Soup Tuesday: Kakósúpa, Icelandic Chocolate Soup

Whoa! It’s the first winter storm here in Iceland. It’s the perfect day to make Icelandic Chocolate Soup: Kakósúpa. Actually, Kakósúpa better translates as “cocoa soup” — and that’s what it is. But we chose to go with delicious dark chocolate, while retaining the classic Icelandic name. It’s our magazine, we can do what we want.

Chocolate Soup? Yes, chocolate soup. There are many variations of savoury chocolate soup all over the world. Italy has one served with pig’s blood (Maybe I should try making one with lamb’s blood?). Mexico makes chocolate soup with chilis. Iceland uses potato starch, and cocoa. Some people like to put cinnamon or vanilla with their kakósúpa, but I wanted to really focus on the savoury flavours. The roasted oatmeal compliments the bitter, salty dark chocolate in a way that makes it hearty and comforting.

Obviously, this can be turned into a dessert soup fairly easily, but I recommend adding less sugar and tossing in a shot of Brennivín–the cardamom schnapps gives it a great flavour. This isn’t necessary. Kakósúpa is really nice the way it is, but be adventurous (and use chocolate if you can)!

This is basically a cup of cocoa with enough calories to survive through a long winter storm. Sit back, relax and watch the chaos of the blizzard through your window.

Kakósúpa: Icelandic Chocolate Soup

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time:  15 minutes

Ingredients:

400g   Dark Chocolate

1.5L   Whole Milk

3     Heaping Tablespoons of Potato Starch

3     Tablespoons of Sugar (or more to taste)

1L   Cold Water

Milk Biscuits, Heavy Cream, and a handful of toasted oats.

Directions:

1. Pour the milk and water into the pot on medium-low heat.

2. In a separate pot, create a double-boiler and slowly melt the 400 grams of dark chocolate.

3. Stir the melt chocolate with a spoon until it has a creamy and smooth texture.

4. Slowly pour the melted chocolate into the soup pot with the milk and water–whisking vigorously to keep it from sticking to the bottom.

5. Use a spoon to scrape out all the chocolate! MMMMMmmmm!

6. Add the sugar while whisking the chocolate, but mix the potato starch with some cold water in a container before adding it to the soup to prevent clumping (We have a lot of pint glasses in the office kitchen that are NOT stolen).

7. Keep whisking the chocolate while roasting the oats on a dry frying pan.

8. The soup should become nice and thick but not solid like pudding. Add a pinch or two of salt to bring out the savoury chocolate flavour. Garnish with a drizzle of heavy cream, roasted oats and serve with Milk Biscuits and a glass of milk.

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 draining descent towards winter solstice, it has become 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.