Christmas is the most important holiday in Romania, celebrated together with the entire family. All the members of the family gather in one house, around a large table filled with the best dishes in Romanian cuisine. One thing I can tell you is that if you join a Romanian family for dinner, and not necessarily for Christmas, you will be very well-fed. We always try to offer the best we have, and always cook in large quantities when we have guests.
The traditional Romanian Christmas food is a celebration in itself. Romanians usually start cooking three days before the main event, starting with the cakes, the cozonac and the sarmale. They then make sure to buy the freshest ingredients for the appetiser platters the day before, and have everything prepared for Christmas.
If you are wondering what Romanians eat for Christmas… The list is long!
The Romanian Christmas Menu
The traditional Romanian Christmas food menu is very long. In my family Christmas used to start with a lazy morning in bed, whilst my mom was busy, preparing the living room before the grandparents arrived. The Christmas meal would start at around 1 pm, with a selection of appetisers and cold cuts platters. I would try all of them, as it was only once or twice a year when my mom would cook some of them. Then, an hour later, the sarmale were served, followed by pork steak with mashed potatoes. Finally, at around 6 pm, the cakes would be brought to the table. All washed down with homemade wine and palinca.
Romanian Christmas Appetisers
My favourite part of the Romanian Christmas dinner is the appetiser selection. When I was a child I used to fill up just with them. Each family has their own traditional recipes, but there are a few that everyone makes, such as the “Salata de Boeuf” or the “Sorici”.
Let’s start with the most popular one, the “Boeuf Salad”. This is a take on the Russian Olivier salad, which has variations all over Europe. I absolutely love this salad. It’s very easy to make and packs so much flavour. The salad is a simple mix of boiled beef or chicken, boiled potatoes, carrots, peas, pickled cucumbers and plenty of mayo. The salad is decorated with pickled red peppers.
Next, the traditional Romanian Christmas food menu includes a selection of cold cuts. As the “Ignat” traditional just happened a few days before, there are plenty of freshly made pork dishes, such as toba, lebar, piftie, or crackling. Toba is a cold, large sausage made from the pig’s stomach, filled with pork offal, legs, ears, crackling, and chops, seasoned with garlic, paprika, salt and pepper. Piftie is a very similar dish, but on a plate rather than sausage-like. The lebar is like a pork pate, made with pork liver, fat, meat, onions, and eggs. Everything is minced together and boiled, before being put inside a clean pork intestine. It tastes delicious.
When I talk about crackling, I refer to the pork skin which has been burned, after the animal was sacrificed during the “Igant”. In Romania we don’t throw anything away from an animal, everything is used in different recipes. And the skin is no exception. We call the crackling “sorici”, and in my opinion, the best comes from the pig’s ears.
Besides these traditional Romanian cold cuts, the platter also contains dried salami, ham, smoked fillet of pork, and pastrami. Alongside this, we also serve matured sheep’s cheese.
Another very loved Christmas appetiser is the devilled eggs.
When it comes to other salads, we usually serve Romanian mushroom salad, aubergine salad, as well as cod roe salad. In the middle of the table, there is also a basket filled with rustic bread slices.
Romanian Christmas Main Courses
When it comes to traditional Romanian Christmas mains, the sarmale are a must. They are the traditional Romanian dish and don’t miss from any celebratory meal. Sarmale are cabbage rolls filled with pork, cooked alongside pickled cabbage and smoked meat. They are served with polenta, sour cream and pickled hot peppers. See my recipe for sarmale here.
The second main course served for Christmas is the baked pork steak. My mom slow cooks the pork for a good few hours, and serves it with silky mashed potatoes and a pickles salad. It’s absolutely delicious, with the melt-in-the-mouth pork. Click here to see my mom’s baked pork steak recipe.
Some families also serve soup at the Christmas table. We don’t, as it’s already too much food. The soup would usually be a pork and cabbage soup, tripe soup, or meatball soup.
Romanian Christmas Desserts
The traditional Romanian Christmas food menu wouldn’t be complete without dessert. Usually, this involves a platter with an assortment of cakes, as well as the traditional cozonac, which doesn’t miss from any celebratory dinner table.
I love the cake selection and always make sure to try at least one of each. Typically, there would be at least five different types of cakes on it, among which “Lamaita – Snow White”, “Poppy seed cake”, “Krantz”, “Albinita”, “Rafaello”, “Greta Garbo cake”, “Figaro cake”, or “Honey and caramel cake” are the most popular.
“Lamaita”, which is also known as the Snow White cake because of its colour, is a very light Romanian cake. It is made from layers of pastry that melt in your mouth filled with a vanilla and lemon cream.
The poppy seed cake is light and packs a lot of flavour. The layers of this cake are soft and made from baked meringue. The filling between the layers alternates between poppy seeds and vanilla cream. The entire cake is finished with coconut flakes.
“Krantz” is a classic Romanian Christmas cake. It has layers of walnut meringue, with a base layer of vanilla sponge cake. The layers are filled with a cream made with vanilla crème patisserie mixed with caramel. The cake is then topped with caramelised walnuts.
Another great cake that is part of the traditional Romanian Christmas menu is Greta Garbo. It is a Hungarian-influenced cake that has layers of pastry made with sour cream and yeast, filled with walnuts and marmalade. The cake has a delicious chocolate glaze as well.
“Albinita”, which translates as “the little bee”, is a delightful cake, with layers of pastry made with honey, and filled with a light semolina cream. In the middle, there is a single layer of raspberry or apricot jam.
Rafaello is a take on the chocolates with the same name. It is a layered cake with a vanilla and coconut flakes filling that tastes exactly like Ferrero Rocher’s famous pralines.
“Figaro” is another classic cake present on the Christmas dessert platter. It consists of a layer of tender shortbread topped with raspberry jam. The cake is finished with a tasty meringue mixed with walnuts, which caramelises during the baking process.
The honey and caramel cake is another favourite of mine. It has melt-in-your-mouth pastry layers made with honey and filled with a lovely buttercream made with burnt sugar.
All of these cakes are served cut in bite-size pieces.
The other traditional cake that doesn’t miss from any Christmas meal in Romania is the Cozonac. This traditional sweet bread is filled with cocoa, walnuts, raisins and Turkish delight. For me, the more the filling, the better the cake. You can find the cozonac recipe here.
Conclusion
Christmas is a very big event for Romanians. If you are looking for inspiration on what to cook this Christmas, I hope I gave you enough suggestions from my personal holiday menu. I’d love to read your comments below, and find out what you’ve cooked.
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