My traditional Russian food recipes for Russian Orthodox Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas lunch will make you the dishes my Russian-Ukrainian baboushka spent days in the kitchen preparing for our family feasts over the festive season. In the lead-up to Christmas, Baba made big batches of borscht and piroshki, Russian pelmeni and Ukrainian vareniki, then on the morning of our gathering made salads such as the Olivier salad and pink beet potato salad called vinagret. These are our family recipes I make every Christmas.
If you’ll be celebrating Orthodox Christmas on 7 January 2026, do browse our traditional Russian food recipes, below, and, for even more options, the full archive of my Russian-Ukrainian family recipes. Although traditionally the Orthodox Christmas begins on Christmas Eve when many Russians and Orthodox Christians from neighbouring Slavic countries sit down for a Christmas Eve dinner, feet aching from a long late church service. I’m speaking from experience!
Many families will also enjoy an Orthodox Christmas lunch or Christmas dinner the next day, which was the tradition in my Russian-Ukrainian grandparents home when I was growing up in Sydney’s western suburbs in Australia in the 1970s. I thought I was the luckiest kid in the world, getting to celebrate two Christmases and two Easters.
My grandparents died a long time ago, as did dear dad and my uncle, my sister and her kids are in Perth, and Terence is home in Cambodia, so I’ll only be cooking Russian Christmas food for my mum here in Australia. While I prepare the dishes my mother, grandmother and great-grandmother cooked, I’ll use the time to recall fond memories of the family feasts of my childhood.
I’ll share some new Russian and Ukrainian recipes between now and then, but if you’re looking for Orthodox Christmas food ideas, do browse this larger collection of my family recipes that includes everything from my many Stroganoff recipes to my modern take on a mimosa salad. This shorter compilation below focuses (mostly) on the more traditional dishes that served as traditional Russian Christmas food in my grandparents house, although I’ve tweaked a few…
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Looking for more cooking inspiration? We’ve got thousands of recipes in our archives from around the world from places we’ve lived, worked, travelled, and loved. And note that you can save your favourites in a private account by clicking on the heart on the right of posts. Now let me tell you about these recipes for traditional Russian Christmas food for Russian Orthodox Christmas.
Traditional Russian Christmas Food for Russian Orthodox Christmas
These are my traditional Russian Christmas food recipes that my Russian-Ukrainian grandmother and great-grandmother prepared every year, for both the ‘Western’ Christmas on 25 December and the Orthodox Christmas on 7 January, along with dishes my mother made.
Russian Devilled Eggs Recipe for a Zakuski Table Fit for a Russian Tzar
My Russian devilled eggs recipe makes addictive Russian stuffed eggs with a creamy filling of the yolks of hard-boiled eggs mashed with mayonnaise, mustard, paprika, dill pickles, purple shallots, and perfumed dill.
A feature on the zakuski buffets before the elaborate imperial banquets, they were popularised during the Soviet era. They’re another Russian retro-classic, like chicken Kiev and beef Stroganoff, that spread like wildfire around the world, featuring on formica trays of hors d’oeuvres at every swinging soirée from Sydney to San Francisco in the 1960s and Seventies.
Mum served Russian devilled eggs as finger food before weekend barbecues and dinner parties. For the boiled eggs, see Terence’s guide to boiling perfect eggs.
Russian Devilled Eggs Recipe for a Zakuski Table Fit for a Russian Emperor
Devilled Eggs with Smoked Salmon and Caviar Recipe
My devilled eggs with smoked salmon and caviar recipe makes a luxurious take on the simpler Russian devilled eggs associated with traditional Russian Christmas food, above.
These devilled eggs were traditionally served as part of a spread of zakuski or snacks and appetisers that were the prelude to a holiday feast. (I’m going to share my favourite zakuski spread next week.)
While my mother loved to serve these at Christmas for a special treat, Baboushka preferred to serve whole boiled eggs alongside a jar of Russian caviar, which wasn’t considered the luxury then that it is now. Caviar was just something we ate with eggs – washed down with vodka, of course.
While dishes of dill pickles, charcuterie, boiled eggs, caviar and salads were always laid out first, it wasn’t long before the dumplings, kotleti and cabbage rolls followed. Recipes for those below.
