Lohikeitto: Finnish Salmon Soup
This hearty winter-warmer comes from the kitchen of Helsinki’s Sea Horse, where its Salmon Soup is one of the most popular items on the menu. Serving traditional Finnish cuisine, this restaurant is as authentic as they come, where a simple but cosy interior makes you feel as though you could be in some European dining room mid twentieth century. “Some of our dishes were on the menu in 1946,” says Sanna Korpel, restaurant manager of the Sea Horse. Hosting the likes of Chilean poet and Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda and French writer Jean-Paul Sartre, to this day, the Sea Horse continues to be a favourite haunt for artists.
“Boasting the likes of Chilean poet and Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda and French writer Jean-Paul Sartre, to this day, the Sea Horse continues to be a favourite haunt for artists.”
Emanating from a country with a harsh climate, salmon soup—or known to locals as lohikeitto—makes the most of its local landscape, where an abundance of salmon from local lakes take the place of fresh fruit and vegetables. Served with a side of rye bread—a staple within most Finnish homes—this dish encompasses the heartiness and simplicity of good old-fashioned Finnish comfort food; a perfect mixture of warming, smooth and fresh.
Salmon soup served in a Cone11 bowl. Photo by Beth Wilkinson for Lindsay.
Ingredients
6 potatoes
2 onions
800 ml water
10 allspice berries (whole)
1 bay leaf
1 tsp fish stock powder
400 g salmon fillet
200 ml cream
3 tbs dill
Rye bread (for serving)
Method
Serves: 4 / Skill level: Easy
1. Peel potatoes and onions and cut into cubes.
2. Boil potatoes and onions in water with spices and stock until almost cooked.
3. Remove the skin and pin bones from salmon fillet and cut into bite-sized pieces.
4. Add cream and salmon to the broth and simmer for approximately 5 minutes.
5. Garnish with dill and serve with rye bread.
Sea Horse is located at Kapteeninkatu 11, 00140 Helsinki, Finland.
Shop Lindsay in print
Issue No. 1
In Issue No. 1 we meet Australian fashion icon Jenny Kee, translator from Italian Ann Goldstein and French-Cuban music duo Ibeyi. We learn about Ramadan, the Aboriginal ball game Marngrook, the Kiribati dance, the art of pickling, and the importance of home. And we see what it’s like to dress up in Myanmar, live in Cuernavaca, make ceramics from different soil, and walk the streets of Florence.
Issue No. 2
In Issue No. 2 we meet New York-based Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, NASA astronaut Stephanie Wilson, and Croatian painter Stipe Nobilo. We discover how the French protect their language and the way women—all around the world—have used textiles as their political voice. We listen to lovers rock, prepare a boisterous Korean barbecue, venture to go to Feria de Jerez and eat our way around Hong Kong.
Issue No. 4
In Issue No. 4 we meet Nigerian-born artist Toyin Ojih Odutola, Indigenous Australian Elders Uncle Bob Smith and Aunty Caroline Bradshaw, and Palestinian-American chef and artist Amanny Ahmad. We peer inside the Parisian ateliers Lesage and Lemarié, muse over the iconic lines of European chair design and celebrate the colourful woodblock prints of Japanese artist Awazu Kiyoshi. And we venture along Morocco’s Honey Highway, get lost in the markets of Oaxaca and discover the favours of Ghana.
Issue No. 5
In Issue No. 5 we travel to the mountains with Etel Adnan, along coastlines wherever waves roll in, and then all over the world through the photographic archive of Lindsay James Stanger. We celebrate hair braiding in South Africa, Salasacan weaving techniques in Ecuador, Vedic jewellery traditions and the new sound of Ukraine. We meet artist Cassi Namoda, choreographer Yang Liping and lace-maker Mark Klauber. And we visit a bakery in Tel Aviv, discover the joys of making arak, and spend a summer stretching mozzarella in Italy.