Greek Fish Soup

For the past 4 days I have been fighting off a sore throat. After a week of teaching I woke up on Sunday with congestion and a cough….the sore throat won and brought along some friends to join the party.

Anytime I have this type of thing happen I immediately think SOUP, must have all the SOUP! So I got right to it and made a chicken and fish soup.

There are many reasons why soup feels so good when you aren’t:

1. The heat and steam from the soup can help open nasal passages.

2. The saltiness can help ease the pain of a sore throat.

3. The nutrients from boiling the bones can help speed up recovery.

4. Because it is lighter and easier to digest it is less taxing on the system.

Here is how I made my fish soup.

What I used:

2 whole branzinos cleaned with the head on (2-3 lbs total)

About 7 cups of water

1 bay leaf

6 peppercorns

1t salt

1 large onion, diced

4 medium potatoes, cut into inch squares

2 large carrots, chopped

1 stalk of celery, chopped

1 egg yolk

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 T olive oil

1/2 cup lemon juice or to taste

What I did:

In a large pot I placed the first 5 ingredients (fish through salt) and brought to a boil then simmered for 35 minutes (make sure the water covers the fish). While the fish was simmering I chopped and got all the veggies ready. I strained the fish stock into another pot and added the veggies back to the stock and cooked that for about 15 minutes or until the potatoes are soft. I then cleaned all of the meat off the fish bones. This is a tedious process because the bones are so fine. Once the veggies were done I then added the fish meat back into the stock. In a small bowl I mixed the egg yolk, lemon and olive oil. I then added about 1/2 cup of the hot broth while whisking to prevent the egg from solidifying too quickly. Then I added that mixture back into the soup while constantly stirring.

Since I like a very lemony soup I added about another 1/2 cup of lemon juice.

This will keep in the fridge for about 5 days and it honestly gets better as the days go on. I hope you try this recipe and not just when you’re sick.

Let me know what you think!