🇮🇸 Iceland · Höfn and the south coast
HumarsúpaIcelandic lobster soup
Iceland's langoustine soup: langoustine shells simmered into a stock with vegetables and curry powder, finished with cream, and served with the langoustine tails, a spoon of cream and chives.
Origin and history
Humarsúpa is Iceland's best-known langoustine soup, popular across the country and especially associated with Höfn in the southeast, which calls itself the langoustine capital. Höfn took up langoustine in the 1980s, when the rest of Iceland still treated it as bycatch. It is built on a stock of langoustine shells, vegetables and curry powder, finished with cream and chives.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 4 to 6 servings
- Total time
- 1 h 15 min
- Hands-on
- 40 min
Ingredients
- 1 kg2.2 lb whole langoustines (Norway lobster), raw or frozen, thawed; shells kept
- 3 tbsp butter
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 carrot, chopped
- 1 celery stalk, chopped
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tsp mild curry powder
- 1.5 litres6 1/3 cups water or light fish stock
- 60 ml1/4 cup dry white wine or sherry, optional
- 300 ml1 1/4 cups heavy cream, plus a spoonful per bowl to serve
- salt, white pepper and chopped chives, to taste and to serve
Method
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1. Twist the tails off the langoustines, shell them and keep the tails in the fridge. Keep the heads and shells.
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2. Melt the butter in a large pot and cook the shells and heads over medium-high heat for 5 minutes until fragrant and pink.
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3. Add the onion, carrot and celery and cook for 5 minutes, then stir in the tomato paste and curry powder for 1 minute.
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4. Add the wine, if using, and let it reduce by half. Pour in the water, bring to a boil, then simmer for 30 to 40 minutes; boiling the shells much longer can turn the stock bitter.
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5. Strain the stock through a fine sieve, pressing the shells to extract all the liquid.
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6. Return the stock to the pot, add the cream and simmer for 10 minutes to thicken lightly. Season.
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7. Add the langoustine tails and cook for 2 minutes until just opaque.
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8. Serve in warm bowls, with a spoonful of cream and chives on top.
Notes
- Humar is langoustine (Norway lobster), the only lobster found in Icelandic waters; real lobster shells also work.
- Modern versions typically use curry powder, cream and white wine, and some add cognac or paprika; keep the curry mild.
- One Höfn restaurant makes a paler, lighter soup with less cream and salt and potatoes as the thickener; at Pakkhúsið the stock is thickened with cornflour and finished with fried vegetables and herbs.
- Do not cook the tails for long, or they turn rubbery; fried tails on top of the soup are a common serving.
- It is essentially a bisque, but here the shell stock is simply strained rather than thickened with rice or puréed.
- Serve with good bread.
Adapted from Iceland Review, Ask IR on Icelandic lobster, Reykjavik Grapevine, on Humarhöfnin in Höfn, Visit Vatnajökull, Dóri's Langoustine Soup (Pakkhúsið), and The Food Dictator, Icelandic langoustine bisque (humarsúpa).
At the festivals
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