Swedish · drink

Blåbärssoppa (Bilberry Soup)

Blåbärssoppa (Bilberry Soup) reads sweetness 7.4, fruity 6.8 and citrus 5.9 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Swedish drink, about 20 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

The measured notes (of 18)

Sweetness 7.4 · Fruity 6.8 · Citrus 5.9 · Sourness 5.5 · Floral 3.8 · Salinity 3.4 · Warm Spice 1.9 · Nutty 0.6 · Herbaceous 0.6 · Umami 0.5

What's in it (8)

Time & effort: about 20 min · effort: easy

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 48.7 kcal, 0.3 g protein, 0.3 g fat, 11.4 g carbs

Dietary: Vegan — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (7 steps)

  1. Put the bilberries, water, sugar, cinnamon stick and salt in a saucepan and bring slowly to a simmer. Use wild bilberries if you possibly can: they are dark all the way through, where cultivated blueberries are pale inside, and the difference in a drink this plain is the difference between deep purple and washed-out pink.
  2. Simmer 10 minutes, crushing the berries against the side of the pan with a spoon as they soften.
  3. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve, pressing the fruit firmly to get everything out, and return the juice to a clean pan. Discard the cinnamon stick and skins.
  4. Slake the potato starch in the cold water until there are no lumps at all.
  5. Bring the juice back to just below a simmer, take it off the heat, and pour in the starch slurry in a thin stream while whisking. Potato starch thickens instantly and then breaks down if you boil it — the mixture must never bubble again, or the soup goes thin and cloudy an hour later. This is the one technical point in the recipe.
  6. Stir in the lemon juice. The soup should coat a spoon thinly, like single cream; it thickens a little more as it cools.
  7. Serve warm in mugs. In Sweden this is the drink handed to skiers along the Vasaloppet course and to children after sledging, and it is also drunk cold from a carton at breakfast.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.