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Traditional food · the Netherlands
Raw herring with onion, thick pea soup, winter mash dishes and bakery sweets: the flavors of the Netherlands, its provinces and some cities.
In the photo: Canais de Amsterdã, Amsterdã
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
The cuisine
Dutch cuisine grew out of a country of wet plains, ports and trade. The sea provided herring, eaten raw in season; the farms provided potatoes, kale, milk and butter; and trade with other continents brought cinnamon, sugar and spices that appear in sweets from many provinces.
Part of this food is national. The Hollandse Nieuwe, the young herring prepared by the traditional method, has European protection as a guaranteed traditional specialty. Erwtensoep, the thick pea soup, and stamppot, the mashed potato with vegetables, are common winter dishes from north to south. Oliebollen mark New Year’s Eve.
Other specialties are tied to a province. North Brabant has the worstenbroodje, a roll filled with seasoned meat, recognized as national intangible heritage. Limburg has the vlaai, a fruit tart protected by a European geographical indication and shared with Belgian Limburg. Friesland has the sûkerbôle, the sugar bread; Zeeland, the cinnamon bolus, brought by Sephardic Jews from Portugal and Spain; and Groningen, the eierbal, a fried savory egg snack.
Some cities lend their names to specialties. Gouda is the home of the stroopwafel; ’s-Hertogenbosch, of the Bossche bol; and Schiedam, of the windmills and distilleries that made jenever famous. Rotterdam gave the country a recent dish, the kapsalon, created in a neighborhood takeaway.
These pages present each specialty, its connection to the place, the ingredients, how it is eaten and the occasions when it usually appears. Names are kept in their original form, as they are known locally.
13 flavors
Thick split pea soup with vegetables and smoked sausage that in winter can become so thick a spoon can stand upright. The preparation of erwtensoep, also called snert, was recognized as intangible heritage of the Netherlands in July 2018.
Young, fatty seasonal herring, cleaned, salted and matured by the traditional method and eaten raw with chopped onion. It is a Traditional Speciality Guaranteed of the European Union, and the arrival of the new season is celebrated throughout the country.
Fried yeasted dough balls, with or without raisins and apple, dusted with confectioners’ sugar. They are the New Year’s Eve treat in the Netherlands, sold at stalls that appear in towns at the end of the year.
Rustic mashed potatoes mixed with a vegetable, such as kale, sauerkraut or carrots with onion, served with a smoked sausage and gravy. It’s the winter home-cooking dish of the Netherlands, with variants that have their own names.
Small white bread filled with well-seasoned pork, the worstenbroodje is the savory of North Brabant and was recognized as Dutch intangible heritage in 2016.
White yeast bread with large chunks of sugar mixed into the dough and cinnamon, which caramelize in the oven. It is the sweet bread most associated with Friesland, and local tradition links it to visits to the parents after a baby is born.
Two thin crisp waffle wafers glued together with a caramel-cinnamon syrup filling. It originated in Gouda bakeries around 1800, and the method of making it by hand is on the national inventory of intangible heritage.
A boiled egg wrapped in a creamy, spiced ragù, breaded and fried: the eierbal is the snack bar treat of Groningen. It was added in 2017 to the national inventory of intangible heritage, following an initiative by a society created to protect it.
Round tart made from a thin fermented dough and generously filled with fruit, rice pudding or custard, sometimes topped with a lattice or streusel. Since 2024 it has a Protected Geographical Indication from the European Union, shared by Dutch and Belgian Limburg.
Tray of French fries topped with shoarma, melted cheese, salad, garlic sauce and sambal. Created in 2003 at a snack bar in Rotterdam for hairdresser Nataniël Gomes, it took the name of his salon and spread across the Netherlands.
Cereal distillate flavored with juniper, the predecessor of gin, which made Schiedam the city of jenever: at its peak, hundreds of distilleries operated along the canals, and giant windmills ground the grain. Jenever has a European geographical indication shared by the Netherlands, Belgium and neighbouring areas.
Large choux pastry ball filled with whipped cream and covered in dark chocolate, the sweet of 's-Hertogenbosch. A local pastry shop advertised chocolate balls as early as 1903 and began filling them with whipped cream in 1924.
A small leavened roll twisted into a spiral with light brown sugar and cinnamon that caramelizes in the oven, leaving it sticky inside and out. It is the best-known sweet of Zeeland and its origin is attributed to the Sephardic Jews who settled in Middelburg at the end of the 16th century.
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Your questions
Nationwide dishes include Hollandse Nieuwe herring, eaten raw in season; the pea soup erwtensoep; and the mashed potato-and-vegetable dish stamppot. Oliebollen appear at year-end celebrations.
With chopped onion and sometimes pickles, holding the fish by the tail and bringing it to the mouth, or in pieces on a toothpick. It is also eaten in a small roll, the broodje haring.
Gouda’s stroopwafel, the Bossche bol from ’s-Hertogenbosch, Limburg’s vlaai, Zeeland’s bolus and Friesland’s sûkerbôle, plus oliebollen at year’s end.
A grain distillate flavored with juniper, considered the predecessor of gin. It is a traditional drink of the Netherlands and Belgium, and Schiedam is the Dutch city most closely linked to its history.