Devilled Eggs with Smoked Salmon and Caviar Recipe for Elegant Cocktail Party Canapés
Russian Buckwheat Pancakes Recipe for Blini with Smoked Salmon, Dill and Sour Cream
This Russian buckwheat pancakes recipe makes blini with smoked salmon, dill, sour cream, and a ‘caviar’ of gherkin and radish, inspired by ikra (see below). More like pikelets than pancakes, these are cocktail size blini that are perfect for snacking and entertaining, and while this is a savoury topping you could also spread these little pancakes with jam and cream.
And, yes, of course you can serve these blini with real caviar. I’m just conscious that we’re still in the midst of a pandemic and some of us (cough cough) may no longer be able to afford the luxury of caviar. These are blini for those of us currently on a Prosecco rather than a Champagne budget!
I love this size for blini. They make a fun brunch snack or fantastic finger food, if you’re lucky enough to be able to entertain. Terence, mum and I gorged ourselves on these small blini with caviar, sour cream and dill when we took the day train from Moscow to Saint Petersburg, my favourite train journey in the world.
We ordered one serve of blini and caviar for each of us with vodka, which was all they offered on their very limited menu at the time, as most Russian travellers brought their own food. The blini were so good and so stupidly cheap that we immediately ordered another round of blini and vodkas, which, by the raised eyebrows of the train staff must have been unusual. Since publishing this, I’ve also shared a DIY ‘train blini’ post.
Russian Buckwheat Pancakes Recipe for Blini with Smoked Salmon, Dill and Sour Cream
Russian Ikra Recipe for the Poor Man’s Eggplant Caviar
This easy Russian eggplant caviar recipe makes ikra – also known as the ‘poor man’s caviar’ during the Soviet period – and it was another dish that I associate with traditional Russian Christmas food, although it didn’t appear at every family feast.
My baboushka’s recipe made a particularly velvety ikra that was more sumptuous than the eggplant caviar that was popularised during the Soviet era that more closely resembled a diced salad.
This recipe for ikra is super easy. Sure, it’s time-consuming, as there’s a lot of dicing involved, but there are no complex skills required. Of all my baba’s dishes, it was perhaps the dish that I most adored.
Easy Russian Eggplant Caviar Recipe for Ikra, the Soviet Union’s Poor Man’s Caviar
Vinegret Recipe for a Russian Beetroot Potato Salad
This Russian beet potato salad recipe makes vinegret, a pink potato and beetroot salad that is fragrant with dill and delightfully tangy thanks to the gherkins and capers and it’s another traditional Russian Christmas food.
Although this beetroot potato salad was a staple at most family meals. There would rarely be a Sunday lunch at baba and papa’s home without this salad on the table and my mum made it every time we had a backyard barbecue.
Despite the fact I can make it in my sleep, this beetroot and potato salad turns out a little differently each time and the main difference is the colour. I explain why in my tips to making this Russian beet potato salad recipe below.
Russian Beetroot Potato Salad Recipe for Family Meals and Holiday Feasts
Classic Russian Garden Salad Recipe
My classic Russian garden salad recipe makes a simple green salad that my baboushka served with every family meal when I was growing up in Sydney in the Seventies but it was also another traditional Russian Christmas food.
My baba’s garden salad was exceptional, because most of the ingredients were just picked from papa’s backyard vegetable garden. Papa’s tomatoes were the sweetest I’ve ever tasted, his radishes the zestiest, and his cucumbers the crunchiest.
Those three ingredients there – tomato, cucumber and radish – comprised Papa’s breakfast each day, along with a slice of Russian black bread, perhaps a boiled egg, maybe some pickled herring, and a sneaky shot of his homemade vodka.
This Classic Russian Garden Salad Goes on the Table for Every Russian Meal
Russian Potato Salad Recipe for the Olivier Salad
This Russian potato salad recipe makes the Olivier salad, which was another traditional Russian Christmas food, although we ate it at every shared family meal.
The salad was invented by the chef of a famed Moscow restaurant in the 19th century, when it was a much more extravagant dish. It was then popularised in the 20th century during the Soviet period.
