Lohikeitto: Finnish Salmon Soup
This hearty winter-warmer comes from the kitchen of Helsinki’s Sea Horse, where its Salmon Soup is one of the most popular items on the menu. Serving traditional Finnish cuisine, this restaurant is as authentic as they come, where a simple but cosy interior makes you feel as though you could be in some European dining room mid twentieth century. “Some of our dishes were on the menu in 1946,” says Sanna Korpel, restaurant manager of the Sea Horse. Hosting the likes of Chilean poet and Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda and French writer Jean-Paul Sartre, to this day, the Sea Horse continues to be a favourite haunt for artists.
“Boasting the likes of Chilean poet and Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda and French writer Jean-Paul Sartre, to this day, the Sea Horse continues to be a favourite haunt for artists.”
Emanating from a country with a harsh climate, salmon soup—or known to locals as lohikeitto—makes the most of its local landscape, where an abundance of salmon from local lakes take the place of fresh fruit and vegetables. Served with a side of rye bread—a staple within most Finnish homes—this dish encompasses the heartiness and simplicity of good old-fashioned Finnish comfort food; a perfect mixture of warming, smooth and fresh.
Salmon soup served in a Cone11 bowl. Photo by Beth Wilkinson for Lindsay.
Ingredients
6 potatoes
2 onions
800 ml water
10 allspice berries (whole)
1 bay leaf
1 tsp fish stock powder
400 g salmon fillet
200 ml cream
3 tbs dill
Rye bread (for serving)
Method
Serves: 4 / Skill level: Easy
1. Peel potatoes and onions and cut into cubes.
2. Boil potatoes and onions in water with spices and stock until almost cooked.
3. Remove the skin and pin bones from salmon fillet and cut into bite-sized pieces.
4. Add cream and salmon to the broth and simmer for approximately 5 minutes.
5. Garnish with dill and serve with rye bread.
Sea Horse is located at Kapteeninkatu 11, 00140 Helsinki, Finland.
Beth Wilkinson is the founder, editor and creative director of Lindsay, based in Melbourne, Australia. She inherited her first analogue camera from her grandfather, Lindsay James Stanger (the namesake of this publication), and has been photographing people and places ever since. She is also the director of the creative studio Oak Park.
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