Norwegian Porridge, aka Risengrynsgrøt, is a one-pot rice meal prepared and enjoyed on Christmas day in the Scandinavian regions in Europe.
Nonetheless, you can make the Norwegian porridge for breakfast any time of the year!
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What is the Norwegian Porridge?
The Norwegians Porridge is a common lunch dish on Christmas day in the Scandinavian countries.
They call this milk rice porridge Risengrynsgrøt in Norway and Risengrøt in Denmark.
It turns out this rice porridge is common under another name in Sweden, Finland, and Iceland as well. I can't confirm this as Norwegians mentioned Denmark as another country.
So, while we just call it a Norwegian Porridge, this rice pudding actually belongs to a many people in the Scandinavian region.
The Norwegian porridge is prepared with short grain rice such as Paella rice/ Risotto rice.
This particular rice porridge belongs to the Scandinavian region but does come close to other rice puddings around the world such as the French riz au lait, the Indian Kheer or the Spanish Arroz con Leche.
Norwegian Porridge is a big deal in that sense because it's not a dessert, but rather instead the main meal.
The original and traditional Risengrynsgrøt is a savory main course dish. A norwegian reader, @kimgiertsen, mentioned that they also eat the porridge before going to church on Christmas day.
He also shared...
Many people take an almond, remove its skin and put it in the rice porridge.
This is a Christmas game, the person who gets the almond in his or her porridge is supposed to hide it, often in their mouth.
After everyone has finished their porridge, someone asks “Who has the almond”?
The lucky person wins a small gift., typically a marzipan pig figurine.
Ingredients
- Short Grain Rice
- Water
- Salt
- Milk
- Sugar
- Cinnamon Ground
- Butter
From what I was told, is that the very traditional Norwegian Porridge does not mention the use of sugar.
However, this changed in time and some people started to add some sugar to their porridge. So, you can add sugar to your Risengrynsgrøt if you like.
Preparation Overview
Step 1
Rinse the rice thoroughly, then cook it with water and salt until it boils.
Step 2
Add all the milk and sugar, stir well, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the porridge thickens and the rice is soft.
Step 3
Serve hot with cinnamon and butter, and enjoy your creamy homemade Risengrynsgrøt.
📖 Recipe
Norwegian Porridge Recipe (Risengrynsgrøt)
Ingredients
To cook the Norwegian porridge:
- 1 cup Short Grain Rice
- 1 cup Water
- ½ Teaspoon Salt
- 5 cups Milk
- 2 Tablespoon Sugar
For each bowl:
- 1 Teaspoon Cinnamon Ground
- 1 dollop Tablespoon Butter
Instructions
- Wash your rice until the water is clear then take to the pot with the water and heat up. Let cook, add salt and bring to a boil.1 cup Short Grain Rice, 1 cup Water, ½ Teaspoon Salt
- Then add all the milk to the rice and sugar if you make it sweet. Mix well and simmer slowly for 20–40 minutes. Remember, the longer you let it cook slowly on the heat, the better the Norwegian porridge will turn out. Make sure to stir occasionally so that the content doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. The porridge will slowly thicken while it is simmering.5 cups Milk, 2 Tablespoon Sugar
- The porridge is ready when it has thickened, turned very creamy and when the rice is properly well cooked and soft.
- Then add some hot porridge into a bowl, sprinkle some cinnamon on it and add the butter into the center of the bowl on the porridge. Then you just need to make the whole contend and enjoy your homemade Risengrynsgrøt!1 Teaspoon Cinnamon Ground, 1 dollop Tablespoon Butter
Notes
Nutrition
Tips
Most Norwegian will tell you to cook it for about 45 minutes.
In fact, I got the suggestion to first cook the Risengrynsgrøt on the stove until the rice boils with the milk. Then to cover and transfer the whole content to the oven to further bake it there for a total of 45 minutes or until the whole content is super creamy.
I thought a one-pot dish would be more useful as I try to avoid washing too many dishes, and you know, I like to keep it simple if possible.
While 45 minutes is the suggested cooking time, I only cook my rice porridge for about 20 minutes.
The longer you slow cook the rice pudding on the stove, the better the Norwegian porridge turns out!
The result in general should be that the rice is soft and never al dente. The Risengrynsgrøt needs to be creamy and thick.
After cooking the rice porridge, pour some into a bowl, sprinkle with cinnamon powder and add a spoon full of butter into the center and serve it that way.
The butter is then mixed in, and yes, I know I took a gigantic dollop of butter in the video, but I will tell you, the taste was incredible!
Other Scandinavian Christmas Food Traditions
Norwegians mostly associate the Norwegians' porridge with Risengrynsgrøt and not Rømmegrøt, which is another pudding, but the main difference is that it's prepared without rice and with sour cream.
