Finnish Salmon Soup – Lohikeitto

Finnish Salmon Soup – Lohikeitto ~ this simple salmon and potato soup is the ultimate 30 minute spring meal, with a light cream broth, melt-in-your-mouth chunks of salmon, and tons of fresh dill!

I’m obsessed with anything Nordic right now, including this classic Finnish salmon soup.  It’s utterly simple and so satisfying ~ made with fresh spring salmon, chunky potatoes, carrots, and leeks.  The flavors are unpretentious and clean, with a traditional dill infused broth touched with allspice.  We really shouldn’t sit here gabbing about this one…we need to get cooking!

There’s only one hitch to making a great fish soup, and that’s the stock.  Most of us don’t have fish stock in the fridge, and you can’t buy it off the shelf, so we need to get creative.  One solution is to buy salmon with the skin on.  Remove it at home, and use it to make a quick broth.  Alternatively you can add the skin the soup while the potatoes and carrots are cooking, and then fish it out later.  The good thing is that, like all fish soups, this one gets even better the next day after the flavors have had a chance to develop.

There is no shortage of delicious salmon recipes on my blog.  We love salmon and eat it more than any other type of fish.

If you love it like I do, make sure to check out my Rainbow Salmon Skewers, I make these so often because they literally take about 15 minutes to throw together.  We eat them with couscous or salad.  Another favorite spring salmon meal of mine is Salmon and Zucchini Burgers, I serve the warm burgers over a fresh green salad ~ heaven!

Reader Rave ~

“Finnish approved!  I was born and raised in Finland and I was raised on this.  I grew up cooking a recipe very similar to this salmon soup in school. This is great and authentic Finnish Salmon soup.”  ~Joonas

*I lightly adapted this recipe from Cooking the Globe

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3.1 from 376 votes

Finnish Salmon Soup – Lohikeitto

Finnish Salmon Soup – Lohikeitto ~ this simple salmon and potato soup is the ultimate 30 minute spring meal, with a light cream broth, melt-in-your-mouth chunks of salmon, and tons of fresh dill!

Course Appetizer, Main Course

Cuisine Finnish

Total Time 35 minutes

Yield 4 servings

Ingredients

• 1 lb salmon filet skinned and cut into largish chunks, reserve the skin
• 1/2 stick 4 tablespoons, unsalted butter
• 1 large leek trimmed, sliced, and well rinsed
• 5 cups 1,25l fish stock (can be substituted with water)
• 1 lb russet potatoes peeled and diced
• 1 large carrot sliced
• 1 cup 10g fresh dill for garnish, finely chopped, divided
• 1 cup 250ml heavy cream
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

• Melt the butter in a soup pot and saute the leeks for 10 minutes, or until nice and soft.
• While the leeks are cooking, put 5 cups of water and the reserved fish skin in a saucepan and bring to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer gently for 10 minutes.
• Strain the broth and add to the pan with the leeks, along with the potatoes, carrots, and half of the fresh dill. Cook for another 10 minutes, or until the potatoes are just tender.
• Add the salmon chunks to the soup along with the cream and allspice, and gently simmer on low heat until cooked through, just a few minutes. Add the remaining dill, and salt and pepper to taste.
• This soup makes great leftovers, too, the flavors will mature and get even better!

Notes:

• If you can get your hands on great fish stock, by all means use it!  Clam broth can also be used.  I’ve sometimes even used clam juice as a base for fish soup.
• Serve this soup with some rustic artisan style bread ~ rye or pumpernickel would be amazing!  I have a great recipe for PUMPERNICKEL BISCUITS on the blog which would be perfect with this Finnish salmon soup.

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