The typical Soviet-era Russian potato salad ingredients list included potatoes, carrots, onion, peas, gherkins, and mayonnaise, which was ever-present. Mayonnaise was considered to be the glue that bound the Soviet states together and I think it runs through my blood.
Russian Potato Salad Recipe for the Olivier Salad Also Known as Ensalada Rusa
Cabbage Salad with Apples, Cucumber, Radish and Creamy Poppy Seed Dressing
You’ll love this recipe for a cabbage salad with apples, cucumber, radish and creamy poppy seed dressing if you’re a fan of cucumber salads, cabbage salads and coleslaws, if you’re fond of fruit in vegetable-driven salads, and you like salads with creamy dressings, such as this Russian cucumber sour cream salad.
What I love about this salad is that it’s essentially crunchy and creamy, but you can get creative with whatever you have on hand. Add even more crunch with nuts, such as walnuts or pecans. Purple cabbage is pretty but use white cabbage if that’s what’s in the fridge. Celery adds freshness. Grapes are a great addition for another texture.
This is a brilliant year-round salad and while I’m happy to munch on a bowl of this for lunch, when I’ll often add shredded poached chicken, it makes a fantastic side salad. My family served it alongside a Russian garden salad and beetroot potato salad, with chicken cutlets, such as kotleti and chicken Kiev. It’s also fantastic with barbecued meats, meatballs, roast chicken, or fried chicken.
Cabbage Salad with Apples, Cucumber, Radish and Creamy Poppy Seed Dressing
Russian Crab Salad Recipe for a Nostalgic Soviet Era Crab Stick Salad
This quick and easy Russian crab salad recipe makes a nostalgic Soviet-era crab stick salad that’s one of the most popular Russian salads over Christmas-New Year. Starting out in life as a salad of fresh crab and mayonnaise, canned crab was later used until imitation crab or kanikama was invented in Japan in 1974.
If, like my mum, you love crab sticks and often have a pack in the freezer or the cost of living crisis has had you reaching for canned crab meat, try this versatile Russian crab salad recipe for a nostalgic dish from the Soviet Union, when canned food was promoted due to food shortages, and crab sticks exploded in popularity in the USSR and around the world in the 1970s after they were invented in Japan.
Crab sticks are popular again due to their sustainability and affordability. But if you’re not a fan and don’t share my enthusiasm for recreating historical dishes, you can use fresh crab, lobster or crayfish in this salad, as the elites did during the Russian Empire, before the Russian Revolution democratised food. Indulge as the tsars did and spoon generous dollops of caviar on the salad.
Russian Crab Salad Recipe for a Nostalgic Soviet Era Crab Stick Salad
Borscht Recipe for the Comforting Soup of my Childhood
Borscht has a special place in the hearts, minds and stomachs of anyone of Russian and Ukrainian heritage who grew up dunking weighty slices of black rye bread into their grandmothers’ nourishing broths.
This Russian borscht recipe will make you the hearty home-cooked soup of my childhood that my baboushka used to make. For my family it will always be traditional Russian Christmas food for Orthodox Christmas, but of course the origin of borscht is Ukraine.
Before a borscht war starts: this is the borscht of my Russian-Ukrainian grandmother who was born in a village near Odessa in the land we now know as Ukraine when it was still part of the Russian Empire.
A beetroot-driven vegetable soup garnished with fresh fragrant dill and dollops of sour cream, it’s a filling meal in itself, but it was always one of an array of dishes served as part of an elaborate Christmas meal.
This Russian Borscht Recipe Makes the Hearty Home-Cooked Soup of my Childhood
Piroshki Recipe for Minced Meat-Filled Turnovers
This Russian piroshki recipe makes the perfect savoury minced meat-filled pastries, also known as Russian hand pies, that my baboushka used to make. Piroshki are often eaten as a snack on their own or with a bowl of borscht.
My baboushka also served piping-hot piroshki, covered in a tea towel to keep them warm, as one of an array of Russian dishes during family feasts and it was another typical traditional Russian Christmas food.
