.
However, some people prefer to serve it as a dessert after dinner. Like many other festive dishes, smetannik can also be frozen for up to three months to enjoy later.
13. Smetana – Sour Cream
It is similar to Smetannik, but quite different. Likewise, it is one of the delicious Russian Christmas foods. Smetana is a staple of Russian cuisine and another important ingredient in many Russian Christmas recipes.
14. Russian Pelmeni
Russian pelmeni is a traditional dish served during the 12 days of Christmas.
They are made from pork, beef, lamb, or veal mixed with onion, garlic, and parsley. The dough is cut into circles and filled with meat mixture.
Next, the dumplings are boiled in water before they are fried. The dumplings can also be stuffed with pumpkin or squash instead of meat filling. You will love this dish on our list of Russian Christmas foods!
15. Herring Under a Fur Coat
In Russia, eating 12 dishes before the New Year is traditional. The first dish is usually fish, such as herring under a fur coat (a layered salad of potatoes and herring with mayonnaise).
Or herring in sour cream sauce. Hence, one of the reasons it is on this list of Russian Christmas foods is that
16. Kutya
A typical Russian dessert is kutya, which consists of wheat berries cooked in water and sugar until they form a porridge-like consistency. Then, they are mixed with butter, raisins, nuts, and boiled eggs.
Kutya can be left on a table for people to snack on throughout the evening or served alongside other holiday foods. Above all, it is not missing from the list of Russian Christmas foods!
17. Russian Pryaniki
Pryaniki is a traditional Russian Christmas food made from honey and dough.
The dough is cut into squares and then fried in a frying pan or griddle. After frying, the Pryaniki are rolled in sugar and cinnamon.
Further, some people like to dip them in sour cream before serving. These sweet treats are usually served with tea, coffee, or champagne after dinner.
With these on this list of Russian Christmas foods, you need not worry anymore about the most palatable foods to serve your guests!
