Skip to content
LoginRegister
WhatToEat.Today

Recipes with bilberries

4 recipes that use bilberries, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Viili, takes 5 minutes. It is most often cooked with sugar, lemon juice and potato starch.

Got a few things in the fridge? Search by everything you have

Blåbärssoppa

Swedes have drunk blåbärssoppa for generations, warm on a winter morning and cold from a cup after the Vasaloppet ski race, where skiers are handed it at every station. It is a thin, deep purple soup of bilberries or blueberries, sweetened and thickened just enough with potato starch to coat the tongue. The common mistake is boiling the soup after adding the starch: it turns stringy and then thins out again, so take it off the heat as soon as it thickens. Chef's tip: wild bilberries give a far deeper colour and flavour than cultivated blueberries, and frozen ones work perfectly.

15 minScandinavianSoupsVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Viili

Viili is a Finnish breakfast staple with a texture all its own: a mild, slightly sour cultured milk that stretches in long ropy strands from the spoon, with a thin velvety layer of mould on top from the traditional culture. Finns eat it straight from the bowl with cinnamon and sugar, berries or muesli. It is set at room temperature, no yoghurt maker needed, using a few spoons of an existing viili as a starter. The common mistake is setting it somewhere too warm, which makes it watery and sour; viili wants a cool kitchen of 18–22 °C. Chef's tip: always use pasteurised milk, and save 2 tablespoons from each batch in a clean jar to start the next one.

5 minScandinavianBreakfast & BrunchGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Blåbärssoppa (warm bilberry drink)

Every first Sunday of March, the 90-kilometre Vasaloppet ski race from Sälen to Mora is fuelled by blåbärssoppa: volunteers at the feeding stations hand thousands of skiers paper cups of the warm purple drink, and Swedes drink it from thermoses on winter hikes, after skating and on the ski slopes. It is made from wild bilberries, the small dark forest berries with purple flesh, cooked with sugar and thickened with potato starch so it is just thick enough to coat the cup. It is sweet, softly tart and tastes intensely of berries, with a silky, almost glossy body. The common mistake is stirring the starch straight into the hot pot: it forms jelly lumps at once. Always mix potato starch with cold water first, take the pot off the boil, then stir it in and bring back just to a bubble; long boiling thins it again. It is ready when it turns glossy and coats a spoon in a thin film. Bilberries are sold frozen in Nordic shops; cultivated blueberries work too, with a squeeze of lemon for sharpness. Chef's tip: it is just as good cold the next day, or served as a soup with whipped cream and almond biscuits.

20 minScandinavianDrinksVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Skyr

Skyr has been made in Iceland since the Viking settlers arrived: skimmed milk soured with a spoonful of the last batch, set with a drop of rennet, then strained until very thick, high in protein and mildly sour. Icelanders eat it every day with milk or cream and berries, or whisked into a drink, and skyrkaka is a favourite cheesecake. You need a few spoonfuls of plain shop skyr with live cultures as a starter. A common mistake is skipping the long, slow set; rushed skyr is thin and grainy. Chef's tip: strain it in the fridge overnight and stir it smooth before serving. Rennet is traditionally animal; use vegetarian rennet.

50 minScandinavianBasicsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Goes well with bilberries