The way I remember a particular dish is by what was happening when I made it. In my mind, this will always be the soup of seven phone calls.
It was a chilly day a couple weeks ago (we had a cold front blow in that brought temps in the 50’s and 60’s with it…sounds strange for this time of year, but it really is par for the course with our crazy Upstate New York weather…and now we’ve had temps in the 80’s/90’s for the past few days!) when I made this soup, start to finish, without a single call. I set up my styling, plated my soup, and positioned my camera. I was about to take the first picture when the phone rang.
It was someone calling for Marco’s Styling Salon, a hair salon down the street. Their phone number is one digit away from mine and I get wrong numbers from their clients all the time. Ok, that only took a second, back to work. Not two minutes later the phone rang again. It was a friend who needed life advice. I’m not one to turn away a friend in need, so we talked it out. Once we hung up, about five minutes went by and one of Marco’s clients called again. (Darn it, Marco…I’m about to start scheduling appointments and charging you for secretarial services, lol!)
It went on like this the entire time I was trying to photograph this soup…I got four more calls in the time span of about an hour. And then, of course, once I finished photographing, the phone was silent until the next day.
The great thing about this bisque is that it only uses three tablespoons of cream; most of its rich, creamy texture comes from pureeing a mix of veggies. The flavor is brightened with fresh lemon, thyme and chives. If you have picky eaters who don’t like salmon, this soup is perfect because the soup gets topped with salmon flakes, so just leave it off for people who don’t like it…more for those of us who like salmon. ;)
A Note on Cooking the Salmon: You can basically cook the salmon any way you like for this dish; grilling, poaching (see this post for instructions on how to poach salmon), pan-searing, broiling, or baking all work fine. I like to pan-sear the fish since it’s quick and gives it bit of color on the outside; here’s how to do it: lightly coat the bottom of a nonstick skillet with olive oil; heat the skillet over medium-high heat; season the salmon with salt and pepper and add the salmon when the oil ripples; cook the fish until golden on both sides, flipping once (about 2 to 4 minutes per side, depending how big your fillets are); put a lid on the skillet, turn off the heat, and leave it for 3 minutes to steam the inside of the fish.
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 1 medium-large onion, chopped
- 2 large carrots, chopped
- 2 large stalks celery, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme leaves (or 1 teaspoon dried thyme)
- 2 bay leaves
- ¼ cup dry white wine
- 5 cups low-sodium fish, chicken, or vegetable stock
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 3 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1 lb wild salmon fillets, cooked and flaked
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh chives, for garnish
- Heat the butter and oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat; add the onion, carrot, and celery and cook until starting to soften and brown in spots, about 7 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic, thyme, and bay leaves and cook 1 minute more, stirring constantly. Turn the heat up to high, add the wine, and cook until evaporated, about 3 to 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the stock, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, paprika, salt, and pepper; bring to a boil, then turn heat down to low and simmer until veggies are very tender, about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn off heat and cool slightly.
- Remove the bay leaves. Transfer half the soup to a blender and puree until smooth (take out the cap in the center of the lid and place a kitchen towel over the hole so steam can escape as you puree the soup); puree the other half of the soup the same way. Add the soup back to the saucepan along with the lemon juice and heavy cream; cook a couple minutes over low heat until warm throughout, stirring constantly (do not let it boil).
- Transfer the soup to serving bowls; top with the flaked salmon and chives and serve immediately.
I’m Faith Gorsky, the writer, cook, and photographer behind An Edible Mosaic. My goal is to inspire you to get in the kitchen and try something new! Feel free to 
I improvised a little, adding red pepper and an extra carrot to try and make it sweeter for my daughter, and after I started I realized I was out of salmon, so I used mahi. I pureed half the fish into the soup and half as chunks for the adults. My husband and I loved it, but my daughter wasn’t sold. I am determined to get her to eat fish somehow! Thanks for the great recipe.
Hi Faith. I hope you get comments sent to your inbox because I know it’s been a few years since you’ve created this recipe. I am thinking of making it in the next couple days — hoping to get by 16 month old to love seafood like her parents do! She won’t eat it on its own, but I think pureed with sweet veggies she would. Two quick questions – 1. Have you tried actually pureeing the salmon with the soup? She won’t eat the chunks! 2. Could I use whole milk instead of cream? Not sure what I would do with the rest of the container if I’m only using 3 Tbsp.
