Dutch food

Dutch food may not be as world-famous as, say, French or Italian cuisine, but there’s more than enough scrumptious dishes to sink your teeth into. The Netherlands’ colonial history means that Dutch cuisine is peppered with foreign influences. This page provides a brief overview of Dutch cuisine, and lists some famous and tasty Dutch foods that everyone should try at least once. 

A brief history of Dutch food

Due to its rich history of travelling and international trading, the Netherlands’ culinary influences from other countries date way back and most Dutch dishes are in some way inspired from countries abroad. 

The recipes that gained popularity and have become traditional Dutch meals were as a rule filling, hot and sturdy dishes that kept you full and warm in winter. You only have to look to the Netherlands’ climate to understand why. Favoured ingredients were generally those that were grown on local farms and foods were smoked, dried or pickled to preserve them for consumption in the winter.

When agriculture was established, the earliest main ingredients in a Dutch meal were grains and legumes. Potatoes didn’t become a staple ingredient until the 18th century. Many Dutch farms raised cattle, so it's no wonder that dairy became a much-beloved ingredient and why the Netherlands is so well-known for its cheeses.

Traditional Dutch food

Do you know your snert from your hutspot? The most well-known Dutch dishes are generally hearty, filling and warm - perfect for shovelling down on a cold winter’s day. Here are some traditional Dutch dishes you may or may not have heard of. 

AVG’tje

This standard term for a Dutch dinner stands for aardappel, vlees, groenten (potato, meat and vegetables - AVG). A lot of Dutch households tend not to follow a recipe for a specific dish, so much as whip up a combination of these basic essentials.

Pea soup (erwtensoep or snert)

Pea soup is a thick, hearty split pea soup made with sausage and vegetables, often consumed during winter. A day after preparation, the soup has thickened and more meat is added, after which it becomes snert.

Hutspot

Hutspot is a potato, carrot and onion mash, often eaten in winter, usually with meat on the side.

Stamppot

Another variety of a vegetable mash, stamppot is a mashed combination of potatoes and leftovers or other ingredients like kale, endive, cabbage or sauerkraut. It is often served with meats like smoked sausage and gravy.

Hachee

Hachee is meat, fish or poultry and vegetables, stewed into a thick gravy with vinegar, cloves and laurel leaves.

Brown bean soup

Another typical winter soup, brown bean soup is slowly prepared over many hours, and is made with (as the name suggests) brown beans, vegetables and various meats and spices like cloves, juniper berries and thyme.

Pancakes

Dutch pancakes are large enough to fill a big frying pan, and are usually eaten for dinner, rather than for breakfast. Pancake houses often serve them with various fillings, both sweet and savoury, ranging from syrup, powdered sugar and apple to cheese, spinach and bacon. The fillings are usually added to the pancake while it’s still in the pan, and then the pancake is served flat, rather than rolled around a filling like a crepe. 

Huzarensalade

Huzarensalade is a variation of a Russian salad made with eggs, potatoes, pickles, vinegar and mayonnaise. It is normally served cold as a side dish.

Regional speciality dishes

Certain Dutch foods are tied to specific regions and cities that are often mentioned in their name as a mark of local identity. Some famous examples of regional speciality dishes in the Netherlands include: 

• Bossche bol from Den Bosch: A large, ball-shaped pastry filled with whipped cream and covered with chocolate.
• Limburgse vlaai from Limburg: A large, flat tart filled with sugared fruits and covered with a dough grid.
• Fryske dúmkes from Friesland: Sweet little biscuits made with aniseed.
• Zeeuwse bolus from Zeeland: Sweet pastry made of bread dough rolled in brown sugar.
• Brabant sausage roll from Brabant: A long white roll filled with a minced meat sausage.
• Gelderse worst from Gelderland: Cooked sausage made from lean pork.
• Amsterdamse uitjes from Amsterdam: Onions pickled in vinegar and spices.
• Arnhemse meisjes from Arnhem: Hard, oval biscuits made from yeast dough and sprinkled with sugar.
• Deventer koek from Deventer: Round biscuits made with honey and pepper.
• Haagse hopjes from The Hague: Hard boiled sweets with coffee and caramel flavour.
• Haagse kakker from The Hague: Flat currant bread filled with almond paste.
• Groninger koek from Groningen: Spiced, hearty cake made with rye and honey.
• Zwolse balletjes from Zwolle: Sweet, hard boiled candies.
• Schokkermop from Flevoland: Biscuits made with rye and wheat flour, speculaas herbs and caster sugar.
• Drentse turf from Drenthe: Heavy spice cake filled with walnuts and raisins.
• Utrecht vockingworst from Utrecht: A brand of sausage with a dark colour and a unique taste.

Dutch snacks

Snacks can be found everywhere in the Netherlands, as they are often sold at stands as street food and as appetisers in bars and restaurants. Both savoury and sweet snacks are considered part of the Dutch national identity.

