Traditional Icelandic Lamb Meat Soup – Also Known as Kjötsúpa, the Icelandic Lamb Stew

Kjötsúpa is the native Icelandic term for lamb meat soup: “kjöt” means meat and “súpa” means soup. Some customers refer to it as a lamb stew, which is likely the most accurate English description. At Reykjavík Bistro, we sometimes clarify this because we also serve another traditional dish, “Fish Stew.”

Icelandic lamb meat soup at Reykjavík bistro

A Global Tradition of Meat Soups

Almost every culture has its version of a meat soup. For example, in Central America, Sancocho is a popular dish made with boiled vegetables, starch, herbs, and inexpensive cuts of meat — much like Icelandic lamb meat soup.

What Makes Icelandic lamb meat soup Unique

Instead of chicken or beef, Kjötsúpa is made with lamb and vegetables that were traditionally available in Iceland. This dish has likely been prepared in Iceland since the Middle Ages, though more exotic herbs and vegetables were only introduced around 100 years ago.

Every Icelandic household has its own recipe, but most include:

• Fatty and bony Lamb cuts

• Rutabaga (Gulrófa) 

• White cabbage 

• Onion

• Carrots

• Herbs 

• Potatoes

• Rice or barley (optional)

• Lamb stock 

For more sustenance many will add rice or barley but it does little for the taste of the soup 

Due to the frequency this dish is made in Icelandic households, Kjötsúpa is one of those dishes that is very versatile. Much like the Italian Pizza, people will experiment with ingredients available in their fridge at any given time. Probably one of the reasons you see so many variations of the dish. 

The characteristics of a good Kjötsúpa, is a strong lamb flavour, mixed with the distinct flavour of the rutabaga and the sweetness you get from the carrots.  

Why is Icelandic meat soup so popular and how do I make it ? 

The ingredients are not expensive, usually the cheapest cut of lamb you can find and everyday inexpensive vegetables and herbs. The soup is however labour intensive and you have to invest a few hours to make a good one.

The ingredients are readily available in every Icelandic supermarket like Bónus, Krónan and Nettó

If you are in Iceland and have a kitchen available to you you will always find a bag of meat with the label “Súpukjöt” normally in the freezer section.  Herbs you can also buy in a package labeled as "súpujurtir". Many also add a prepackaged stock pouch by Toro labeled “kjötsúpa” that serves as stock and spices.

As mentioned before, Kjötsúa is quite labour intensive. There are a lot of vegetables to cut and meat to trim. Some will not trim the meat at all and will even serve the soup with bones with all the fat and cartilage. However,  there are ways to get around this by buying a more expensive cut of meat with less bone and or procuring pre-cut vegetables.  

The long prepping and cooking time can also be an upside as many families take the day to cook the dish together. In reality though, the soup was mostly made by someone that had a lot of time on their hands, like a retired Grandmother. 

The popularity of the dish is so great that you can also buy a pretty decent pre-made fresh “kjötsúpa” in every Bónus store. You just have to reheat or microwave.  

Some lamb stew recipes

Real Meat soup

From the local newspaper

by Þóra Kolbrá Sigurðardóttir

Ingredients

• 3 liters water

• 1.5–2 kg soup meat

• ½ dl rice (optional)

• 2 tbsp salt (and a little white pepper)

• 5–8 carrots

• 8–10 potatoes

• 1–2 small rutabagas (swedes/turnips, depending on region)

• ¼ head of cabbage

• 1 onion

• 1 dl soup herbs (mixed dried herbs for soup)

Method

1. Rinse the meat and place it in a pot with 3 liters of water. As the water comes to a boil, it is normal for a brown foam to form on top. Skim this off with a spoon or ladle as it appears. Simmer for 45 minutes.

2. While the meat is simmering, prepare the vegetables. Keep in mind to cut the vegetables into sizes that fit nicely on a spoon. Slice the carrots into about 5 mm thick pieces (halve or quarter them first if they are very thick). Cut the rutabagas into cubes, peel and dice the potatoes, chop the onion into small pieces (smaller than the rest of the vegetables), and cut the cabbage into chunks.