Thanks so much, this looks fantastic!
Andrea, I hope you and your little one enjoy this recipe! I haven’t tried pureeing the salmon because I like the texture, but I think it should work fine. Yes, you can use whole milk instead of cream. Enjoy! :)
This is the best Salmon Bisque. Made just like the recipe said. Since living in Alaska, we have a freezer full of salmon, so I added a huge amount of cooked salmon add the end. Very excellent.
I sort of made your bisque tonight. In the middle of it I found out I had no carrots or celery.
I forgot to add the paprika and thyme. It’s hard to cook while recovery from the flu and entertaining your brother and his best friend. Also, I misread and thought it said a cup and a forth white wine. Oops. It took a long long time to cook down. Ut it did give me a chance to lie down and close my eyes.
All and all even though I messed up I thought it tasted good. Hubby has been asking for salamon bisque for over a year and I thought we had to eat out to have it. I never thought I could make it. Thanks for posting the recipe.
You can always use an immersion blender instead of having to pour everything into the regular blender. I’m sure it would work like a charm!
This looks GORGEOUS. I love any types of bisques! I might be making this this weekend!! :) question: where did you get those bowls?? Been looking for cute soup bowls. They look like crate & barrel ones..
Thanks so much, Julie! I’m sorry I won’t be very helpful on the bowls – I got them at a local secondhand store and they aren’t marked. But you’re right, they do look similar to Crate & Barrel!
I just made this tonight. I modified it by adding salmon and shrimp before the blender, then adding lots of chopped salmon, shrimp, and crab lastly. My only suggestion is to hold on to the lid of the blender TIGHT! i didn’t and the force of the ingredients shot out the side of my lid, resulting in some minor burns on my arm…and a lot of bisque all over my kitchen, lol! I asn’t able to puree it as much as i wanted but the flavor was still really good.
Laura, Oh no, I hope you’re ok!! Yes, definitely be very careful when you’re pureeing something hot – this is why I recommend pureeing in batches, I find it works much better. I’m happy you enjoyed the bisque though!
I could live on salmon but I generally have it grilled or sautéed ~ love this idea to use it in a bisque!
Gorgeous bisque! And that is too funny about the hair salon…you may need to start charging :)
I love bisque, but haven’t made it at home yet. This looks easy and really delicious!
I think you should ask Marco to hire you as his call center to arrange his appointments of course with payment, lol. Although I eat salmon very often I have never thought of making it a soup. I am keeping this to try in colder days because now the weather here has reached 38 degrees C.
That looks delicious and i love salmon!
I love a good rich soup! This looks delicious!
You have no idea how much this bisque is speaking to me. It looks so delish. I can practically smell it through the screen – and I have a big stinkin’ cold, so that’s saying something! Immediate bookmarking and pinteresting
I’ve never heard of Salmon Bisque before…looks wonderful!
Seems like the salmon was no worse for the interruptions! The bisque looks so creamy delicious!
I have salmon at least once a week and make it umpteen different ways. Yet, never once has it occurred to me to make a soup out of it. This sounds delicious and with just 3 tablespoons of cream isn’t bad. Plus it looks very pretty.
Thank you for sharing this recipe. I will definitely try this.
I love the color of this soup. Perfect for a chilly summer day.
The soup must be very tasty!
That looks amazing! I love salmon, and I love lobster bisque, so I’m not sure why I haven’t thought about combing the two. Also sounds very simple to make. Yum!
Delish! I love salmon!
Salmon Bisque, seriously brilliant!
And funny, I totally remember a lot of dishes/recipes by what was going on around me…
I think the only bisque I’ve ever had is lobster. This salmon one looks quite unique and interesting!
This looks perfect! I have never had bisque before, but this makes me VERY hungry, I should give it a try!
that is one beautiful bisque! looks incredible!
We must eat salmon at least once a week these days, and I’ve never tried it this way, the flavors in the bisque sound wonderful!
Oh! I never had salmon bisque, this one that you are featuring looks delicious, so creamy and full of flavors. Love it!
Hope you are enjoying your week Faith :)
That looks like a delicious Salmon Bisque. I really love the rich color!
YUM! I love that there’s just a hint of cream, but it looks so thick and rich! All those veggies in there…I bet you can trick the veggie haters with this :)
Wonderful! This bisque must taste just heavenly.
Cheers,
Rosa