French Fish Soup
With Saffron
If you love French food but don't like how fattening it can be, try this French fish soup with saffron. It is loaded with flavour and has real pizzazz - and yet it is also light.
I have spent a fair amount of time in France – half a year in Paris, a winter in rural Provence, a summer high up in the French mountains and a couple of autumns picking grapes in Alsace.
I’ve always said that I will believe there is a heaven if, when I die, I find that my afterlife will be spent in a French bakery.
What I’m not so fond of is the cream- and butter-rich part of the French cuisine. This soup, though, is a perfect example of how it’s possible to cook something that is filling, bursting with flavour, and yet light.
French fish soup is often served with “rouille”, a yummy but calorie-laden kind of mayonnaise, grated cheese and toasted pieces of bread. Take away these toppings and you’ve got a healthy and - if you follow my recipe below - still mega-tasty soup.
Serves 4 as a main course:
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 small fennel bulb - shoots and root cut off, tough outer layer removed, halved; tough bottom core cut out from each half and then sliced finely
1 medium-sized carrot, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves finely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
300ml, 10floz, 1.3 cup, white wine (use a decent wine that you would be happy to drink as well)
1 sachet, 4g, 1 heaped teaspoon, of saffron threads
4 tablespoons tomato purée
1 litre, 1¾ pints, 4½ cups, fish stock
Salt and pepper
500g, 1lb 2oz, white fish, such as haddock, plaice, cod - but any white fish will do, cut into large pieces
Optional – grated Parmesan cheese
1. Start by soaking the saffron in the white wine. Fry the onion, fennel and carrot in the olive oil in a large pot over a medium heat for 5 minutes, until the vegetables start to soften. Keep stirring to make sure the vegetables don’t burn.
2. Add the garlic and cayenne pepper, stir and fry for another minute. Add the white wine and saffron to the pot and bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 4-5 minutes, until the wine has reduced by half.
3. Add the tomato purée, the stock and season with salt and pepper, stir and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for a 5 minutes. Add the fish, bring back to a simmer and simmer for a further 5 minutes.
4. Let the soup cool down to room temperature before whizzing the soup in a blender – or use a stick blender in the pot. Reheat and check the seasoning.
This French fish soup is very tasty on its own but sprinkling over some grated Parmesan cheese is not going to add many calories and will enhance the flavour even more.
I like to serve it with toasted sourdough bread topped with tomatoes, garlic and parsley, and a salad consisting of mixed lettuce leaves and avocado. I’ll sprinkle a bit of olive oil and some really decent balsamic vinegar over the salad and – voilà! - you’ve got a meal so massively super-tasty it’s hard to believe that it’s also incredibly nutritious and quite light.
“So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.” Franz Kafka
Get delicious and nutritious tips and tidbits in my monthly Newsletter. You will get time-saving cooking tips, ideas for how to make your diet more nutritious and flavourful recipes.
Subscribe today and you will get an instant download to my Ebook “A Tasty Way to Salsa, Dips & Sauces” which includes new recipes which are exclusive to this Ebook and not on my website.
Click on Tasty & Healthy Nuggets to subscribe..
Useful Information
Recipes
Additionals
A Tasty & Easy Way to Healthy Eating
This ebook is filled with a combination of healthy ingredients, lots of flavour and a quick way from stove to plate. A combination to make it as easy and tasty as possible for you to have a healthy diet.