Recipe: Swedish Curried Fish Soup

updated Apr 30, 2019

Serves4

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Around the World in 30 Soups: This month we’re collaborating with chefs, cookbook authors, and our own Kitchn crew to share a globetrotting adventure in soups from countries and cuisines around the world. Today’s stop: Sweden.

For our moment in Sweden, Steffi Knowles-Dellner offers up a soup from her grandmother that shows off how rich with spices Swedish cooking can be.

This curried fish soup is based on a recipe by my mormor (or maternal grandmother) and it’s a family favorite. Swedes have a surprising affinity for spice. We use lots of saffron, cinnamon, and cardamom in our baking — perhaps we sourced them on far-flung Viking raids? — and even curry powder crops up now and then as a subtle seasoning. Here, it adds an earthy depth and warmth without going overboard, and it’s the perfect soothing soup for a Swedish winter’s day.

—Steffi Knowles-Dellner, author of Lagom: The Swedish Art of Eating Harmoniously

Comments

Serves 4

Nutritional Info

Ingredients

1 teaspoon
butter
2
onions, thinly sliced
1
leek, sliced
2
garlic cloves, very finely chopped
2 teaspoons
medium curry powder, divided
4 1/2 cups
fish or vegetable stock or broth
10 1/2 ounces
thick cod fillets, cut into chunks
10 1/2 ounces
salmon, cut into pieces
5 1/4 ounces
cooked frozen Atlantic prawns or shrimp, defrosted
1 cup
light cream
2 tablespoons
cold-pressed rapeseed oil or olive oil
1
small bunch of dill, roughly chopped, to serve
1
small bunch of parsley, roughly chopped, to serve
Chunky bread, to serve

Instructions

Melt the butter in a large saucepan, add the onions and sauté over a low heat for 5 minutes, without colouring. Add the leek and cook for another few minutes until softened, then add the garlic. Stir in 1 teaspoon of the curry powder and fry for another minute or so, until fragrant. Pour in the stock, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat – it should be just quivering. Add the cod and salmon and poach for 5 to 8 minutes, then tip in the prawns and continue to cook for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the cream.
Heat the oil in a small frying pan and add the remaining 1 teaspoon curry powder. Fry for 1 minute or so until smoky and aromatic, then remove from the heat and tip into a bowl to cool slightly. Divide the soup between 4 bowls, drizzle over a little curry oil and sprinkle with the herbs before serving with chunky bread.