Grjónagrautur is one of those dishes almost every Icelander grew up with. It is rice simmered slowly in milk until thick and creamy, then served in a deep bowl with cinnamon sugar and a splash of cold milk.
It is not fancy food. It turns up as a cheap weekday supper, a school lunch or a lazy Sunday treat, and it is often eaten with a slice of slátur on the side.
Around Christmas the same pot takes on a new role. Hide one whole almond in it and it becomes möndlugrautur, the centre of a game that families across the Nordic countries still play every December.
Here is how Icelanders make it, how it compares with other Scandinavian rice pudding traditions, and how to turn the leftovers into a festive dessert.
What grjónagrautur actually is
The full name is hrísgrjónagrautur, literally "rice-grain porridge", but hardly anyone uses the long version. Grjónagrautur, or simply grautur, does the job.
At heart it is the same dish as Swedish risgrynsgröt, Danish risengrød and Norwegian risengrynsgrøt: rice, milk, a pinch of salt and patience. There are no eggs, and usually little or no sugar goes into the pot. The sweetness is added at the table.
That makes it closer to a porridge than a baked custard. Icelanders eat it warm, often as a main course, in much the same spirit as hafragrautur, the everyday oat porridge.
From barley to rice: a short history
Rice was a luxury in Iceland for a long time. Before about 1900, the special festive porridge was usually made from barley, milk and raisins, and the raisins themselves were an exotic treat.
According to Vísindavefurinn, the University of Iceland's science web, rice porridge only became common in Iceland in the early 20th century, once rice was within reach of ordinary households. It soon took over as the Christmas porridge, and the word jólagrautur came to mean a thick rice and milk porridge with raisins.
Ingredients for the Icelandic version
Use short-grain pudding rice if you can find it. Icelandic shops sell it as grautargrjón, and Scandinavian shops abroad label it grötris. Arborio or another round-grain rice works well too, while long-grain rice gives a looser, less creamy result.
For 3 to 4 servings:
- 200 g (about 1 cup) pudding rice
- 250 ml (1 cup) water
- 1 litre (about 4 cups) whole milk, plus a little extra if needed
- ½ to 1 tsp salt
- A small handful of raisins (optional)
- A knob of butter (optional)
To serve:
- Cinnamon sugar: 2 tbsp sugar mixed with 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- Ice-cold milk
- Slices of slátur (optional)
Whole milk matters here. Skimmed milk will cook, but the pudding turns out thinner and catches on the pan more easily.
How to make grjónagrautur on the stovetop
1. Put the rice, water and salt in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Bring to a gentle boil and simmer for about 5 minutes, until most of the water has been absorbed.
2. Add the milk a little at a time, stirring as you go. Keep the heat low. You want small, lazy bubbles, not a rolling boil.
3. Simmer for 35 to 45 minutes, stirring regularly and scraping the bottom of the pan. Milk scorches easily, and a burnt layer will flavour the whole pot.
4. If you are using raisins, stir them in for the last 10 minutes so they plump up. The porridge is ready when the rice is completely soft and the texture is thick but still spoonable. Stir in a knob of butter if you like.
Stovetop rice pudding thickens a lot as it cools, so take it off the heat while it still looks slightly loose. Add a splash of milk when you reheat leftovers.
If you would rather not stand at the stove, many Icelandic home cooks bake it instead. Combine about 300 ml (1¼ cups) rice with 1.5 litres of milk, a pinch of salt, a spoonful of sugar and a little butter in a covered ovenproof pot.
Bake at 180°C (350°F) for about an hour, stir, then return it to the oven for roughly 30 minutes more, until the rice is tender and the milk has been absorbed.
How Icelanders serve it
Ladle the hot porridge into deep bowls. Sprinkle generously with cinnamon sugar, then pour a little ice-cold milk around the edge. The contrast between hot pudding and cold milk is half the pleasure.
Then comes the pairing that surprises visitors. Grjónagrautur is classically eaten with slátur, especially lifrarpylsa, the Icelandic liver pudding. Some like it warm, others prefer it cold in thick slices.
