Scandinavian Cookbook Recommendations: From The Scandi Kitchen to Vegan Christmas

Scandinavian Advent Calendar Day 15

It’s December 15th, dear friends, so if you haven’t yet decided on your Christmas menu, consider this your gentle reminder call. And naturally, I’m here to offer inspiration drawn from books—what else?—in keeping with our Scandinavian Advent Calendar theme.

Cookbooks fascinate me in ways that few other books do. They open doors to cultures through pathways that purely intellectual activities cannot access. Food is sensory, immediate, practical—you cannot fake understanding when you’re standing in your kitchen trying to replicate a technique or balance flavors you’ve never encountered before. The recipe either works or it doesn’t. The flavors either speak to you or they remain foreign. There’s an honesty to cooking from another culture’s recipes that forces genuine engagement.

And even though online recipe sources overflow with abundance—every blog and video channel offering techniques and dishes—the beauty of a physical cookbook remains utterly unique. The weight of it in your hands, the way you prop it open on the counter (inevitably getting flour or butter on the pages, marking them as truly used), the photographs that make you dream of what you might create. These are objects of aspiration and practical use combined, which is a rare and wonderful thing.

Here are some suggestions for days when you fancy northern delights and want guidance from those who know these cuisines intimately.

The Scandi Kitchen: Simple, Delicious Dishes for Any Occasion
by Brontë Aurell

This is a classic in every sense—foundational, reliable, beautiful. Brontë Aurell stands as one of the most prolific and beloved cookbook writers in the Scandinavian culinary world, which makes choosing between her various titles genuinely difficult. Each offers something valuable, but this general introduction to Scandinavian food presents seventy-five dishes that span the full range of daily eating, from morning buns (kanelbullar and the like) through fresh salads, wholesome dinners, and those irresistible desserts the Nordic countries do so well.

You truly cannot go wrong with this book. The recipes are tested, approachable, and designed for home cooks rather than restaurant kitchens. As a particularly lovely bonus, Aurell includes beautiful chapter introductions that bring you the essence of Scandinavian lifestyle—not just the food but the philosophy behind it, the rhythms of the seasons, the importance of fika and hygge and all those concepts we’ve been exploring throughout this month.

This is the book I’d recommend to anyone just beginning to explore Nordic cooking, or anyone seeking reliable recipes they’ll return to repeatedly. It’s a friend in book form, welcoming you into a different culinary tradition with patience and generosity.

Simply Delicious! Pure Finnish Flavours
by Gero Hottinger

Gero Hottinger is a German chef who has lived in Finland for more than thirty years—long enough that Finland has become not just his residence but his deep creative inspiration. He brings an outsider’s ability to articulate what makes Finnish cuisine special combined with an insider’s genuine love and thorough understanding of the culture. This unique perspective allows him to give back to Finnish culinary traditions by elevating and celebrating them, showing the world what Finnish food can be at its most refined.

Simply Delicious! is an elegant cookbook that reveals the more curated and sophisticated dimension of Scandinavian cuisine. This isn’t everyday weeknight cooking (though some recipes certainly work for that); this is food for occasions, for gathering people around your table and offering them something memorable. Everything flows from profound respect for ingredients—the exceptional quality of Finnish produce, game, fish, berries, and dairy. Hottinger understands that great cooking begins with great raw materials, and Finnish nature provides those in abundance.

This is a cookbook to inspire feasts you’ll remember, dishes that honor both tradition and innovation. The photography is stunning, the recipes ambitious but achievable. It’s aspirational in the best sense—making you want to rise to the occasion, to cook with more attention and care, to create beauty on the plate.

Happy Vegan Christmas
by Karoline Jönsson

Finally, Karoline Jönsson’s Happy Vegan Christmas offers plant-based inspiration for a Scandinavian holiday feast, proving that traditional northern flavors translate beautifully to vegan cooking. This matters because Scandinavian cuisine is often perceived as heavily meat and dairy-dependent—and historically it was, given the climate and agricultural realities. But Jönsson demonstrates that the essential flavors and the spirit of Nordic cooking can be honored entirely through plants.

Soups rich with root vegetables, meatballs reimagined with beans and mushrooms, winter salads featuring colorful cabbage and hearty nuts, fragrant desserts perfumed with cinnamon and studded with almonds—the options prove genuinely endless. This is not a book that makes you feel you’re sacrificing or settling. Everything looks and reads absolutely delicious, beautiful enough to serve to the most skeptical omnivores at your table.

I recommend this even to committed non-vegetarians as an opportunity to try a fresh approach to festive meals. We need not make every dish plant-based, but incorporating some vegetables-as-stars rather than vegetables-as-sides enriches the meal and often provides welcome lightness amid the traditional richness of holiday cooking. Jönsson makes this transition feel natural, even exciting, rather than restrictive.

I hope you’ve found inspiration here for cookbooks to acquire for yourself or give as gifts. All are available online, either new or secondhand, and each offers a distinct yet authentic perspective on Scandinavian cuisine. These aren’t books that will sit unused on your shelf looking decorative—they’re meant to be opened, splattered, bookmarked, returned to season after season.

Do come back and share with us any recipes you try. I love hearing which dishes speak to people, which techniques prove challenging or surprisingly easy, which flavors become new favorites. Cooking is always better as a conversation than a solitary act.

Until tomorrow, dear friends—bon appétit, or as they say in the North, smaklig måltid!

SCANDINAVIAN COOKING PRINCIPLES:

What unites these cookbooks and Nordic cooking generally:

Simplicity: Few ingredients, prepared well, allowing quality to shine

Seasonality: Working with what’s available, preserving abundance for lean months

Sustainability: Respect for ingredients, minimal waste, foraged additions

Balance: Light and heavy, sweet and savory, rich and refreshing

Quality Over Quantity: Better to have one exceptional dish than many mediocre ones

Hygge/Fika Culture: Food as occasion for gathering, slowing down, connecting

BUILDING A SCANDINAVIAN COOKBOOK COLLECTION:

Start with: The Scandi Kitchen for foundations and everyday cooking

Add for special occasions: Simply Delicious! for impressive dinner parties

Include for dietary flexibility: Happy Vegan Christmas for plant-based options

Consider also:

• The Nordic Cookbook by Magnus Nilsson (encyclopedic)
• Fäviken by Magnus Nilsson (avant-garde fine dining)
• The New Nordic by Simon Bajada (modern approach)
• Food of the Northern Countries (classic reference)