Julekake is another Christmas specialty prepared in Norway for Christmas. It's a spicy and fruity soft bread loaf.
This brings back so many memories! If you liked to try you could replace rice with barley. That is how they cooked this pudding at least in Finland centuries before they had ever heard about rice.
That's very interesting, thanks for sharing! I was wondering what the region must have used before the rice was a thing there. Barley definitely makes sense and I think it tastes great! Remind me of the Tibetan Tsampa Porrdige (which I will post in the coming months).
This has been part of my family's Christmas Eve tradition since I was a little girl. From my 100% Norwegian mother's family. Served with butter, sugar and cinnamon.
It's a beautiful tradition! 🙂 Thanks for sharing it with us.
I'm going to try your mum's version next! It sounds delicious. Thank you for sharing Toni 🙂
My grandmother was from Norway. Every Christmas and sometimes once in a while throughout the year, my mother would make my grandmother's rice pudding. We would sprinkle cinnamon on top and sometimes mix raisins in while its cooking. Her pudding would take from 2 and a half to 4 hours to cook in a double boiler.
Both my grandmother (almost 50 years) and my mother (almost 20 years) have passed, but every Christmas I still make the rice pudding.
Hi Teresa,
Thanks for sharing your knowledge and memories with us! They are beautiful! 🙂
My grandmother, my mother, and now I always cook our risengrynsgrot in a double boiler (after initially preparing the rice in water) we cook it on low heat ALL DAY, adding whole milk every so often as the porridge thickens. The flavor is absolutely amazing...I imagine because of the fat in the milk with the rice broken down and soft and creamy; it’s true comfort food!
Our Norwegian church, Mindekirken, here in Minneapolis Minnesota serves a rommegrot breakfast in the fellowship hall and I love it, but their traditional rommegrot doesn’t hold a candle to my memories of eating my mother’s risengrynsgrot as a child.
Thanks for your recipe, and your reference to the tradition of adding the almond to the porridge as a game, it’s so wonderful to keep these traditions alive! ❤️
Kristen thank you for sharing your family memories with us. I also believe that the quality of thick fatty milk makes the difference.
I also believe that cooking this wonderful Norwegian dish over slow fire the whole day long will increase the comfort flavor factor. My grandmother would milk the cows and use this milk to make some kind of porridge too and I remember it used to be super creamy and flavorful. 🙂
rommegrot is not made with rice
Thanks, Sarah, fixed it!
This Norwegian rice porridge looks similar to thick kheer love it as it has less sugar and touch of cinnamon great breakfast dish.
I love rice pudding! Will give this recipe a try
This looks so warm an comforting. I love that so many cultures have their own version of rice pudding. This one looks fantastic!
This looks so creamy and delicious! I love hot cereals like this to warm you up on cold mornings!
Love this, we call it arroz con leche (rice with milk). My Dominican family loves making this. We like making it with the addition of raisins. Thanks for sharing this yummy recipe!
wow. I had no idea that rice porridge was done in other countries too. The more you know! This sounds so comforting to have on a cold winters day.
This looks so yummy - and totally unique!
I'd make it with butter because butter makes everything taste better. This sounds terrific!
Looks so good for cold mornings!
How interesting is to learn about foods and traditions from other countries! Very comforting recipe for cold days!
Love to see this sort of recipe! Very interesting that it uses short grain rice, will definitely try this!
This sounds like a great breakfast or dessert! And simple to make, too!
It is indeed much like kheer or payasam that we make here. The difference is in the spice mostly, I think. And maybe the consistency.
It's interesting how many cultures across the world make rice pudding.
Thank you for sharing the history and backstory behind this traditional Christmas Eve dish. It sounds perfect for a cold Norwegian night.
If you remove salt from this recipe - it would be something very close to Indian Kheer. Do you have a salt only version of this recipe.?
Personally, I like both salted and savory recipes, but I do not like the one which has both salt and sugar in them. That is why I do not like Gujarati and Bengali cuisines - they add a bit of sugar to all their dishes.
Oh really? I don't know these two cuisines that well. You can probably either leave out the salt or the sugar and make the Norwegian porridge the way you enjoy it the most. 🙂
I loveee arroz con leche (that's what my Cuban family calls it) so I'm sure I would totally love this porridge recipe. Thanks for sharing.
I am a rice lover, so this is awesome. What a great change of pace. Perfect for the cold winter months.
I've never had porridge before, but it's going to be 25 degrees here on Saturday...THIS is exactly what I will need to stay warm!
I am so making this. Of course in the U.S. we call this rice pudding. Your porridge looks like a wonderful bowl of comfort food. Pinning this.