Quick guide: How to eat seasonal food in Helsinki
Do you have appetite for wild herb salad, blueberry pie, salmon soup, crayfish, porcini mushrooms sautéed in butter, moose stew with lingonberry purée or burbot liver? Taste the seasons on your plate. If you want to enjoy delicious seasonal food on your visit to Helsinki, here is a quick guide.
Spring
What to eat: Rhubarb pie, asparagus, salads, spring vegetables
What’s in season: Garlic, rhubarb, morel, common mushrooms, nettles, fresh cabbage, nuts, leek, zucchini, pea sprouts, spelt, millet, buckwheat, pike, bream, herring, perch, roach
Where to eat: Head for the markets to pick up the fresh spring harvest. The boats tied up to the Market Square sell mouthwatering herring treats. If your budget stretches that far, try the first asparagus of the season in the classic Savoy restaurant.
Summer
What to eat: Green salads, fish and fish soups with seasonal vegetables, grilled foods, berry desserts, raw vegetables, new potatoes and herring.
What’s in season: New potatoes, fresh cabbage, peas, summer onions, summer carrots, cauliflower, lettuces, herbs like mint and dill, chives, strawberries, nettles. In late summer: black currants, red currants, gooseberries, blueberries, raspberries, cherries, chanterelle mushrooms, boletus mushrooms, perch, whitefish, flounder, pike, nettles. The crayfish season lasts from late July to late October (signal crayfish and European crayfish).
Where to eat:
Berries and mushrooms can be found in abundance in Helsinki’s markets and grocery stores – or simply go berry and mushroom picking with a local. For modern vegetarian food and colourful salads, try for example Green Hippo. A Michelin star restaurant Grön is known for using wild and natural food ingredients in new and surprising ways.
Seasonal treats
Helsinki
Autumn
What to eat: Wild game and mushrooms, berry pies, crayfish, fresh reindeer meat
What’s in season: Chanterelle mushrooms, cabbages and root vegetables (black salsify, beetroot, rutabaga, turnip), marrows, barley, black beans, cauliflower, mushrooms, corn, fennel, spinach, salads, fruits (apples, pears, plums, damsons, chokeberry), berries (lingonberries, cranberries, cloudberries). At the start of the hunting season: elk, roe, deer, duck. Fish: flounder, wild whitefish, roach, vendace, pike-perch, perch and herring. The crayfish season lasts from late August to late October (signal crayfish and European crayfish).
Where to eat:
The best places to find autumn treats, especially meats and fish, are the open-air markets and market halls in Helsinki. You can indulge in crayfish at one of the many island restaurants off the coast of Helsinki, such as Särkänlinna and NJK.
Winter
What to eat: Hearty soups, meat and chicken stews, baked root vegetables, blinis
What’s in season: Root vegetables (Jerusalem artichoke, turnip, carrots, rutabaga, celeriac), chickpeas and beans, imported 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 find vegetables and dried fruits in all well-stocked grocery stores. You can enjoy a steaming bowl of fish soup in the Old Market Hall or Hakaniemi Market Hall. The iconic restaurant Elite serves delicious salmon soup.
Comfort Food
Helsinki