3. After the meat has simmered for 45 minutes, add 1 dl of soup herbs, the onion, potatoes, rutabagas, carrots, salt, a little white pepper, and, if you like, ½ dl of rice (traditionally used to make the soup more filling, and many people are used to having rice in their meat soup).

4. Continue simmering the soup for about 15–20 minutes.

5. Once cooking time is done, I usually lift out the meat and take the time to separate it from the bones, remove sinew and fat, shred it into smaller pieces, and then put it back into the soup.

6. It’s no secret that the soup tastes even better the next day. In fact, it really does — and it keeps well for 3–5 days after it’s made. Just store it in the fridge in a closed container, and only reheat the portions you plan to eat (rather than heating and cooling the whole pot repeatedly). You can also divide the soup into smaller containers and freeze it for later.

Icelandic lamb soup - Kjötsúpa

from Iceland Food centre By Iceland food center

• Lamb shoulder 1 kg. (or stewing meat)

• 300 gr. carrots

• 1 swede (rutabaga)

• ½ head cabbage

• 1 large onion

• 1 L vegetable stock.

• Enough water to cover the lamb.

• Salt and black pepper to taste.

Check out their Video on Youtube

Meat soup Recipe with Toro mix

From Gotteri

by Berglind

Ingredients

• 2.5 liters water

• 2.5–3 kg soup meat on the bone, lamb

• 2 yellow onions

• 1 medium rutabaga (swede/turnip)

• 5 large carrots

• 500 g potatoes

• ¼ head of cabbage (optional)

• 6 tbsp soup herbs

• 3 dl hulled or pearl barley*

• 3 tbsp sea salt

• 2 lamb stock cubes (optional, then just salt a bit more)

• Black pepper to taste

Method

1. Rinse the meat pieces and place them in a pot with water. Add 2 teaspoons of salt and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium, cover with a lid, and let simmer for 40 minutes while you prepare the vegetables. Skim off the foam that forms on the surface at the beginning; it usually stops after about 10 minutes.

2. Peel the vegetables and cut them into bite-sized pieces.

3. After 40 minutes, remove the meat from the pot and add the vegetables. Bring the soup back to a boil, then lower the heat again to medium.

4. Add the TORO meat soup mix and the rice, stirring well to combine.

5. Cut the meat off the bones, remove most of the fat, and slice it into bite-sized pieces. Return the meat to the pot. Let everything simmer gently for about 30 minutes, then taste and adjust with salt and pepper.

Kjötsúpa - Icelandic lamb soup

From Lee and Jay's blog

by Nanna Rögnvaldsdóttir - From the book Icelandic Food & Cookery

• 2 pounds lamb on the bone

• 2 teaspoons salt

• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

• 1 onion or leek, chopped

• 1 -2 Tablespoons soup herbs (see note that follows)

• 1 pound rutabaga (or turnips), peeled and chopped

• 1/2 pound carrots, peeled and sliced

• 1/2 pound potatoes, peeled and chopped

• 1 cup green cabbage, roughly chopped

Method

1. Trim excess fat from the meat. Place it in a large dutch oven. Add 6 cups water and salt. Slowly bring to a boil. Add pepper, soup herbsand onions. Continue to simmer for 45 minutes.

2. Add all of the vegetables, except for the cabbage, to the pot and continue to simmer for 15 more minutes.

3. Add the cabbage and simmer until all of the vegetable are fork tender.

4. Remove the meat from the soup. Separate out the bones and chop the meat into bite sized pieces. Add back to the soup.

   
   

   Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.

   
   

   You can serve this soup immediately, however we usually let soup sit overnight to develop the flavors. If you so choose to rest the soup, let it cool and then put in refrigerator overnight. Another great thing about letting the soup rest in the fridge overnight is that it is easy to skim off any excess fat, as it solidifies on top. Reheat soup and garnish with fresh parsley, chives or chopped celery leaves.