Salmon Soup

A quick and healthy fish soup is the kind of recipe you’ll want to come back to again and again. The trouble with most soups is that they take forever to make. Let’s be honest—after a long day at work, very few of us have the energy to fuss with a recipe that takes an hour or more. The big advantage of this soup is that the cooking itself takes no more than 20 minutes. Add in the veggie prep time, and you can expect to have this soup on the table in about 40 minutes.

Fish really should be on our menu every week, since it provides valuable omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins. Unfortunately, in our household it doesn’t make it to the table as often as it should, mostly because good, fresh fish isn’t always easy to find in larger supermarkets. And being a bit lazy, I rarely feel like making a long shopping trip around the city just for fish. Too often, the fish in big store chains has been lying in the counter for several days—it develops that all-too-familiar bad smell, which is enough to put me off completely. Occasionally, you’ll even spot those overly pink, overexposed fillets whose chemical composition I’d rather not know. Still, when we’re in the mood, we’ll sometimes take a longer shopping trip and hunt down a nice, fresh piece of fish.

The recipe isn’t one I invented myself—it actually comes from one of the best cookbooks on my shelf: GI in the City – 100 Simple and Healthy GI Recipes for an Active Lifestyle. I’d even say this book, along with its counterpart GI for the Whole Family, played an important role in shaping my cooking style. The authors, Swedes Ola Lauritzson and Ulrika Davidsson, put together a great selection of simple, tasty low-GI recipes, plus a solid introduction to GI eating in general. I don’t know many people who actually read cookbooks cover to cover, but with a touch of obsessive enthusiasm I did exactly that back in 2010—page by page, until I’d finished the whole thing!

I’m happy to finally share this recipe with you. Not only do I love it myself, but it’s also become a firm favorite of my family. Every now and then, someone comes home with a shopping bag of ingredients and the hopeful request: “Can you make that salmon soup tonight?” I think all moms will appreciate that if you tone down the spices a bit, the soup is also perfect for small children. The recipe says it serves four, but from my experience it makes at least eight regular bowlfuls—or four generous soup-plate portions. Be sure to use your biggest pot, because this soup makes plenty!