Words by

York Underwood

Germany had a brief love affair with Iceland in the 1930s…then they came here and checked it out. Germany is high on the Icelandophile scale. Germany purchases large amounts of translated Icelandic literature, Icelandic music and, basically, anything remotely involved with the mythos of this tiny island.

Well, for Icelanders young and old, Berlin has a hip appeal. It’s a place of artisans, writers and humourless severity. People wear hats–post ironically. Icelanders travel to Berlin and live a bohemian lifestyle away from the prying, gossiping eyes of 101.

Now many people will notice that the only real German ingredient in this soup is the sauerkraut. Well, there are also a lot of ingredients that were originally native to Central and South America. Using ingredients from Central and South American to make something awesome is a German tradition–just ask Freud. Also, South America is where German’s go to hide out when they’ve behaved poorly–much like Norway for Icelanders.

If you’re as full-of-shit as this introduction, the fibre content of this soup will come to the rescue.

PROST!

Þýskasúpa: German Soup

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 60 minutes

Ingredients:

4    Medium Yellow Onions

6    Celery stalks

150g     Quinoa

6     Carrots

3L   Cold Water

2    Cans of Kidney Beans

2    Cans of Chickpeas

3    500 gram packages of Sauerkraut

Salt, Pepper, enough Vegetable Bouillon for 3L of water

Directions:

1. Dice up your onions and sauté them in the pot with a drizzle of oil or a teaspoon of butter.
   

2. Finely dice your celery and add to the pot.

3. Dice you carrots and add them to the pot–letting them sweat for a few minutes.

4. Drain, but don’t rinse, your kidney beans and chickpeas. Add them to the pot.

5. Pour in your 3L of water, you vegetable bouillon and 150g of Quinoa. Bring to a boil and let simmer. Drain and lightly rinse your sauerkraut with cold water and add to the pot.

6. Simmer for about 20 minutes, season with salt and pepper to taste and serve with sourdough bread, beer and joyless superiority.

Remember to share this recipe with your friends and loved ones.

Also, send us your recipes. Let’s get through this winter together.

One Soup Tuesday at a time.

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WTF is a Soup Tuesday?

As the sun yet again makes her life-draining descent towards winter solstice, it becomes clear: fall has arrived. The darkness in store will likely bring a lot of you down, but don’t fret or give up—there are a number of methods for fighting off the winter blues: Reading, lýsi, sex, drugs, alcohol, and—of course—soup. Now, doing most of those things would be mostly inappropriate, if not illegal, at the Reykjavík Grapevine’s offices (if it were one of those “appropriate” offices)—except for maybe the lýsi and reading. And of course, the soup.

Lýsi is kinda disgusting and reading is for nerds, so to combat the coming full-scale attack of the SADs, we decided to started a new tradition to help us make it through the coming winter: SOUP TUESDAYS. Yes! Soup Tuesdays! Every Tuesday, we’ll be making a different soup in our shitty little office, document the process and then show you how to make one for yourself.

You can also send us your best recipes (on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or email), with a photo, so we can share soup knowledge throughout the world. Together we can make it through the bad weather.

Solace and Solidarity in Soup.

Happy Soup Tuesday.