While my family preferred deep-fried piroshki, these Russian hand pies can also be baked. However you cook them, they taste even better the next day and will last for days.
My baba’s piroshki recipe differs to most, as her minced meat filling contained the fine, clear, bean thread noodles that come from China that are used throughout East Asia and Southeast Asia.
Best Russian Piroshki Recipe for Perfect Savoury Minced Meat-Filled Hand Pies
Golubtsy Recipe for Baboushka’s Cabbage Rolls
I adore my baboushka’s Russian cabbage rolls recipe that makes golubtsy (голубцы) – cabbage rolls stuffed with a savoury minced pork, beef, carrot, and rice filling, and cloaked in a rich homemade tomato sauce.
They were another feature of countless family meals, and were not only a traditional Russian Christmas food, but we also enjoyed them at our family’s regular weekend lunches that rolled into dinner.
But baba’s cabbage rolls were a meal in themselves. They were so filling that as a child I would eat one and then I’d struggle to fit anything else in, so I’ve reduced the size of baba’s cabbage rolls so that they are rather petite, so you can eat more than one.
Easy Russian Cabbage Rolls Recipe for a Petite Version of Baboushka’s Golubtsi
Russian Kotleti Recipe for Fried Ground Chicken Patties
This Russian kotleti recipe makes one of my favourite Russian recipes for the delicious deep-fried Russian style chicken meat patties or chicken cutlets that was another traditional Russian Christmas food at my grandmother’s table.
Baba would buy cuts of meat from the butchers on her daily morning shop and Papa would mince the meat she’d bought in his old hand-grinder in the garage.
During family feasts such as Christmas lunches or dinners, the kotleti would be served in a casserole dish at the centre of the dining table as one dish of an array of plates eaten as part of a shared family meal, as most of our meals were.
But if being served as an individual meal, it would be accompanied by mashed potatoes and a garden salad.
Russian Kotleti Recipe for Delicious Deep-Fried Russian Style Chicken Meat Patties
Chicken Kiev Recipe for a Retro Russian Classic Cooked For Russia’s Tsars
This chicken Kiev recipe makes the now retro-cool Russian classic that was once cooked for Russia’s tsars, that was democratised during the Soviet Union era, and popularised outside the USSR in the 1970s.
An iconic Russian dish of chicken breasts stuffed with parsley butter, coated in egg and bread crumbs and fried, it was another dish that occasionally appeared on my baboushka’s table for family meals, which my mum also cooked after it became fashionable in the Seventies.
Our chicken Kiev recipe makes a succulent and crunchier version of the crumbed chicken fillets stuffed with parsley butter that were served to Russia’s emperors, made egalitarian in canteens during the Soviet era, and became an iconic dish in the West – along with the likes of beef Stroganoff, below – before making a comback in recent years.
I explain why our take on one of the most popular Russian food recipes is more crunchy and moist in the post below.
Chicken Kiev Recipe for a Retro Russian Classic Cooked For Tsars
Russian Pelmeni Recipe for Minced Meat Filled Dumplings
This Russian pelmeni recipe makes the Russian dumplings stuffed with savoury pork and beef mince that are boiled and served with sour cream and fresh fragrant dill.
This is hearty home-cooked Russian comfort food at its best and another traditional Russian Christmas food for my family.
My Russian pelmeni recipe makes Russian dumplings exactly like my baboushka, my mum, and her baboushka made, which I learnt to make as a child by watching my Russian grandmother and mother.
Russian Pelmeni Recipe for Russian Dumplings Just Like My Baboushka Used to Make
Russian-Ukrainian Vareniki Recipe for Mashed Potato and Onion Filled Dumplings
My Russian-Ukrainian potato vareniki recipe makes my baboushka’s boiled dumplings stuffed with rustic mashed potato and caramelised onion that are of Ukrainian origin.
While these were another traditional Russian Christmas food, my baboushka made these for most family meals, especially the seemingly never-ending Sunday lunches that turned into dinners.
It was my responsibility to set the dining table and carry the dishes from the kitchen to dining room and I have to confess that I set the casserole pot filled to the brim with potato vareniki as close to my place setting as possible. These were my favourites.
