Vissoep (Dutch Fish Soup)

Name: Vissoep (Dutch Fish Soup)
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 75 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Dutch
Ingredients: 500 g white fish bones and heads; 1.5 litres water; 1 onion; 1 leek; 1 fennel or celery; 1 strip of lemon peel; 1 tbsp olive oil; 1 leek; 1 fennel bulb; 2 tomatoes; 1 pinch saffron; 400 g firm white fish; 150 g Hollandse garnalen; 2 tbsp parsley or dill; to taste salt, pepper and lemon

Vissoep

A North Sea fish soup — a stock built from bones and shells, then chunks of white fish and shrimp poached in a light saffron-tinged, tomato-touched broth.

IVSoups

Prep: 30 min
Cook: 45 min
Serves: 4
Level: Intermediate

The Dutch coast has always eaten from the sea, and a vissoep is what a coastal kitchen makes with the day's catch and the trimmings a fishmonger would otherwise throw away. Zeeland, with its islands and its long fishing tradition, is a natural home for it: a light, clean broth built from bones and aromatics, then filled with chunks of North Sea white fish and the small, sweet brown shrimp the region is known for.

Built from what the sea gives

There is nothing grand about the origins here. Fish soup is frugal cooking, a way to turn heads, bones and odd bits into something whole. The nineteenth-century fishing communities of the Dutch coast lived close to that logic, and the soup reflects it — the stock is the star, drawn quickly from bones that would otherwise be waste, and the fish itself is added almost as garnish.

A fish soup is only as good as the stock beneath it, and the stock is only bones, water, and twenty careful minutes.

Two matters of timing

Everything delicate in this soup is governed by the clock. Fish bones give a sweet, clean stock in about twenty minutes and a bitter one if left longer, so the stock is drawn fast. And the fish and shrimp go in late and gently — white fish poached just to opacity, brown shrimp barely warmed, both kept well below a boil so they stay whole and tender rather than breaking into threads.

Keep it light, let a pinch of saffron and a little tomato tint the broth, and finish with lemon and herbs. It should taste of the sea, not of the kitchen.

From the kitchen

“Simmer fish bones no longer than 20 minutes — past that they turn the stock bitter rather than sweet.”

Ingredients

Serves 4

The fish stock

500 gwhite fish bones and heads — gills removed, rinsed
1.5 litreswater
1onion — halved
1leek — green top
1fennel or celery — sliced
1strip of lemon peel

The soup

1 tbspolive oil
1leek — white part, sliced
1fennel bulb — diced
2tomatoes — peeled and diced, or 1 tbsp purée
1 pinchsaffron — optional
400 gfirm white fish — cod, haddock or pollock, cubed
150 gHollandse garnalen — peeled brown shrimp

To finish

2 tbspparsley or dill — chopped
to tastesalt, pepper and lemon

Method

1
Draw a quick fish stock
Rinse the bones well and simmer them with the water, onion, leek top, fennel and lemon peel for just 20 minutes — no longer, as fish bones turn bitter with over-cooking. Strain and reserve; this fast, fresh stock is the heart of the soup.
2
Soften the base
Warm the oil and gently sweat the sliced leek and diced fennel until soft and sweet, without colouring. Add the tomatoes and cook a few minutes to a light pulp — this aromatic base gives the broth its rounded body.
3
Build the broth
Pour in the strained fish stock and add the saffron if using. Simmer 10 minutes to marry the flavours and let the saffron bloom, then taste and season, remembering the shrimp will add their own salt at the end.
4
Poach the fish gently
Slip the cubed white fish into the barely simmering broth and poach 4 to 5 minutes, just until it turns opaque and flakes. Keep the heat low; a hard boil breaks delicate fish into shreds and clouds the soup.
5
Finish with shrimp
Add the brown shrimp only at the very end, off the boil, to warm through — they are usually already cooked and toughen instantly with heat. Sharpen with lemon, scatter with herbs, and serve with good bread.

In the kitchen

The tools that make this recipe easier.

WorthwhileFish / filleting knife ↗
Thin flexible blade for herring, mackerel, and eel.

With the soup

A bowl of snert is a meal — but the trimmings make it Dutch.

Roggebrood met spek — rye bread with a slab of bacon
Katenspek — smoked cured bacon on the side
Mustard — a dab of coarse mustard on the rye

How a Dutch meal is built →

Questions from the kitchen

What fish should I use?+

A firm white fish that holds together — cod, haddock, pollock or coley — is ideal, and the brown shrimp (Hollandse garnalen) of the North Sea are the classic Dutch finish. Avoid very soft fish, which disintegrates.

Can I skip making the stock?+

A good fishmonger's stock or a fish fumet works if you are short of time. But a stock drawn from fresh bones and heads, simmered briefly, gives a cleaner, sweeter broth that is worth the extra half hour.

Why did my fish fall apart?+

It boiled or cooked too long. White fish needs only a few minutes at a bare simmer to turn opaque; cut it in generous cubes, add it late, and keep the broth below a boil.