8 Best Budget Norwegian Meals
Norway is supposed to be expensive, but with a few tips you can find budget meals and enjoy more of the country without breaking your bank.
Here are the Top 8 Best Budget Norwegian Meals.
Mackerel in Tomato Sauce with Bread:
In every Norwegian grocery store, you’ll find yellow cans of Makrel i Tomat in the canned food section. This ready to eat fish is served in a mild tomato sauce and goes well with bread or crackers. A piece of basil or some pepper makes for a nice topping too. The can only costs about $1.5 USD and with a few slices of bread or crackers, your total cost will be under $2 for the snack! It’s likely enough food to split with someone else too. This is a great budget option that’s also very Norwegian.
Mills Kaviar Breakfast:
Kaviar is a Norwegian favorite made of smoked cod row that goes well on bread or knekkebrød crackers. It comes in blue squeezable tubes made by Mills and is usually served during breakfast or lunch. To make a good meal that’s fairly cheap, cover a piece of bread with slices of cucumber, boiled eggs, and caviar on top. Your total cost for a few meals – buying all the ingredients – would be: Cucumber (20 kroner), Egg (2 kroner per egg), bread (30 kroner), and Kaviar tube (20 kroner). So for 72 kroner you could have at least three or more meals out of these three ingredients.
Question about Bread:
You might find yourself at the store and see a variety of bread choices available and you might wonder whether it is worth it to pay the 30 kroners more for a nicer bread. I think the answer depends, but I would usually tend towards the darker, more filling breads. The 8 Kroner breads, like the one at the Extra supermarket, are not filling at all. They are kind of flavorless and don’t have much appeal – other than quantity. Thus, you’ll probably eat more in a sitting, and it will cost more, compared to the more expensive bread.
A helpful tip is to look for the discounted bread in the store. They usually have one high quality type that is marked down because it is closer to the expiration date.
See how to budget eat in Norway.
Kvikk Lunsj:
Kvikk Lunsj Melkesjokolade is the perfect treat for eating on a hike or going on a walk around the city. There’s just something about the Norwegian chocolate that makes it so much better than other similar types. The major difference between other Freia chocolates and the Kvikk Lunsj type is that it contains these small crispy wafer bits inside each bite. So when you take a bite, you get a nice, salty wafer that adds to the chocolate flavor. During Christmas and sales (“Salg” in Norwegian), you can find it for about 25 kroner a bar. Otherwise at full price it is 40 kroner.
Brown Cheese, Waffles, and Jam:
I think this is my favorite Norwegian dish I’ve tried and it fits within the budget option. A heart shaped Norwegian waffle is one of the best treats to have as it can either be a lunch meal or dessert snack, depending on what toppings you put on it. The brown cheese is a specialty in Norway too, and you’ll likely use it on other foods afterwards. It’s sweet, and just a little salty. The butter both inside and on top is rich and filling.
Sweet Norwegian Rice Porridge:
A creamy, salty, sweet mix of rice, milk and sugar, is one of the best desserts/breakfast meals/ potential lunches that you can get in Norway. It’s a special meal served during Christmas time when people are gathered around and will have a small dish together. Part of the fun is that they hide a small, peeled almond in the porridge, and whoever finds this single nut, wins a prize. While Norwegian risgrøt may not look as appetizing as some other meals, it is delicious and if you have leftovers, then you can make it into a dessert by adding whipped cream, and cranberries to the top. Here’s a recipe for those interested. Try it with a mix of other toppings to make it more interesting.
Pølse – Norwegian Hotdog:
Using a Lumpe and a regular hotdog, you can make this quick national dish that’s usually served on a grill in a mountain after a good day of downhill skiing. The lumpe, or potato bread runs about 30 kroner, and the hotdogs are similar price. Meaning you’ll get a few meals out of 60 kroners. Your choice in toppings might determine the final cost, but the recommended is fried onions flakes, butter, barbecue sauce or ketchup. As a bonus tip, although I’m not a huge advocate of convinience store food, but at the Circle K gas stations, you can find it for 19 kroner – a fairly reasonable price for Norway.
Skolbrød – Norwegian Custard Dessert:
There are many things that you can buy at the supermarket, which will be just as good, if not better than a bakery or specialty cafe. This includes Skolbrød, a Norwegian coconut topped, custard filled, light bread. If you find it at any grocery store, it will be about 13 kroner each and you might even shop around for some of the other freshly baked goods. Try to get these in the morning when they just came out of the oven.
Tacos
This is not Norwegian at all, but Taco Friday’s are a thing in this country. They love their tacos and have it as a special occasion every Friday. Ingredients are fairly cheap and the amount of if you make it vegetarian, it will be even less expensive. Just use tortillas (8.20 kr), taco spices (5.70 kr), kidney beans (5.50 kr), corn (4.40 kr), lettuce (4.00 kr), sour cream (15.00 kr), taco sauce (8.00 kr), onions (10 kr), tomatos (12 kr). Total of 72.8 Kr.
A detail post about how to budget Norway is coming soon. Stay tuned.