Russian Potato Vareniki Recipe for Mash and Caramelised Onion Filled Dumplings
Cabbage Dumplings Recipe for Russian-Ukrainian Vareniki with Rich Cabbage Filling
My cabbage dumplings recipe makes Russian-Ukrainian vareniki stuffed with a rich filling of braised cabbage, onion, carrot, bacon, and spices. Once cooked they’re garnished with fresh fragrant dill and eaten with sour cream. While you could tuck into a plate on their own, vareniki are usually served as one of an array of dishes shared family-style, especially at Christmas and Easter.
Do use a mandoline for shredding the cabbage if you have one, otherwise your sharpest knife will work. Salting the cabbage first will soften it faster. If you’re worried about the salt, skip it, it will just take you a bit longer to fry the cabbage to reach the tenderness and texture pictured. I use tomato paste to add more richness, but a rich tomato sauce/ketchup will work just fine. Make sure to garnish with fresh dill.
Cabbage Dumplings Recipe for Russian-Ukrainian Vareniki with Rich Cabbage Filling
Dumpling Soup Recipe for Siberian Pelmeni Soup with Fresh Dill and Sour Cream
This dumpling soup recipe for Siberian pelmeni soup with fresh dill and sour cream makes the delicious Russian dumplings called pelmeni in the Siberian style. Petite pelmeni stuffed with a savoury ground beef, minced pork and soft fried onion filling are served in a buttery broth with cracked pepper, dollops of sour cream, and plenty of fresh fragrant dill.
As a child, I only knew three things about Siberia – it was one of the coldest places on earth, it was home to horrific gulags where people were forced into back-breaking work until it killed them, and that Siberia was the reason my Russian great-grandmother never smiled. My great-grandfather was sent to a gulag in Siberia.
My grandmother on the other hand, always had a twinkle in her eye and dimples when she smiled. Baboushka didn’t serve pelmeni in soup. So I had no idea this bone-chillingly cold place called Siberia, long associated with brutal labour camps, produced such warming bowls of dumpling goodness, known outside those frozen lands as Siberian pelmeni – until I tried them at a Siberian restaurant in Moscow.
If you’ve cooked and eaten the Russian and Ukrainian dumplings called pelmeni and vareniki and you’ve loved them, and you’re as devoted to soups as I am, then you’re going to adore this Russian dumpling soup recipe for Siberian pelmeni.
Dumpling Soup Recipe for Siberian Pelmeni Soup with Fresh Dill and Sour Cream
Pan Fried Dumplings Recipe for Pelmeni and Vareniki Leftovers
My pan-fried dumplings recipe is for those of you who made big batches of Russian potato vareniki (or Ukrainian varynyky) and Russian pelmeni (or Ukrainian pelmeni if you prefer) and have leftovers that you’re not sure what to do with. Here’s what to do with them…
Pan Fried Dumplings Recipe for Your Russian and Ukrainian Pelmeni and Vareniki Leftovers
Ukrainian Sweet Varenyky Recipe for Dumplings with Summer Berries and Sour Cream
This Ukrainian sweet varenyky recipe with summer berries and sour cream makes delicious boiled dumplings filled with farmers cheese and berries served with a sweet, syrupy fruit jam-like sauce of raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, and red currants, called pyatiminutka (five-minute jam) to drizzle on the dumplings, and dollops of sour cream.
You can also use frozen summer berries, which are fantastic for this sweet varenyky recipe, as you’re going to stew some of the summer berries to create a sweet syrupy fruit jam-like sauce called pyatiminutka (five-minute jam) to drizzle on the dumplings.
We ate sweet varenyky for breakfast, a snack and dessert when I was a child. I love serving them at Christmas as they feel rather special. While Russians and Ukrainians love their sweet varenyky with sour cream or smetana, you could certainly use whipped cream or even creamy Greek yoghurt. Vanilla ice cream would also be delish.
Ukrainian Sweet Varenyky Recipe for Dumplings with Summer Berries and Sour Cream
Please do let us know in the comments below if you make any of our traditional Russian Christmas food for Orthodox Christmas or any other meals, as we’d love to know how they turn out for you.
