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Papua New GuineaFlavors · the Netherlands
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.
Traditional dish from the Netherlands
Also known as: snert, Hollandse erwtensoep
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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Erwtensoep — the Netherlands
Erwtensoep, pea soup, is the best-known winter dish in the Netherlands. It’s also called snert, the popular name for the very thick version. It is made with split dried peas slowly cooked with celeriac, celery stalks, leek, carrot, onion and potato, plus meat: a pork chop or bacon used during cooking and rookworst, the smoked sausage, sliced on top.
The soup is cooked for hours until the peas break down. It is said that a good snert is so thick a spoon can stand upright in the bowl. Many families prefer to eat it the next day, when it thickens even more.
In July 2018, the method of preparing the soup was added to the national inventory of intangible heritage.
Erwtensoep appears in the cold months in homes, cafés and restaurants, and is the food associated with afternoons of ice skating when the canals freeze and with winter walks. snert stalls commonly serve the soup at outdoor events in that season.
It is served hot, with rye bread (roggebrood) topped with smoked bacon or with regular bread and butter.
the Netherlands
Nationwide winter dish; preparation recognized as national intangible heritage.
Split dried peas, celeriac and celery stalks, leek, carrot, onion, potato, pork chop or bacon, and rookworst (smoked sausage).
In a deep bowl, very hot, with sliced rookworst on top and rye bread with smoked bacon on the side.
Cold months, from autumn to winter, and outdoor winter events such as ice skating days.
Your questions
The names are used for the same pea soup. In the tradition described by the Dutch heritage inventory, snert is the soup that has rested for at least one night and become thicker.
With slices of rookworst on top and, as a side, roggebrood, the dark rye bread, with katenspek.
In the cold months, from autumn to winter, at home, in cafés and at outdoor events such as ice skating days.
Flavors of the Netherlands
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.