Savoury Dutch snacks

The staple of every after-work borrel, the most well known savoury snacks you can find in the Netherlands include:

Hollandse Nieuwe

A regionally protected product in Europe, Hollandse Nieuwe is the name for raw herring, generally caught between May 1 and August 31 each year. To be a Hollandse Nieuwe, the herring must be at least 16 percent fat and be cleaned in the right way. 

It is often served with onion or pickles. Traditionally, you eat it by grabbing the herring by the tail and letting the whole fish slip down your throat. 

Bitterballen and kroketten

Two different shapes but essentially the same thing, bitterballen and kroketten are made by making a very thick stew (usually with meat, but now often with vegetables), refrigerating it until it firms up, then rolling the mixture into balls (bitterballen) or tubes (kroketten), breading them and deep-frying them. They are usually served with mustard. 

The name “bitterbal” comes from the fact that they were traditionally served with jenever, which was referred to as a “bittertje” because of the herbs it contained. 

Frikandel

Frikandellen are skinless, deep-fried sausages that are eaten warm. They are the most popular fast food snacks in the Netherlands - more popular even than kroketten! According to the General Association of Manufacturers of Cooking Supplies and Snacks in the Netherlands, the average Dutch person eats 37 frikandellen each year. 

The frikandel has a long history dating back to the 17th century, when it was made of minced veal, mace, nutmeg, salt, pepper and orange peel. 

Fries with mayonnaise

Fries are everywhere in the Netherlands - but the Dutch do not typically refer to fries as French, due to the belief that the dish originated in Belgium, not France.

Mayonnaise is the most common sauce to eat with fries in the Netherlands, but you may also come across ketchup, fritessaus (a special fries sauce that is a bit sweeter than mayonnaise) and even peanut sauce as toppings! 

Sweet Dutch snacks

Here are some of the most famous sweet snacks you can find in the Netherlands:

Stroopwafels

Stroopwafels are delicious cookies made by layering two pieces of sweet dough with a syrup filling. They were first made in the city of Gouda in the 18th century. You can buy them fresh and warm at the market, or packaged in supermarkets.

Poffertjes

Poffertjes are tiny, puffed up pancakes made with yeast and buckwheat flour and served with butter and powdered sugar. They have a long history dating all the way back the the 18th century and are usually made in a special pan with several small, round indentations. 

Eierkoek

Eierkoeken (literally, egg cakes) are soft, yellow, sweet and round cakes made with eggs. They can be eaten plain, or spread with butter and sugar on one side. 

Drop

You either love it or you loathe it: drop is liquorice candy, usually black or brown, and comes in both sweet and salty varieties. The Dutch are self-confessed drop addicts: one survey found that 80 percent of the population eats licorice and the average person consumes 2 kilograms each year! 

Dutch foods for special occasions

Some Dutch foods are only eaten on certain special occasions. Here are some examples:

Beschuit met Muisjes®

Beschuit met Muisjes are Dutch crisp bakes sprinkled with “mice” or sugared aniseeds. Often coloured blue or pink, they are usually served to celebrate a birth.

*Muisjes® is a registered trademark of Koninklijke De Ruijter B.V.

Speculaas and pepernoten

Speculaas and pepernoten are little biscuits or biscuit drops made with a special spice mix, served around the Sinterklaas holiday.

Tompouce

Tompouce are two puff pastry rectangles with sweet, custardy pastry cream in between. The top rectangle is spread with pink frosting, but it is often coloured orange for King’s Day.

Paasbrood

Paasbrood is a bread made with almond paste, raisins and candied orange peel, and is traditionally served at Easter.

Kerststol

Kerststol is a bread much like the Paasbrood, but with powdered sugar on top. Instead of being served at Easter, it comes out at Christmas.

Oliebollen

Oliebollen (literally “oil balls”) are delicious dough balls filled with raisins, fried in oil and served with powdered sugar. They are traditionally eaten on New Year’s Eve, but throughout the winter season in the Netherlands you will see stalls selling oliebollen pop up on practically every street corner. 

Dutch breakfast

Dutch breakfast can vary. Most commonly, people eat slices of bread with sweet or savoury spreads, as well as muesli and yogurt. Dairy products such as cheeses, milk and eggs often play a role in the first meal of the day in the Netherlands. 

Rye bread is a popular breakfast choice. Dutch rye bread is different from other countries’ rye bread. Officially, rye bread is not even considered to be a bread. It is a dense bake, made from broken rye grain. Sometimes it is chosen over normal bread for certain health benefits, and for the heavier texture and heartier flavour. Different Dutch regions have different recipes for rye bread.

Another (stereotypical) Dutch breakfast choice is a slice of bread, spread with butter or margarine, and covered in chocolate sprinkles (hagelslag). Finally, you might see people eating krentenbollen, which are soft rolls filled with currants.