If you have access to a variety of types of fresh seafood and are looking to make a delicious a delicious fish soup at home, consider this version with fresh shrimp, clams, mussels, and flaked cod. The soup is also flavored with smoked paprika, saffron, white wine, onions, tomato puree, and some fresh parsley.
Healthy Mediterranean-Inspired Soup with Shrimp, Clams, Mussels, and Cod
If you have access to a variety of types of fresh seafood and are looking to make a delicious a delicious fish soup at home, consider this version with fresh shrimp, clams, mussels, and flaked cod. The soup is also flavored with smoked paprika, saffron, white wine, onions, tomato puree, and some fresh parsley.
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion, small dice
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- ½ tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 cup of tomato puree
- ½ cup white wine
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 2 Tbsp capers
- 10 kalamata olives, cut in half
- 1 tsp saffron threads
- 2 bay leaves
- ¼ tsp freshly-ground black pepper
- 2 tsp kosher salt, or more to taste
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 16 oz peeled and de-veined shrimp
- 16 oz clams, cleaned
- 16 oz mussels, cleaned
- 16 oz cod fillet, or any white fish of choice
- ¼ cup fresh parsley, roughly chopped
- Juice of ½ of a lemon, optional, to serve with soup
- A drizzle of olive oil, to garnish each both of soup
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a medium-sized soup pot over medium heat.
- Add the diced onion and cook for about 12 minutes, or until the onion is completely tender.
- Add the minced garlic, smoked paprika, cumin, and red pepper flakes, and cook for an additional minute.
- Add the tomato puree and white wine, and bring the contents to a simmer.
- Cook for about 20 minutes, or until all the wine is cooked off and the first set of ingredients have had a chance to get know each other in the pot.
- Add the vegetable broth, capers, olives, saffron threads, bay leaves, black pepper, and salt, and stir to combine.
- Taste, and add more Kosher salt and black pepper, if desired.
- Bring the mixture to a simmer, and reduce the heat to low and simmer for an additional 30 minutes.
- In a separate saute pan, add 2 Tbsp of olive oil and increase the heat to high.
- Dry off the shrimp and the cod with paper towels.
- Before the oil is smoking, add the shrimp and cook for about 2 minutes, or until the shrimp is almost completely cooked through.
- Right before the shrimp is fully cooked, remove from the saute pan and let rest on a plate.
- Turn off the heat, and deglaze the saute pan with a Tablespoon or two of white wine.
- Add the cod or white fish of choice to the pan, with a little more olive oil, and increase the heat to medium.
- Cook the white fish gently, until it is barely cooked through but still very tender.
- Remove the fish from the pan and allow to rest on a plate off the heat, with the shrimp.
- Turn off the heat, add another few Tablespoons of white wine to the saute pan, and deglaze the pan.
- Finally, add the mussels to the skillet and cook for about 4 minutes, or until the mussels are fully opened.
- Remove the cooked mussels from the pan and set them aside, with the water they released.
- Strain the water that the mussels released using a fine mesh strainer, and add that liquid to the soup base that you made earlier that you have simmering on the stove in the soup pot.
- Add the clams to the saute pan, and cook until they have fully opened.
- Strain the water that the clams released using a fine mesh strainer into the soup base.
- Turn off the heat for the soup and stir in the fresh parsley.
- Serve the soup broth into warmed bowls.
- Into each hot bowl of soup broth, add some cooked shrimp, cooked cod, mussels, and clams.
- Top each bowl with a little bit of the remaining fresh parsley, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, and drizzle of olive oil.
- Serve this soup hot, as soon as you can once the shellfish are done cooking.
- Serve with a bottle of red wine and toasted slices of buttered, crusty, warm bread to dip into the soup as you eat.
Notes
Because of the clams and mussels, I prefer to eat this soup right after I cook the shellfish. However, if I am going to eat the soup for a few days in a row, sometimes I will add a small amount of seafood to the warm soup base, eat all the seafood that night with some of the broth, and save the remaining broth for use the following night, where I cook more seafood fresh, and eat it all that night.