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Humarsúpa (Icelandic Langoustine Soup)
A deep coral-coloured soup made from a stock of roasted langoustine shells, tomato and onion, enriched with cream and a hint of curry, with the sweet tails added at the end, served with bread.
Icelandic · medium · serves 6
prep 30 min · cook 90 min
~294 cal · 2g protein · 10g carbs · 27g fat · 1g fiber · 5g sugars · 15g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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In Iceland the small Norway lobster, the langoustine, is simply called humar, lobster, and humarsúpa, lobster soup, is one of the country's best-loved restaurant dishes. It is served all over the country and above all in Höfn, the fishing town in the south-east that has called itself the langoustine capital of Iceland since the 1980s, when the rest of the country still treated the catch as a by-product.
Like a French bisque, the flavour comes from the shells. The heads and shells are browned in a pot with onion and garlic, tomato paste goes in, then water, and the for about forty minutes; cooks in Höfn warn that longer makes it bitter. It is strained, reduced, enriched with cream and seasoned, often with a little curry powder or paprika, and lightly thickened. The peeled tails are cooked only at the last moment, either poached in the soup or fried in garlic butter and dropped into the bowls.
Recipes vary from cook to cook: some add white wine, some peppers and mushrooms, and one well-known Höfn restaurant makes a paler version that goes easy on the cream and uses potato to thicken it. It is served with plenty of bread.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally nut-, egg- 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 6
- 1 kg whole shell-on langoustines (humar), frozen is fine
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil
- 2 onions, roughly chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 carrot, chopped
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 100 ml dry white wine
- 2 litres water
- 1/2 tsp curry powder
- 300 ml double cream
- 1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 2 tbsp cold water
- to taste salt
- to taste black pepper
- 30 g butter (for the tails)
- 2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- 1 loaf crusty bread, to serve
Instructions
- 1Twist the heads off the langoustines and peel the tails, keeping the heads and shells. Pull out the dark vein from each tail and chill the tails until the end.
- 2Heat the oil in a large pot and fry the heads and shells with the onion, garlic and carrot over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes, crushing the shells with a wooden spoon, until they turn bright orange and smell toasted.
- 3Stir in the tomato paste and paprika and cook for 2 minutes. Pour in the wine and let it bubble for a minute, then add the water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 40 minutes, no longer.✎ Chef’s noteShell stock turns bitter if it cooks too long.
- 4Strain the stock through a fine sieve, pressing hard on the shells, then return it to the pot and simmer for about 20 minutes to reduce and concentrate it.
- 5Stir in the cream and curry powder and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in the cornflour mixture and simmer for 2 minutes more, until lightly thickened. Season with salt and pepper.
- 6Just before serving, melt the butter in a frying pan and fry the tails for 1 to 2 minutes, until just opaque. Divide them between warm bowls, ladle the hot soup over, scatter with parsley and serve with bread.
Icelandic tradition, from Höfn and the Reykjavík harbour.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Reykjavík. Reykjavik's harbour kitchens turn the day's catch into comfort: cod and haddock, salted, dried, and stewed into plokkfiskur with potato and butter. Lamb grazed on wild herbs, skyr, and dense dark rye baked slowly in the ground complete the Icelandic table.
🗺️
Iceland. Iceland's cuisine is forged by a harsh North Atlantic, lamb, skyr (thick cultured dairy), and abundant fish, historically preserved by drying, smoking, and fermenting. Rye bread baked in geothermal heat is a local marvel.
🌍
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 Iceland
PlokkfiskurIceland’s "plucked fish": cod and potatoes folded into a warm, oniony white sauce, served with dark rye and butter.
Hafragrautur (Icelandic Oat Porridge)Creamy stovetop oat porridge simmered with a pinch of salt, served the Icelandic way with a spoon of skyr, brown sugar, and butter.
PylsurIceland's lamb-based hot dog with crispy and raw onions, remoulade, and a sweet-brown mustard, a Reykjavik institution.
Browse all Iceland recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Skillet or frying pan, Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Soup keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated and freezes well. Reheat gently and loosen with a little water or stock if needed.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Humarsúpa (Icelandic Langoustine Soup)?
A deep coral-coloured soup made from a stock of roasted langoustine shells, tomato and onion, enriched with cream and a hint of curry, with the sweet tails added at the end, served with bread.
Where does Humarsúpa (Icelandic Langoustine Soup) come from?
Humarsúpa (Icelandic Langoustine Soup) is an Icelandic dish from Reykjavík, Iceland.
Can Humarsúpa (Icelandic Langoustine Soup) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Humarsúpa (Icelandic Langoustine Soup) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Humarsúpa (Icelandic Langoustine Soup) 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 still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), 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 Humarsúpa (Icelandic Langoustine Soup) take to make?
About 120 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 90 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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