What’s cooking in Finland?
Lohikeitto – Salmon soup
Mari and I met years ago when we were both working in Amsterdam. Mari is from Kotka in Finland, but after her years in Amsterdam, she has moved to Helsinki where she now lives with her husband and two children. Mari says she would like to eat biological food and more vegetables, but that for a family of two busy professionals and two young children, she often searches for quick solutions. Mari is happy about the service you see more and more in Europe where you can order leftover food from restaurants. An initiative which has started to help reduce food waste. Mari sometimes orders this food through an app and says it has quick service and is relatively inexpensive. On weekends her husband often makes Lohikeitto, a traditional Finnish salmon soup that her children are fond off! The soup is a healthy meal and easy to make!
About Finnish cuisine:
For Mari, typical Finnish dishes are with fish, rye bread, and also rye porridge for breakfast. She also loves Finnish strawberries, which she says are really the sweetest strawberries in the world. Lohikeitto is also typical Finnish. There are varieties of salmon soup in other countries, like Laxsoppa in Sweden. Salmon is eaten all year round in Finland in different forms, in summer with fresh potatoes, dill and butter and in winter in the warm soup. At Let’s Explore we were very happy to try this Finnish soup, and I already know we will now make it more often!
Lohikeitto – Salmon soup
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Ingredients for 4 persons:
- ½ kg salmon filet, skin it and cut into chunks
- 50 g butter
- 1 sliced leek
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 1,5 litres fish stock (made from the skin of the salmon)
- ½ kg potatoes, cubed
- 2 dl cream
- Approximately 10 g fresh dill, chopped
- salt & pepper (as much as you like)
- rye bread
How to prepare:
- Make your own fish stock by putting the skin of the salmon in a pot with the 1,5 liters of water. Get it to boil and keep it on the heat while you cut the vegetables and the salmon.
- Melt the butter in a pot, add the leek and the onion and fry it for a few minutes.
- Pour the fish stock in
- Add the cubes potatoes and cook until almost soft (I cooked it for 10 minutes)
- Add the salmon and cook for another 5 minutes
- Add the cream cook for 2-3 more minutes
- Turn off the heat, add salt, pepper and fresh dill
Eat the soup with rye bread. Lohikeitto tastes even better the next day if you make a bigger portion. Thank you so much Mari for having shared this recipe with us!
