Monday
- Full veggie breakfast traybakepaprika potatoes · roast mushrooms · blistered vine tomatoes
Home · Across the UK · Northern Ireland
A nation of the UK
Northern Ireland: its food, and a week to cook at home.
Potatoes in every form, breads baked on a griddle, apples from Armagh and fish from the Irish Sea. Northern Irish cooking keeps things simple and generous.
The photograph is AI-generated.
What people eat here
Dishes from Northern Ireland
No. 1
The Ulster fry
Bacon, sausages and eggs, with soda farls and potato farls fried in the pan, and often black or white pudding. A farl is a quarter of a round griddle bread.
No. 2
Champ
Mashed potato mixed with chopped spring onions and milk, served with a pool of butter in the middle.
No. 3
Soda bread
A quick bread raised with baking soda and buttermilk instead of yeast, baked in a round or cooked as farls.
No. 4
Yellowman
A crunchy honeycomb toffee sold at the Ould Lammas Fair in Ballycastle each August.
What grows here, and when
Comber early potatoes come in early summer. Armagh Bramley apples are picked in autumn, and keep for baking through the winter.
Three foods here are protected names: Armagh Bramley apples, Comber potatoes (early potatoes from County Down) and Lough Neagh eels. Dulse, a dried red seaweed, is eaten as a salty snack on the north coast.
Seven days, seven menus
A sample week from our recipes
A week to cook at home that suits Northern Ireland and its seasons, using only recipes on this site. Each day reads in the order you eat.
Tuesday
- Leek and potato soupsilky leek and potato · snipped chives · green olive oil
- Crisp hake with minty crushed peascrisp-skin hake · minty crushed peas · lemon new potatoes
- Creamy mashed potatoessilky mash · warm butter · chives
Wednesday
- Jacket potatoes with smoky homemade beanscrisp jacket potato · smoky tomato beans · chives
Thursday
- Roast chicken thighs with leeks and potatoesgolden chicken thighs · sweet roast leeks · crisp potatoes
- Garlicky spring greens with lemonspring greens · golden garlic · lemon
Friday
- Pea and mint soupsweet garden peas · fresh mint · olive oil
- Steak with peppercorn sauce and watercressseared sirloin · cracked peppercorn cream · peppery watercress
Saturday
- Smoked mackerel pâté with toastsmoked mackerel · lemon and chive · sourdough toast
- Ploughman's plate with quick pickled onionsmature cheddar · crusty bread · pink pickled onions
Sunday
- Roasted tomato soup with basilslow roasted tomato · sweet garlic · basil oil
- Aubergine parmigianalayered roast aubergine · slow tomato and basil · bubbling mozzarella
- Apple and blackberry crumblebramley apple and blackberry · golden oat crumble · warm custard
We have no recipe yet for the Ulster fry, champ or soda bread. Our crumble is a good way to use Bramley apples.
Meal plans that suit Northern Ireland
Cities in Northern Ireland
Facts checked on 27 October 2026.