Finnish Salmon Soup (Lohikeitto)

Finnish food looks very tempting and I will definitely return to cook some more Finnish dishes, the Karelian pasty, made of a thin rye crust and filled with barley or rice looked very intriguing during my research and I would love to try it some time. The Finns also use a lot of berries such as lingonberries, bilberries and sea buckthorns which I have never tried and now that I know exist am dying to try them!

However, there is one dish that caught my eye a little more than most this week and that is lohikeitto, a salmon soup. This Finnish soup is wonderful for winter, it’s hearty and full of flavour but not too heavy, so it’s a great winter pick me up that won’t leave you feeling like you need a nap. It was incredibly easy to make and my only recommendation is that you only make what you want to eat that day. Because the soup contains salmon, you can easily overcook it by re-heating the soup which will make it dry out, and because it contains heavy cream it’s prone to splitting if left to sit too long. This being said if any Finns have suggestions on how to keep this soup for longer I’m all ears!

I used this recipe and the only change I made was to omit the dill because I really dislike it!

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Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 large leek (white part only) – thinly sliced

• 1 large carrot cut into 1cm cubes

• 3 medium potatoes peeled and cut into 1cm cubes

• 5 cups / 1.25l of fish stock

• 500g salmon fillet cut into 2cm cubes

• 200ml heavy cream

• Salt and pepper to taste

• Dill to taste

Method

1. Heat a large saucepan over medium heat and add butter. Once the butter is melted add the thinly sliced leeks and cook until they are soft.

2. Add the carrots and potatoes and stir to coat in butter.

3. Add the fish stock, cover the saucepan and bring to a boil.

4. Once boiling reduce the heat and simmer until the potato and carrot are cooked.

5. Season with salt and pepper.

6. Add the salmon and cream and stir to combine.

7. Cook for 4-5 minutes until the salmon is tender, taste and season again if necessary.

8. Add the dill (if using), stir to combine and serve.