When fresh fish is harder to find, we opt for hot smoked salmon from the grocery store. It’s already cooked and keeps well in the refrigerator, is convenient and so delicious in this soup (or stew, whatever you’d like to call it) This recipe is inspired by the Finnish salmon soup called Lohikeitto, but uses hot smoked salmon instead of fresh. It doesn’t take too much time, is satisfying and flavorful because the smoke really comes through even though you flake the fish into the soup towards the end. Letting it sit for a few minutes to steep that flavor is important, so I highly recommend not skipping this step.

I think that a good stock is always the starting point to a delicious soup, so make your own or use the best stock that you can find. Recently I’ve seen quite a few fish stock options online but vegetable stock or chicken stock is perfect! As always, this is a recipe that I make for my family and is a starting point for your gorgeous creation. Please customize it to your liking (add a carrot, use cauliflower instead of potatoes, add spinach toward the end to increase the nutritional value etc.) and substitute the ingredients that you love! Let me know how it went :)

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons salted butter
1 cup finely diced leek (white and light green parts only, about one stalk)
4 cloves finely minced garlic
1 1/2 lbs cubed potatoes (a floury potato will work best)
4 cups (32 ounces/1 carton) fish stock, chicken stock or vegetable stock
1 lb plain hot smoked salmon (this is the one I use, it’s smoked but not woody)
1 cup heavy cream or half n half (I vote for heavy cream!)
1/4 cup fresh dill, roughly chopped
salt and cracked black pepper to taste
optional for color: a pinch of saffron

Method:

Melt butter in a large heavy bottomed pot. Sauté leeks and garlic over low heat until the leeks are tender and garlic is fragrant, about 10 minutes. You really want to break it down to increase the flavor of the soup.

Add the cubed potatoes, stock and optional saffron if your’e using it. Increase the heat to medium, place a lid on and cook until potatoes are fork tender - about 20 minutes. If you need to, top up your liquid to cover the potatoes with either water or more stock.

Remove the lid and reduce heat to low. Flake the hot smoked salmon into the soup (discard the skin), add the heavy cream and simmer for 5 minutes before turning off the heat. If some of your potatoes have not broken down, use a fork to smash them in order to thicken the soup slightly. Add dill, season to taste and let it sit for 10 minutes with the lid on before ladling into bowls.