Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Räksmörgås
A lavish open sandwich piled high with cold peeled shrimp, egg, and dill mayonnaise, a Swedish lunch indulgence.
Swedish · easy · serves 4
prep 20 min · cook 10 min
~430 cal · 35g protein · 16g carbs · 25g fat · 1g fiber · 2g sugars · 5g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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The räksmörgås, or shrimp sandwich, is Sweden's best-known open sandwich and a benchmark of any café or train buffet, judged by how generously the shrimp are piled on. A skimpy one is a minor scandal; a good one towers.
It is built on a slice of bread, spread with butter and mayonnaise, then layered with lettuce, sliced hard-boiled egg, and a mountain of small cold-water shrimp. Dill, a wedge of lemon, and a dollop more mayonnaise finish it. Cool, rich, and fresh, it is a Swedish idea of a proper lunch.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally dairy-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
1 lb cold-water peeled shrimp
4 slices bread
3 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
1/2 cup mayonnaise
4 lettuce leaves
1 handful fresh dill
2 tbsp chives, chopped
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 lemon lemon wedges
Instructions
1
Stir the Dijon, a squeeze of lemon, the chopped chives and half the dill into the mayonnaise, then spread each slice of bread with it and lay on a lettuce leaf.
✎ Chef’s note
Cold-water prawns, and if you can buy them shell-on and peel them yourself, do; both the flavour and the texture are better than pre-peeled.
2
Arrange sliced egg over the lettuce.
3
Pile on the cold shrimp as generously as you dare.
✎ Chef’s note
Pile the shrimp high. In Sweden a räksmörgås is judged entirely on generosity, so more is genuinely better.
4
Top with a spoon of the herb mayonnaise, plenty of dill and a lemon wedge.
✎ Chef’s note
Smoked salmon, cucumber and thin slices of radish are all common additions. The same combination built as a layered cake, four decks of bread with the filling between and the whole thing iced in mayonnaise and creme fraiche, is a smorgastarta, which is what Swedes put on the table for a party.
Swedish café tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Skåne. Skane was Danish until 1658 and the kitchen still shows it. Saint Martin's Day on 10 November is kept here with roast goose and svartsoppa in a way the rest of Sweden does not bother with, and the east coast was long known as the eel coast, though that fishery is now tightly restricted.
🗺️
Sweden. Two Swedish rituals are more distinctive than the meatball. The kraftskiva, the August crayfish party, comes with paper hats, schnapps and singing, and is timed to a season that was once legally enforced. Surstromming is fermented Baltic herring, sold in tins that bulge from the pressure inside, and is opened outdoors by anyone with sense.
🌍
Europe. A surprising amount of European cooking is under five hundred years old. Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, maize, beans and chocolate all crossed from the Americas after 1492, and none of them was trusted quickly: the potato took most of the eighteenth century to be accepted as food rather than animal fodder across much of the north.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Sweden
Köttbullar (Swedish Meatballs)Small allspice-scented meatballs in cream gravy with potatoes and lingonberries, Sweden’s definitive comfort plate.
HavregrötWarm oat porridge topped with lingonberry or blueberry and a splash of cold milk.
KanelbullarCardamom-scented cinnamon buns crowned with pearl sugar, the heart of the Swedish coffee ritual of fika.
Browse all Sweden recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Best made to order. Prep the fillings ahead and assemble just before eating so nothing turns soggy.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Räksmörgås?
A lavish open sandwich piled high with cold peeled shrimp, egg, and dill mayonnaise, a Swedish lunch indulgence.
Where does Räksmörgås come from?
Räksmörgås is a Swedish dish from Skåne, Sweden.
Can Räksmörgås be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Räksmörgås recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Räksmörgås safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Räksmörgås take to make?
About 30 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 10 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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