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Quick White Fish Soup
Backstory
II like this soup very much. It reminds me of my childhood. It’s nothing complicated — just white fish (pollack, cod, haddock, whiting, pouting, sea bass…) cooked with very down‑to‑earth vegetables that grow in the soil: onions, carrots, potatoes. Add a few ordinary herbs — parsley, dill, bay leaves — and you have something humble but deeply comforting.
Compared to any soup made with salmon or halibut, this one is light. Simple, but rich in taste. Just fish and vegetables, nothing more.
When I make it, I always recall memories of camping by the sea: adults cooking dinner in a metal pot over an open fire, the smell of the sea, the sound of the waves, freshly caught fish being cleaned and cooked straight away. The vegetables were roughly chopped, brought from home — not found on the beach, of course.
These days I like to make this soup at home. I always buy fresh fish for it, usually whole fish, because I use the heads, bones, and fins to make a quick broth. But it’s not a crime to use fillets — in fact, if you’re making this soup with fish fillets instead of whole fish, you can skip the trimming and broth‑making steps — it becomes a very fast recipe. In that case, use a good‑quality fish stock from the supermarket. I’m not a big fan of instant soup cubes, so choose a proper liquid stock if you can.
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Kitchen Equipment
5‑litre pot — this recipe yields about 5 litres of soup
Well‑sharpened knives — for cleaning fresh fish, peeling vegetables, chopping vegetables and herbs
Kitchen scissors — for trimming fish (especially useful for removing fins)
Cutting boards — one for fish; one for vegetables
Colander and cheesecloth — for straining the stock
Three deep bowls — one for strained stock; two for separating the cooked fish
!!! If you’re using fillets instead of whole fish, you won’t need the cheesecloth, scissors and the extra bowls — the soup becomes even quicker.
Ingredients
For the fish broth
Whole white fish — 3 fish, preferably of different type (about 500g each). I make my decision at the fish monger counter. My most recent combination was 1 seabass and 2 gurnards. I made this soup with different combinations of fish, my preference – white simple not rich in fat, too oily or strongly flavoured fish,
Onion — 1 medium
Carrot – 1 small to medium
Bay leaves — 2
Black peppercorns — 5
Ground coriander – tea spoon
ground fenugreek – tea spoon (optional, I add it because I like its flavour and it works well or accompanies well the vegetables)
Sea salt or unrefined rock salt — 1 heaped teaspoon
Herb stems from small bunches of parsley, celery, and dill, or you can use dried herbs.
For the Vegetable Base
Onion — 1 medium
Carrot — 1 medium
Leek — 1 small (or half of a large one)
Potato – 1 or 2 medium size
To finish
Lemon — half – very optional. it is a stereotype: fish comes with lemon.
Garlic — 3 cloves – optional
Fresh parsley — half a bunch
Fresh chili – 1 small finely chopped
Method and Cooking Time
it took me nearly three days when I made this soup for the first time. These days it takes me about one day to have the soup ready to be served. Of course, I do not mean me standing with a ladle by the pot for 24 hours. I can separate the soup preparation on to three main stages or steps:
1. Preparing the fish and making the broth, I usually spend up to an hour on preparing the fish (cutting the heads and the tales off, fileting etc) and about 40 minutes on making the broth (20 minutes to bring everything to a boil and then boiling the broth for another 20 minutes). Give it up to 2 hours in total.
2. Preparing the vegetable and seaweed base. Everything depends on your ability on preparing the fresh vegetables. I do not peel carrots or potatoes, but I do cut of the skin of celeriac and I do wash properly leeks. Half an hour will do
3. finalising the preparation.
Making the broth
This is my usual broth base, but it’s not a strict formula. The soup turns out slightly different every time — it depends on my mood and on what spices I decide to add. I treat any recipe as a canvas and paint on it with flavours.
Cover everything with water so the fish is fully submerged. Bring to a boil, then simmer on low heat with the lid slightly open for about an hour. This prevents the foam from boiling over. Depending on the fish, you may still need to skim it occasionally.
When the broth is ready, let it cool down, then strain it through a colander. Don’t throw away what’s left — pick out the fish flesh from the bones. That will go back into the soup. If you don’t feel like doing this, give it to the chickens or the cats.
For the Vegetable Base
Celeriac root — 100 g
Onion — 1 medium
Carrot — 1 medium
Leek — 1 small (or half of a large one)
Fennel bulb — half of a small bulb (about 100 g)
Fresh tomatoes — 2 medium
Tomato paste — 2 tablespoons
Sweet pepper — 1 (preferably yellow, red, or orange)
Natural vinegar — 1 tablespoon
To finish
Pearl barley — 2 tablespoons (or one handful)
Lemon — half
Garlic — 3 cloves
Fresh coriander — half a bunch
