Winter: How to eat seasonal food in Helsinki

What to eat

Hearty soups, meat and chicken stews, baked root vegetables, blinis, if that gets your mouth watering then a trip to wintery Helsinki is a must.

What’s in season

• Root vegetables (Jerusalem artichoke, turnip, carrots, rutabaga, celeriac)
• chickpeas and beans
• citrus fruits (oranges, mandarins, blood oranges)
• nuts, sesame and sunflower seeds, raisins and dried plums
• barley, buckwheat
• pike-perch, perch, vendace, burbot.

Where to eat

In wintertime you can enjoy a steaming bowl of fish soup in the Old Market Hall. The iconic restaurant Elite serves delicious salmon soup, either creamy or clear.

When the blini season starts in January, many restaurants in Helsinki organise special blini weeks. Originally from Russia, blinis are usually served with salmon roe and sour cream. You can try an exquisite assortment of blinis at Saslik, OR, Lasipalatsi, BLINIt and many other restaurants.