Lohikeitto Finnish Salmon Soup

Recipe: Lohikeitto Finnish Salmon Soup Recipe »

Lohikeitto is a delicious and simple creamy salmon soup from Finland. It is a wonderfully easy soup to make and contains salmon, potatoes, carrots and leeks in a creamy dill and allspice soup. Like a cousin of a seafood chowder, this Finnish recipe will warm you up from the inside with its delicious flavour and goodness from the salmon. If you're looking for yummy ways to incorporate salmon into your diet, try this recipe!

About Finnish Salmon Soup (Lohikeitto )

Lohikeitto means "Salmon Soup" in Finnish. It has been a while since I made a Finnish recipe and half-Finnish Mr NQN always gets excited when I make something from his mum's heritage. It's soup weather now and this is one of our favourite creamy Finnish soups.

How do you pronounce Lohikeitto? You pronounce it: lo-hee-KEY-toh

Is Lohikeitto healthy? Yes, it contains a lot of salmon so it's high in Omega 3's. It also traditionally contains cream or milk. If you want something light you can go for milk, evaporated milk or light cream in the exact same quantity.

Can you swap or add vegetables in Lohikeitto? Yes! Mr NQN's aunt Sisko makes this often and she uses celery or celeriac depending on who is eating it.

What would you serve with Lohikeitto? Traditionally you would serve lohikeitto with rye bread but I didn't have any so I served it with sourdough. I also love it with Finnish Rosolli Beetroot Salad Recipe. I also think it goes really well with my favourite ever Finnish food Karjalanpiirakka or Karelian Rice Pies With Egg Butter. These little pies are so unique and delicious and there's nothing like them!

The ingredients for Lohikeitto are easy:

Leek - Leeks are softer and milder than onions and make a wonderful base for a soup. Remove the green leafy tops of the leeks (you can reserve these to make stock). Make sure to rinse well (I show you how to do this below). You can sub them with golden shallots or the white part of green spring onions.

Carrot - I don't bother peeling the carrots and I've given a weight for the carrots as they vary in size.

Potato - Again I don't bother peeling the potatoes, I just scrub them well. Make sure to cut these into small pieces so that they cook through easily.

Stock - If you have a seafood or fish stock it is perfect for this. I also like this made with chicken stock too.

Salmon - If you can get wild salmon that is great. In this recipe we cook the salmon cubes through until just done (it only takes a few minutes!). Ocean trout it also another option.

Dill - Fresh dill is one of the main flavours of Lohikeitto. How much you want depends on how much dill you like. I know some people that don't like it but I love it!

Cream - I used thickened cream but use single, pure or pouring cream. Using a higher fat cream will make it richer and more luscious so go ahead and use that if you like.

Allspice - Just a hint of this spice is lovely in this recipe. I usually think of allspice and Jamaican/Caribbean food but allspice does turn up in Finnish cuisine!

Tips For Making Lohikeitto

This recipe is so simple that it doesn't really many tips. It's all a matter of timing every layer of the soup to cook.

1 - Make sure to rinse the leeks as the layers can really trap dirt inside them, especially at the top of the leek. I cut the leeks in half lengthways and then rinse them under running, cold water through a sieve.

2 - Make sure to cut the vegetables to the size specified. The size of the vegetables matters so that it they cook through perfectly. By the time the salmon goes in the potatoes and carrots will be tender and the salmon perfectly cooked without being dry at all!

3 - This recipe is not suitable for freezing as the cream doesn't reheat very well and can split. This soup will last in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Lohikeitto Finnish Salmon Soup Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Lohikeitto Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 25 minutes

Serves: 4 people

Ingredients Needed

• 3 tablespoons/45g/1.6ozs butter
• 220g/7.7ozs leek (around 2 leeks, white part only)
• 240g/8.5ozs carrots (around 2 large carrots), sliced on the diagonal round 0.5cm/0.2inch thick
• 450g/1lb potatoes, cut into small pieces around 1cm/0.4inch square
• 700ml/1.5pints stock (fish or chicken)
• 500g/1.1lbs salmon, cut into cubes around 1.5cms/0.6inch squares
• 5-10g/0.17-0.35oz fresh dill (small bunch), roughly chopped
• 300ml/10.6flozs pure, pouring or thickened cream
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 - Cut leeks in half lengthways and then slice into half moons. Rinse these in a sieve to remove any dirt and drain well. Add butter to a pot set to low to medium heat. Sauté leeks for 5-6 mins with the lid on, stirring occasionally but not letting the leeks brown. Add carrots, potatoes and stock and simmer for 15 minutes with the lid on.

Step 2 - Add salmon pieces and allspice and bring to a simmer. Place lid on for 3 minutes stirring halfway. Turn off the heat and stir in cream and fresh dill. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Personal Note

Dear Reader this past week we've both been sick. Unfortunately Mr NQN doesn't really look after himself and while I was away for a week in Switzerland he got sick (you'd think it would be more likely that I'd bring a bug back from overseas!). I knew it would happen because he rarely turns the heat on and doesn't wear enough clothing. By mid May two weeks before winter, I had all of my winter coats unpacked from storage but he couldn't be bothered so he sat in our house with a cotton jumper on but when he walked the dogs, he only added a scarf.

"Make sure you don't get sick," I warned him from overseas. "We are going to Orange when I get back and you know how cold it gets!" I reminded him.

Of course by the time I got back, he had a full blown cold. I was fine for about a week but then being in the same car together and same hotel I eventually caught the cold too. We both had sniffles and a cough and I think that he finally got the message that it was being "penny wise pound foolish" to avoid turning on the heat when he felt the warm embrace of the fireplace and heated floors. Even the dogs abandoned him and sat with me because they know that where mummy is, it's always warm.

And when the weather reached a "feels like temperature" (the most important weather reading for those of us that feel the cold) of 6C/42F he finally decided to look for his coat. And it turned out that all he had to do was look in the storage box from the wardrobe!

So tell me Dear Reader, do you look at the "feels like temperature"? Are you good at looking after yourself?