Heritage Healthy Kitchen

Lithuanian Christmas Eve Recipes (Kūčios)

Kūčios is Lithuania’s Christmas Eve supper on December 24, a fasting meal with no meat or dairy. It begins with a shared prayer. In early 20th-century villages, nine to twelve ritual dishes followed, among them mushrooms, herring, small poppy seed biscuits with poppy milk, and oat and cranberry kissel.

Poland keeps its own version of this night, Wigilia, and Ukraine keeps Sviata Vecheria — see those tables for their own menus.

The Soup

Traditional Grybų Sriuba

SOUP

Traditional Grybų Sriuba

Dried wild mushroom soup with pearl barley and vegetables, made without meat or dairy.

Mushroom Dumplings

Mushroom Koldūnai for Kūčios

DUMPLINGS

Mushroom Koldūnai for Kūčios

Small boiled dumplings filled with dried wild mushrooms, made without meat, egg, or dairy.

Herring, Biscuits, and Kissel

Traditional Silkė

HERRING

Traditional Silkė

Salted herring and onion in a sweet-sour vinegar brine, served cold.

Traditional Kūčiukai

DESSERT

Traditional Kūčiukai

Tiny poppy seed biscuits, dipped in sweet poppy milk.

Traditional Kisielius

DRINK

Traditional Kisielius

Cranberry kissel, a ruby-red drink thickened with starch.

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