Fiskesuppe – Creamy Norwegian Fish Soup

Since I was a little kid fiskesuppe (fish soup) has been one of my favorite Norwegian dishes. My Norwegian grandmother shared her recipe with my mother, and she would make it at home in the US as well. So of course when I moved to Norway as an adult fiskesuppe was already a staple in my repertoire.

Fish soup is a Norwegian favorite, and there are so many different versions here. Some are quite complex with lots of ingredients (maybe I’ll share one of those in the future), but this fish soup is simple and easy to whip up on a random Tuesday night. And of course living in Bergen, I eat fish soup at least once a week.

I learned how to make fish soup from my Norwegian mom and grandmother, but I’ve also made my own tweaks to their recipe over the years. My Norwegian grandmother always added crème fraîche or sour cream (whichever she had on hand) to her fiskesuppe and it made her fish soup so creamy and delicious.

I take a lot of road trips around Norway for work, and this fish soup is one of my favorite meals to make while I’m traveling, if I’m staying somewhere with a kitchen. It’s easy to pull together and doesn’t require too many ingredients. It’s such a cosy meal both in the winter and summer, and I like that you can load it with lots of different vegetables.

Tips

If I’m not making my own fish stock I simply use fish stock cubes. If your local grocery store doesn’t have them, you can buy fish stock cubes on Amazon here. Shrimp bouillon cubes also work great for this.

If you want a thicker soup, add a bit more flour. Whisk the flour into the melted butter as soon as the garlic starts to turn golden, as you don’t want the garlic to burn. I always travel with a small ziplock bag of flour to use when making soups and sauces.

You can also use cornstarch instead of flour. Mix it in with the milk instead of butter and pour it into the soup.

You can use whatever vegetables you like, or happen to have in the fridge. I always include potatoes, carrots, and leek, and then if I have any other vegetables in the fridge I might throw them in as well. Frozen vegetables also work well in this, and you don’t have to defrost them first.

You can chop the vegetables into cubes if you prefer, but the typical Norwegian way is to cut them into thin strips. This is really one of the main distinct features of Norwegian fish soup, so it would be a bit strange for me to eat fiskesuppe with cubed vegetables. Plus this means they cook more quickly!

You can make this with any type of fish fillet, except herring. I usually use cod or salmon – or both! Having a couple different types of fish in the fiskesuppe adds more depth to the flavor here.

I often make this soup with frozen fish, but I do try to take the time to defrost the fish at least a bit so that it’s easier to cut (frozen cod is like a block of ice).

I do sometimes use sour cream instead of crème fraîche. You can also skip the crème fraîche altogether, though personally I think it adds a really nice flavor to the soup so I try to always include it.

The same goes for the shrimp – they’re totally optional, but I definitely think they enhance the fiskesuppe. If you order fiskesuppe in Norway it will almost always come with shrimp. And you can get creative with adding other seafood like crab legs, scallops, or even clams. You’ll often see a fun variety of seafood used in fish soup in Norwegian restaurants, based on the day’s catch and seasonal availability.

I usually top my soup with fresh chives, but dill and parsley also work great.

You can switch the recipe from US measurements to metric by clicking from “US Customary” to “Metric” under Ingredients.