Fish Chowder
with butter lettuce salad
Fish cooks fast, making this an easy and speedy soup to start off the week. For added flavor and richness, it includes classic chowder ingredients - bacon and cream. This recipe was last featured in 2020.
Ingredients
- Bacon - 4 strips, chopped
- Leeks - 2, thinly sliced
- Chives - 1 Tbsp, chopped
- Potatoes, Yukon gold or baby yellow potatoes - 8 oz, cubed
- Fish, any white variety - 1 lb, chopped into bite-sized pieces
- Bay leaf - 1
- Paprika, smoked - 1 tsp
- Old bay seasoning (opt) - 1 tsp
- Salt - 1/2 tsp
- White wine - 1/2 cup (sub stock)
- Stock, any type - 4 cups
- Heavy cream - 1/2 cup
- Oyster crackers (opt) - for serving
- Vinegar, apple cider - 1 Tbsp
- Mustard, Dijon - 2 tsp
- Honey - 1/2 tsp
- Oil, olive - 2 1/2 Tbsp
- Cucumbers - 6 oz, cubed
- Butter lettuce - 8 oz, leaves chopped or torn
Nutrition Facts
Prep
- Bacon / Leeks - Prep as directed. Store separately. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Make vinaigrette - Whisk together vinegar, mustard, and honey. Add olive oil while whisking. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Chives / Potatoes / Cucumbers / Lettuce - Prep as directed.
- Fish - Chop into bite-sized pieces. Pat dry and season with some salt and pepper.
Unlock this meal along with hundreds of smart meal plans and never stress about "What's for dinner?" again
Try for freeLearn More
Make
- Heat a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add bacon and fry, stirring occasionally, until bacon is crisp, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer bacon to a paper towel-lined plate.
- Drain all but 1 Tbsp / 15 mL of bacon grease out of the pan. Return pan to medium heat.
- To heated pan add leeks and bay leaves. Saute until leeks are very tender, ~5 minutes.
- Add paprika, Old Bay (if using), and salt. Cook for 1 minute more.
- Add wine, stock, and potatoes and return to a simmer. Cover and simmer until potatoes are tender, 10 to 15 minutes. (Note: Adjust heat as needed to keep the liquid simmering gently but not bubbling over.)
- When potatoes are tender, remove and discard bay leaves.
- If you’d like a thicker soup, use an immersion blender to blend a small portion of the soup and potatoes. (The blended potatoes will serve as a natural thickener.)
- Add fish and simmer until fish is cooked through, ~5 minutes more.
- Remove soup from heat and stir in cream. Taste and season with some salt and pepper.
- When soup is ready to serve, toss cucumbers and lettuce in vinaigrette. Finish salad with some black pepper.
- Serve soup with chives, bacon, and crackers (if using). Enjoy salad on the side.
Nutrition Facts
Reviews
Ratings
Most Helpful
Delicious, indulgent (more in feeing than in actual content) and special: we loved this chowder and the relatively simple salad. Note: We’re a semi-pescatarian house, so we replaced the bacon with sautéed onions doused in smoked paprika with a little dash of tamari.
1 Helpful23 reviews
YUM! The former Marylander in me was happy to see Old Bay in this recipe. We used frozen haddock for this which worked well. We don't eat bacon so we cooked finely chopped mushrooms down until they resembled crispy bits. That worked well. We also omitted the heavy cream and it was still so delicious and satisfying. Blended half of the soup and left about half of the potato chunks which made it feel creamy.
0 Helpfulactually a mix of paleo and original. added some cauliflower mix leek and yellow onion. added noth hot and regular smoked paprika for domr sting and finished off with lactosfree light creme fraiche, like Smetana. Easy to make snf delicious!
0 HelpfulMade as directed. Used cod and had to sub stock instead of wine. Loved the vinaigrette. Delicious!
0 HelpfulDelicious, indulgent (more in feeing than in actual content) and special: we loved this chowder and the relatively simple salad. Note: We’re a semi-pescatarian house, so we replaced the bacon with sautéed onions doused in smoked paprika with a little dash of tamari.
1 Helpful