Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Kjötsúpa
Iceland's beloved lamb-and-root-vegetable soup: bony lamb simmered with potato, carrot, swede and cabbage.
Icelandic · easy · serves 6
prep 20 min · cook 75 min
~536 cal · 42g protein · 33g carbs · 26g fat · 6g fiber · 4g sugars · 11g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Kjötsúpa, literally "meat soup," is one of Iceland's most important dishes, a plain and hearty lamb broth thick with winter root vegetables that has been cooked on the island since the Middle Ages. Bony, fatty lamb is simmered gently while potatoes, carrots, swede and cabbage go in, and a handful of barley or rice makes it a full meal.
Truly traditional kjötsúpa is seasoned with little more than salt and dried lovage or a "soup herb" mix, letting the sweetness of the lamb and the roots carry it. Every household has its own version, and it remains the reassuring pot that appears whenever the weather turns.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally dairy-, egg-, nut- 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
2 lb bone-in lamb (shoulder or forequarter)
8 cups water
1/3 cup pearl barley
4 medium potatoes, diced
4 carrots, sliced
1 small swede (rutabaga), diced
1/4 head white cabbage, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 tbsp dried lovage or mixed soup herbs
to taste salt and pepper
Instructions
1
Put the lamb and water in a large pot, bring slowly to a boil, and skim off the froth and fat that rises for the first 20 minutes.
2
Add the onion, barley and soup herbs, cover, and simmer gently for about 40 minutes.
✎ Chef’s note
A slow simmer and diligent skimming keep the broth clean and clear.
3
Add the potatoes, carrots and swede and cook 15 minutes, then add the cabbage and simmer until all the vegetables are tender.
4
Lift out the lamb, pull the meat from the bones, chop it and return it to the pot.
5
Season with salt and pepper and serve in big bowls.
Icelandic home cooking.
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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. The old preservation methods are still visible. Hardfiskur is wind-dried fish torn into strips and eaten with butter; hakarl is Greenland shark, cured for months because it cannot be eaten fresh; and rugbraud is baked as hverabraud, buried in the ground near a hot spring and left overnight to steam itself dark and sweet. Plokkfiskur, by contrast, uses fresh boiled fish.
🌍
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: 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.
Make it a Iceland meal
VínartertaDessert
PylsurLunch
Similar dishes from around the world
Chorba FrikAlgeria
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So'o YosopyParaguay
ShchiRussia
BorschtUkraine
Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Kjötsúpa?
Iceland's beloved lamb-and-root-vegetable soup: bony lamb simmered with potato, carrot, swede and cabbage.
Where does Kjötsúpa come from?
Kjötsúpa is a Icelandic dish from Reykjavík, Iceland.
Can Kjötsúpa be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Kjötsúpa recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Kjötsúpa 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 count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), 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 Kjötsúpa take to make?
About 95 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 75 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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