Monday
- Garlic mushrooms on sourdough toastgarlic and thyme mushrooms · wilted spinach · toasted sourdough
- Leek and potato soupsilky leek and potato · snipped chives · green olive oil
Home · Across the UK · Wales
A nation of the UK
Wales: its food, and a week to cook at home.
Lamb from the hills, leeks, cockles from the Gower, cheese from the valleys and baking done on a flat iron griddle. Welsh food is plain, hearty and good.
The photograph is AI-generated.
What people eat here
Dishes from Wales
No. 1
Cawl
A slow stew of lamb or beef with leeks, potatoes and swede. Many families make it the day before, as it tastes better the next day. It is often eaten on St David's Day, 1 March.
No. 2
Welsh cakes
Small, flat spiced cakes with currants, cooked on a bakestone, a heavy flat griddle, and dusted with sugar.
No. 3
Bara brith
A fruit loaf whose name means speckled bread. The dried fruit is soaked in tea overnight.
No. 4
Welsh rarebit
Toast under a thick sauce of cheese, mustard and ale or milk, grilled until it bubbles.
What grows here, and when
Spring brings early potatoes from Pembrokeshire and new season lamb. Leeks are at their best from autumn to early spring.
Welsh Lamb is a protected food name, raised on hill and valley farms across the country. The leek is a national emblem. Laverbread, a purée of seaweed, and cockles both come from the shores of the Gower and Carmarthen Bay. Pembrokeshire early potatoes are a protected food name too.
Seven days, seven menus
A sample week from our recipes
A week to cook at home that suits Wales and its seasons, using only recipes on this site. Each day reads in the order you eat.
Tuesday
- Welsh rarebit on sourdoughgolden cheddar rarebit · toasted sourdough · peppery watercress
- Green leaf salad with mustard dressingsoft garden leaves · cucumber · mustard dressing
Wednesday
- Roast chicken thighs with leeks and potatoesgolden chicken thighs · sweet roast leeks · crisp potatoes
- Creamy mashed potatoessilky mash · warm butter · chives
Thursday
- Smoked mackerel pâté with toastsmoked mackerel · lemon and chive · sourdough toast
- Crisp hake with minty crushed peascrisp-skin hake · minty crushed peas · lemon new potatoes
Friday
- Tomato and sourdough panzanellatorn toasted sourdough · sweet ripe tomatoes · basil and red wine vinegar
Saturday
- Lamb kofta flatbreads with garlic yoghurtspiced lamb kofta · garlic yoghurt · sumac onions
- Fattoush salad with crispy chickpeastoasted pitta · crisp chickpeas · sumac and pomegranate
Sunday
- Steak with peppercorn sauce and watercressseared sirloin · cracked peppercorn cream · peppery watercress
- Crisp roast potatoes with rosemary and garliccrackled roast potatoes · rosemary · soft roasted garlic
- Golden syrup oat flapjacksgolden oats · golden syrup · chewy bars
We have no recipe yet for cawl, Welsh cakes or bara brith. Our Welsh rarebit is the one dish here from Wales.
