Salmon soup, lohikeitto in Finnish is a delicacy you need to try. The traditional fish soup is creamy and perfect for a cold winter's day. Ready in 30 minutes.
Salmon soup is usually served as lunch in Finland. It is a great dish to serve for crowds since it is simple to make and can also be made ahead. To make an even more flavorsome salmon soup use the head and bones to make a stock.
Salmon and fish soups are enjoyed throughout the whole of Scandinavia. The recipe is quite similar in all of these countries. In Swedish, this is called Laxsoppa, and in Norway fiskesuppe med laks.
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Ingredients
- Salmon fillet. You can combine other fish also.
- Double cream.
- Potatoes, firm ones. In Finland we use siikli or annabelle varieties. White potatoes are an ok all-purpose potato even for this soup. Yukon gold is a good firm soup potato.
- Carrots
- Leek. Can be replaced with yellow onion
- Garlic.
- Butter
- Fish stock cubes or real fish stock
- Bay leaves
- Allspice, whole peppercorns
- Black pepper.This is added as whole peppercorns but for more flavor you can add grinded pepper. Black pepper can be replaced with white pepper.
- Salt. Salt can be replaced with white miso paste.
- Fresh dill. This soup really needs the aroma of the fresh herb, but if you need to replace with dried dill.
Tip: To make even more flavorsome salmon soup add some warm smoked salmon to get smoky flavor aromas.
Veggies you can add
Traditionally salmon soup has only potatoes, carrots, and some type of onion in it. But here are some ideas if you want to add more veggies to this:
- Sweet potato cubes
- Cauliflower
- Broccoli
- Fennel
- Green peas
- Chopped green beans
- Yellow carrots
Instructions
Wash, peel, and chop your potatoes, and carrots into bite-size pieces. Make the carrots smaller than potatoes since they take a longer time to cook. Wash and chop your leek and chop the garlic clove also.
Melt the butter in your pot and saute the onions.
Add the potatoes, carrots, and spices. Cover with water. Boil until nearly done, about 13 minutes.
While the veggies are boiling prepare your salmon; remove the bones if you feel some. Cut the skin off and chop into small cubes about 1x1 inch.
Add the salmon and cream to the soup. Let boil/simmer for another 3-5 minutes until the salmon is cooked. As of last add your fresh chopped dill. Taste the soup and add some more salt or black pepper if needed.
Variations
Keto/low carb version
Replace potatoes with broccoli and cauliflower. These do not need so long cooking time. 5-10 minutes is enough. Fennel is also a great addition to salmon soup.
Thai spiced
You can make such a delicious salmon soup by adding some lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, and ginger to the soup as seasoning.
How to make vegan fish soup?
Vegans in Finland also love this soup, the salmon is replaced with smoked Tofu cubes. Heavy cream is replaced with a plant-based cream option like oat or soy cream.
How to serve
Soup is decorated with some chopped fresh dill. Rye bread is traditionally served with salmon soup. Archipelago bread is very tasty with the soup with some real butter. Also, the Finnish potato flatbreads or rye flatbreads are tasty with the soup.
The peppercorns and bay leaves are not to be eaten.
Drink pairings
White wines that go well with salmon soup are chardonnay and sauvignon blanc. Finns like to drink kotikalja, which is a low-alcohol malty dark beer. Also piimä; buttermilk is served as a lunch drink in Finland.
Dessert
As dessert serve some pannukakku-Finnish oven pancake or lettu- thin pancakes with jam.
How to make a large batch of soup?
To make a bigger batch of the soup count 100 grams of salmon per person. Also about 150 grams of potatoes, this is 1-2 potatoes per person. Count ½ carrot per person.
When you peel and cut a lot of potatoes store them in cold water, this keeps them fresh and they don't get discoloration. All veggies can be chopped the day before and stored in cold water in the fridge.
Salmon is quite expensive so you can replace half of the salmon amount with some other type of fish if you want to. In Finland, we often use perch, whitefish, and pollock in fish soups in addition to salmon
Storing
The soup will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days in an airtight container. Reheat in microwave or stovetop.
You can freeze the soup, but no longer than 3 months since the soup is quite fatty. When reheating, the salmon cubes might break and soup becomes mushier.
Food safety
When you reheat your soup make sure it is over 158 F (70C). Be also sure that you make this soup from fresh fish. Salmon soup should not be reheated and cooled several times, just once.
Other salmon recipes
Creamy salmon soup
Ingredients
- 400 grams salmon fillet
- 1 cup double cream (heavy cream)
- 2 pounds of potatoes (1kg) 6 large ones
- 2 carrots
- ½ medium sized leek
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 psc fish stock cubes (or real fish stock)
- 6 psc bay leaves
- 5 psc whole allspice pepper
- 1 teaspoon black pepper corns
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ cup fresh chopped dill leaves.
Instructions
- Wash, peel, and chop your potatoes, and carrots into bite-size pieces. Make the carrots smaller than potatoes since they take a longer time to cook. Wash and chop your leek and chop the garlic clove also.
- Melt the butter in your pot and saute the onions.
- Add the potatoes, carrots and spices. Cover with water. Boil until nearly done, about 13 minutes.
- While the veggies are boiling prepare your salmon; remove the bones if you feel some. Cut the skin off and chop into small cubes about 1x1 inch.
- Add in the salmon and cream to the soup. Let boil/simmer for another 3-5 minutes until the salmon is cooked. As last add your fresh chopped dill. Taste the soup and add some more salt or black pepper if needed.
Lanka
You can also add the cream/täysmaito on bowl, keeping the pot of fish soup completely milk-free, making freezing and storing it a lot easier. Nothing magical happens to the cream when it's added to the pot... But on the other hand if you serve a hot bowl of cooked vegetables and salmon, splash of cream will cool it down a bit.
Finnish salmon soup is excellent dish for any left-over cured salmon/gravlax and any time I find "red taped -x%" gravlax in shops, salmon soup will follow because it's just so convient and fast soup.