Key ingredients: Dutch

Make sure your kitchen is stocked with these essential ingredients.

Potatoes

Potatoes are a staple of Dutch cuisine, suited to the Netherlands’ geography and used in a variety of dishes. Potatoes almost always accompany meat and vegetable dishes, and are boiled, roasted or mashed. Both desiree and Dutch cream varieties are native to the Netherlands.

Cauliflower

Cauliflower is a type of cabbage, with dense white flower stalks forming the head. The vegetable can be broken into florets and served as a side dish, or boiled and combined with other vegetables for a soup.

Brussels sprouts

Brussels sprouts are a vegetable consisting of a small, compact bud of cabbage leaves. No larger than a lime, they are often baked to accompany meat dishes.

Herring

Herring is an oily fish, found in the North Pacific and North Atlantic shores and common in many European cuisines. When in season, raw herring is a popular Dutch dish, but it is also pickled and available year round.

Peas

Peas are a small, round, green seed which is eaten as a vegetable. There are a number of varieties of peas, but the traditional Dutch pea soup uses dried green peas or split peas, a variety of green pea grown specifically for drying.

Apples

Apples are the fruit of an apple tree, found across the globe in different varieties. The Dutch love eating appelmoes, a thick apple sauce served as a condiment with their main meal.

Braadworst

A braadworst is a large Dutch sausage made with a mixture of spiced pork and beef in a casing. Traditionally, the sausage is free of preservatives, so it needs to be consumed fresh so as to prevent spoilage.

Cheese

The Dutch are well known for their cheeses, the majority of which are semi-hard or hard. A traditional Dutch method of making cheese involves blending herbs and spices, such as cloves or nettle, during the first stage of production.

Bread

Bread accompanies most Dutch meals, served with eggs, ham and cheese for breakfast, or alongside meatier mains.