Creamy Seafood Soup with Shrimp and Vermicelli

Name: Creamy Seafood Soup with Shrimp, Vegetables and Vermicelli
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 1 h
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Seafood 150 g; Water 1 l (plus a little more to bring the seafood to a boil); Shrimp (peeled) 100 g; Tomato 1; Garlic 1 clove; Onion 1; Carrot 1; Potato 1; Celery root 50 g; Green peas (frozen) 3 tbsp (34 g); Parsley, basil 2-3 sprigs each; Cream 100 ml; Vermicelli (the smallest kind) 3-4 tbsp (25–33 g); Olive oil a little, optional; Salt, black pepper to taste; Ginger, nutmeg a pinch each; Dried herbs (Mediterranean herb mix) 0.5 tsp; White bread for serving

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60 mins

History tells us that as soon as people had cookware, they started making soups. A soup is a liquid dish made of many ingredients that together create its overall flavor. In fact, even a simple pot of boiled food is already a soup.

I was quite surprised to learn that there are more than a hundred and fifty types of soup in the world, which in turn divide into thousands of subtypes. In the old days, plain bread soaked in water or milk counted as soup. That is still how “tyurya” is made. This is also the likely origin of the word “soup”: “soupe” or suppa (bread soaked in broth).

I am usually drawn to rich, thick soups that can fill you up all by themselves. I remember loving the soups called chowder, or clam chowder, in the USA. They are thick shellfish soups with vegetables and a flour-based thickener, very popular and traditional in America. There are two versions: the New England seafood chowder and the Manhattan mussel chowder. The difference is that the first is made with cream and the second with tomato. In Greece, fishermen make an excellent fish soup called kakavia, combining fish and cream.

Today we will make a seafood soup, taking classic American and Greek soup recipes as a base and adding our own ideas. This is the original recipe for seafood soup.

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Singapore Laksa: Spicy Rice Noodle Soup with Chicken and Shrimp

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Fish Soup with Shrimp

Ingredients

2 servings

Seafood 150 g
Water 1 l (plus a little more to bring the seafood to a boil)
Shrimp (peeled) 100 g
Tomato 1
Garlic 1 clove
Onion 1
Carrot 1
Potato 1
Celery root 50 g
Green peas (frozen) 3 tbsp (34 g)
Parsley, basil 2-3 sprigs each
Cream 100 ml
Vermicelli (the smallest kind) 3-4 tbsp (25–33 g)
Olive oil a little, optional
Salt, black pepper to taste
Ginger, nutmeg a pinch each
Dried herbs (Mediterranean herb mix) 0.5 tsp
White bread for serving

Step-by-step recipe

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Preparing the ingredients

“Seafood” usually means everything edible that comes from the world’s oceans, except vertebrates. Typical examples are mollusks, shrimp, squid, crabs, octopus, lobster and so on. Seafood spoils very quickly, so the lion’s share of it is sold frozen. It also cooks very briefly and needs a gentle hand, or it turns rubbery. Keep that in mind when cooking.
Bring the seafood to a boil and drain the water. I do not recommend thawing the seafood before cooking, just as with seafood pasta.
To keep the seafood broth “light”, cover the seafood with water, bring it to a boil over high heat and drain it right away. Set the seafood aside: it goes into the soup near the end, and the soup base cooks in fresh water.
Prepare the vegetables and herbs. Peel all the vegetables. Cut the potato into large cubes, and cut the carrot and celery root smaller. Chop the garlic fairly finely. Cut the onion coarsely, or leave it whole if you use small onions.
Chop the herbs and get the cream and vermicelli ready.
Sweat the tomato. Scald the tomato, remove the skin and seeds. Chop it finely with a knife and sweat it over low heat under a lid, with a little olive oil if you like, until the flesh turns into a sauce.

Cooking the soup

Boil the vegetables. Bring 1 l of water to a boil and cook the chopped potato, celery root and carrot in it. Add the finely chopped garlic, frozen green peas and onion. Season with salt and pepper to taste, add a pinch of nutmeg and ginger, and 0.5 tsp of dried herbs from a Mediterranean herb mix. Cook on the lowest heat at a gentle simmer until the vegetables are fully done. The soup must never boil hard. Cooking time is roughly 15-20 minutes.
Add the seafood and tomato. When the vegetables are done, add the seafood and peeled shrimp to the soup. You can leave the tails on the shrimp.
Cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring, then add the tomato puree sweated under the lid. Cook for a few more minutes.
Cook the vermicelli with the cream. Add the vermicelli to the soup, the smallest kind you can find. Ideally Filini pasta. This pasta cooks in only 2-3 minutes.
Right away pour in the cream, bring to a boil and cook until the vermicelli is done.
Add the chopped parsley and basil, let it simmer for a couple more minutes and take the soup off the heat.