It sounds odd, but it works. The mild, faintly sweet rice softens the rich, savoury sausage, and together they make a filling meal from very cheap ingredients.
Many Icelanders think of grautur as mánudagsmatur, Monday food: an easy, frugal supper after the bigger Sunday meal. Instead of milk, some households pour over saft, a sweet fruit syrup, or a little cream.
Möndlugrautur: the Icelandic Christmas almond pudding
At Christmas, rice pudding becomes a game. One whole blanched almond is hidden in the pot or serving bowl, and whoever finds it in their portion wins the möndlugjöf, the almond present.
The custom came to Iceland from Denmark. One of the earliest Icelandic descriptions appeared in the newspaper Morgunblaðið in December 1938, which noted that almond porridge on Christmas Eve had become a tradition even though it was not originally Icelandic.
The prize is usually something small: a box of chocolates, a board game or a marzipan pig. Part of the fun is that the lucky finder often keeps quiet until everyone else has eaten far more pudding than they planned.
Families serve it in different ways. Some eat it warm with cinnamon sugar on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, a habit that once varied from region to region. Others serve the cold Danish-style version, ris à l'amande, as dessert after the Christmas Eve dinner.
Either way, it sits comfortably alongside the smoked lamb, leaf bread and cookies of a traditional Icelandic Christmas table.
Christmas ris à l'amande from leftover porridge
This is the best use for leftover rice porridge, and it is how the Danes traditionally make their Christmas dessert. Make the grautur a day ahead and leave out the raisins.
- 1 batch of cold grjónagrautur, made with 1 litre of milk
- 250 ml (1 cup) whipping cream
- 1 to 2 tbsp sugar
- Seeds from ½ vanilla pod, or 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 50 g (⅓ cup) blanched almonds, roughly chopped
- 1 whole blanched almond
Loosen the cold porridge with a spoonful or two of the cream, then stir in the sugar and vanilla.
Whip the rest of the cream to soft peaks and fold it in gently, together with the chopped almonds. Push the whole almond somewhere deep in the bowl and smooth the top.
Chill until serving. In Denmark it comes with warm cherry sauce. In Iceland you are just as likely to find a warm chocolate sauce or a berry sauce on the side.
Scandinavian cousins, and how they compare
Every Nordic country has its own rice porridge, and the Christmas almond turns up in most of them.
In Sweden, risgrynsgröt is part of the Christmas table, often simmered with a cinnamon stick. Swedish Christmas rice pudding has its own almond folklore: whoever finds it is said to marry within the year. Leftovers become ris à la Malta, a cold dessert lightened with whipped cream and often served with oranges or a fruit sauce.
In Norway, leftover risengrynsgrøt becomes riskrem, a cold whipped-cream pudding served with a bright red berry sauce. In Denmark, risengrød with a pat of butter and cinnamon sugar is a December staple, and by tradition a bowl is left out for the nisse, the household elf.
Iceland sits comfortably in the middle of this Scandinavian Christmas rice pudding family. Its everyday grautur is plain and milky, much like the Danish and Norwegian versions. What sets it apart is the slátur on the side and the habit of eating it as a proper meal rather than a dessert.
Tips for the creamiest result
- Do not rinse the rice. The surface starch helps the porridge thicken.
- Use a heavy pan and the lowest heat that keeps a gentle simmer.
- Stir more often towards the end, when the porridge is thickest and most likely to stick.
- Keep leftovers in the fridge for up to 3 days and reheat gently with a splash of milk.
- For ris à l'amande, always start with cold porridge. Warm rice will melt the whipped cream.
Make a big pot on a cold evening, put the cinnamon sugar and a jug of cold milk on the table, and let everyone season their own bowl. That is exactly how it is eaten in Iceland.
About Sigrún Ólafsdóttir
Sigrún grew up baking rúgbrauð with her grandmother in Akureyri and has spent the last decade collecting recipes from kitchens all over Iceland. She writes Icelandic MAT's recipes, one dish at a time.