Homemade Ukha Fish Soup
The ingredient list only looks long. What matters is fish, potatoes, carrot and onion; the rest is spices from the kitchen shelf and roots, if you have them.
Ingredients
4 servings
- Main
- Fish (heads, tails) 1 kg
- Water 2 liters
- Potatoes 1–2
- Carrot 1
- Onion 1
- Salt, ground black pepper to taste
- Spices
- Black peppercorns 10–12
- Allspice berries 2–3
- Coriander seeds ½ tsp
- Cloves 1–2
- Bay leaves 2 + 2
- Optional
- Celery or parsley root 1
- Garlic 1–2 cloves
- Parsley 3–4 sprigs
- Lemon (for ukha with salmon or trout) ½
Step-by-step recipe
Broth with roots
Homemade ukha always brings back memories of fishing.
Pour 2 liters of water into a pot. While the water comes to a boil, add all the spices and a little salt.
For spices, we add 10–12 black peppercorns, 2–3 allspice berries and ½ tsp coriander seeds. Plus 1–2 cloves and 2 bay leaves.
Prepare the roots and onion. Peel the carrot and cut it into thick rounds, or just cut it in half. Add the celery root whole if it’s small. Or cut a piece off a large root. You can add parsley root, but carefully: it can make the soup a bit bitter. Peel the onion and cut a shallow cross into it, literally a quarter of the way down.
When the water boils, let the spices and roots simmer for 15 minutes.
Take out the celery and bay leaves.
Potatoes and fish
Drop the peeled potatoes, cut into 4–6 pieces, into the boiling water.
Throw out the boiled-soft onion. Add the garlic, lightly crushing the cloves with the flat of a knife. Cook the potatoes for 10–12 minutes.
Add the fish to the soup.
Usually the fish is heads and tails, unless you’ve specially saved something better for ukha. We end up with pike and zander leftovers. Well, sometimes we also buy trout and salmon soup packs. And the homemade ukha comes out rich.
By the way, if you’re making ukha with salmon or trout, add half a lemon, without squeezing it. Then take the lemon out and throw it away.
Cook the ukha for 15–20 minutes over low heat, so it barely simmers. Once the fish is in, homemade ukha will turn out better if you don’t stir it and don’t let it boil hard.
Seasoning
Then you can take out the carrot. Whether to leave the cooked carrot in the soup or not is up to you. Me, for one, I like the carrot. Season with salt and pepper to taste. At this stage you can add pieces of good raw fish to the ukha: zander, trout and so on. Once that fish is cooked, you can put a piece in each bowl.
Add finely chopped parsley. While the ukha is still boiling, add 2 more bay leaves. Take the ukha off the heat right away and let it stand for 10 minutes.
For the ultimate touch, you can splash about 50 g of vodka into the ukha. But vodka in ukha is for the outdoors. If you’re making it at home for the family, you probably shouldn’t. Then again, nobody’s stopping you from pouring a shot for anyone who wants one.
Serving
Take the fish out of the soup and put it on a separate plate.
Ladle the ukha into bowls and eat it with fresh bread.
Be sure to put salt and ground black pepper on the table.
Calories and macros
110 kcal
Serving ≈ 580 g
- Protein15 g57% of kcal
- Fat1 g6% of kcal
- Carbs10 g37% of kcal
100 g20 kcalProtein 2.6 gFat 0.1 gCarbs 1.7 g
Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.
To Get It Right
Which fish to use
Heads are just the thing for ukha: pike, zander, silver carp, or trout and salmon soup packs. A pack of a head and ribs doesn’t have much flesh, so if you want a heartier ukha, add a piece of fillet at the end.
No roots or spices
The bare minimum for ukha is fish, water and salt. You can skip the celery root and spices, so feel free to experiment. But without fish it definitely won’t work.
Millet or roe
If you have roe, carp roe for example, add it to the ukha: that’s the proper way. Too bad you don’t always have it. In that case people add a teaspoon of millet (5 g), as a stand-in of sorts.
Vodka is for fishing trips
Vodka goes into ukha on fishing trips: 50 g per 2 liters takes away the muddy smell of river fish, and once it boils the taste hardly changes. Out there they even put out a smoldering birch log in the ukha. At home it’s not needed at all, especially if kids are eating.
Have your own trick for this recipe?
Questions and answers
What goes into ukha first: potatoes or fish?
Potatoes. First the roots and spices simmer for 15 minutes, then the potatoes for 10–12 minutes, and only then the fish.
What water do you put the fish in for ukha?
The fish isn’t covered with cold water: it goes into the boiling broth with the roots and potatoes. For 1 kg of heads and tails, use 2 liters of water.
When do you salt ukha?
Twice: a little at the very start, into the water with the spices, and the final seasoning to taste once the fish is cooked.
How do you make ukha with salmon or trout?
The same way, from trout or salmon heads and tails, only with lemon: a quarter or half per 2 liters, unsqueezed. Take it out after 10–15 minutes, or the zest will make the soup bitter.