How to bake Finnish rice pies

One of the first things I noticed when I started living in the Vegetarium was how healthy the food here is. Even though I was already eating vegan and quite healthy and knew how to cook plant based food, so the change was not so big for me as it had been for some volunteers, there was still many new things for me such as soaking beans and grains and picking the greens for the salad and smoothie from the greenhouse and garden, but everyone were teaching me very calmly and after a while I started to actually enjoy cooking here. Although, I sometimes accidentally make too much food because I’m afraid to cook too little.

However, sometimes I find myself missing some foods from home and couple of times I have actually tried to make some Finnish food for myself and other volunteers. In Vegetarium, there are some rules for cooking, so sometimes I need to find new ways to make some foods and find some solutions to replace example of white sugar or baked fats. After some experiments, I have managed to make healthier versions of some on my favorite dishes.

One day I cooked too much rice and figured it would be a great time to try to make some rice pasties which are very common in Finland. First I cooked the rice little bit more. Then I added some spices to the rice. Typically, in Finland the filling is rice porridge flavored with only salt, but because I didn’t use any milk or fat, I wanted to add some flavor to it. Also I used the whole grain rice when in original version there is usually white rice nowadays. Formerly, barley was usually used. Secondly, I needed to make the dough for the base of the pasty. I mixed the rye flour with the water and salt and made the dough with my hands. Then I shaped the dough into oval shaped sheets. I put rice in every sheet and I crinkled the edges. Finally, I baked the pasties in the oven.

The rice pasties didn’t tasty quite like the original Karelian pasties, but they tasted very good to me and the other volunteers and I found it very nice opportunity to show something from the Finnish culture to others.

Juulia