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Easy and Quick Asian Ginger Fish Soup

written by Marvellina Updated: March 3, 2021
21.7K
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Easy and Quick Asian Ginger Fish Soup-Learn how to make a delicious quick and flavorful fish soup that will quickly become your weekly staple. Loaded with flavors.

Easy and Quick Asian Fish Soup

Easy and Quick Asian Fish Soup

SIMPLE FISH SOUP RECIPE

Easy and quick Asian fish soup is exactly as it sounds. I just named it Asian fish soup, because it’s not particularly specific to any country, but the recipe does call for common Southeast Asian ingredient such as fish sauce. It is one of our family favorites. My daughter loves sole fish fillet because they are so tender and melt in your mouth when you eat them. The base of this soup is incredibly easy to build as well. If you have fish stocks, great, you can use that to make this soup. I didn’t and I just use water and it still turns out so delicious.
Easy and Quick Asian Fish Soup

WHAT KIND OF FISH CAN I USE IN THIS RECIPE?

Any white fish fillet would be suitable for this recipe. I have used sole and swai fillet before. You can use fish like cod, cat fish, tilapia, just to name a few.

WHY YOU’LL LIKE THIS FISH SOUP

First of all, it’s really easy and it feeds the whole family. This soup is highly addicting. We love it!!! so much! It looks red because of the tomatoes not because it is deadly spicy 😉 This soup has just the right balance of savory, hint of sweetness and slightly tart (from the lime juice). When you taste it, it reminds you of typical Southeast Asian food: sweet, salty, sour. It can be made spicy too by adding some bird’s eye chili when you process the aromatics in food processor.
Easy and Quick Asian Fish Soup

HOW TO MAKE THIS SUPER EASY FLAVORFUL ASIAN FISH SOUP

1. Cut the fish into large chunks (about 3-inch chunks)
Don’t cut any smaller than that or they will break apart in the soup
Easy and Quick Asian Fish Soup
2. Marinate the fish slices
Marinate with some cornstarch and fish sauce for 15 minutes. Some of you have asked do I need the cornstarch? My mom likes to do this with meat and fish because the cornstarch helps to give that smooth texture and helps to tenderize the flesh a bit. You can skip the cornstarch if you don’t want to
Easy and Quick Asian Fish Soup
3. Place aromatics in food processor to finely chop them or you can do it by hands too
Easy and Quick Asian Fish Soup
4. Preheat a large heavy-bottom pot. Add cooking oil. Saute the aromatics over medium heat until aromatics, about 5 minutes
Easy and Quick Asian Fish Soup
5. Pour in chicken stock and bring to a boil. Scrape the bottom of the pot to loosen any bits that got stuck earlier
Easy and Quick Asian Fish Soup
6. Add celery (if using) and tomatoes and cook for about 10 minutes
Easy and Quick Asian Fish Soup
7. Add the fish slices and lime juice and cook until the fish slices are cooked through
Easy and Quick Asian Fish Soup
8. Have a final taste and add more fish sauce to your taste if needed. Remove from the heat. Garnish with fresh chopped cilantro leaves
Easy and Quick Asian Fish Soup

Final product will look like this.
Easy and Quick Asian Fish Soup

WHAT TO SERVE WITH THIS FISH SOUP

You can serve this with a bowl of plain white rice/brown rice, cooked quinoa. This is perfect to serve with rice noodles, bean thread noodles too. Just cook the noodles separately and then ladle the soup and fish slices over the noodles. There you have it, Asian Fish Soup with Noodles. My kids love it with bean thread noodles.

Easy and Quick Asian Fish Soup

Easy and Quick Asian Fish Soup

Easy and Quick Asian Fish Soup

Easy and Quick Asian Fish Soup

Easy and Quick Asian Fish Soup

Easy and Quick Asian Ginger Fish Soup

Prep Time 5 minutes mins
Cook Time 20 minutes mins
Total Time 25 minutes mins
Servings 4 servings
5 from 10 reviews
REVIEW & RATE PRINT

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs Swai fillet or sole fillet cut into large chunks
  • 1 Tbsp cooking oil
  • 6 cups chicken stock
  • 4 Roma tomatoes seeded and diced
  • 2 cups chopped celery optional

Seasonings:

  • 2 Tbsp Fish sauce or more to taste
  • 2 tsp sugar

Aromatics:

  • 5 shallots finely chopped
  • 2 inch piece of ginger grated
  • 2 cloves garlic finely chopped

Marinade:

  • 1 Tbsp cornstarch
  • 1 tsp fish sauce

Just before serving the soup:

  • 1 stalk green onion finely chopped
  • Cilantro leaves
  • 2 fresh limes optional

Instructions
 

  • Place the fish fillet in a large mixing bowl. Add cornstarch and fish sauce and use a clean hand to toss the fish to let the cornstarch and fish sauce coat the fillet pieces. Set aside while you prepare the other things

Cooking:

  • Preheat a large heavy-bottom pot with some oil. Add the chopped ginger, garlic, shallots and saute over medium heat for about 2-3 minutes. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add celery if using (I didn't use in the video).Then lower the heat and let it simmer for about 15 minutes until the celery are soft. You can prepare ahead up to this point
  • When ready to serve the fish soup, bring the soup back to a gentle simmer and add the tomatoes, and the fish fillet. The fish is easily flaked if it's cooked through, if not, let it cook a bit longer. Do not overcook the fish. Have a taste and add more fish sauce to your taste if needed. Remove from the heat
  • Ladle soup into serving bowl (family style) or individual serving bowl, and garnish with cilantro and green onion just before serving and a squeeze of lime juice if you like
Did you make this recipe?Let me know how you like this recipe and consider rating it! Tag me @whattocooktoday I'd love to see your photos/videos on Instagram
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26 comments

Salika June 7, 2013 - 4:02 pm

I was born in tebing tinggi… I sure you know where it is… We only separated by city ^^
But at aged 7, we moved and stay in jakarta, but i’m pretty familiar with medanese food and love it so much… 🙂
Specially those ak bihon… It’s my weekend breakfast 😀

Are your parents in US too??

I think we can be a friend and share many thing ^^
Feel free send me a private email at [email protected]

Reply
Salika June 5, 2013 - 9:23 pm

They said that because i ‘m in the north side of china, im in Dalian… People in here are are mo influence by Rusia, Korea and Japan.

it will be a little diffrent if im in southern side like in shanghai or quangchou… There a big city and more simmiliar like Singapore ^^

I always remember the first time i went to the market… All kind of food are very diffrent 😀

Reply
What To Cook Today June 6, 2013 - 4:24 pm

Ahh…that’s probably why. Thanks for sharing, I didn’t know that too. I just assume that you are an Indonesian then ? which part of Indonesia are you from ? I’m from Medan, North Sumatra

Reply
Salika June 5, 2013 - 1:53 am

Hahaha actually i’m in china right now.

Finding a chinese ingredient for ak bihon will be quite easy..

But find something like coconut milk, and western herb it’s really challenging… Specially tha everything in here are in chinese character….
I even cooking with the diffrent kind of vegetables from the real recipe ^^

Fortunately my husband and my 3 years old daughter are no choosy…they eat anything.. :))

Reply
What To Cook Today June 5, 2013 - 9:56 am

I see. That’s good that they aren’t picky. The Chinese doesn’t use coconut milk as much as we do in Southeast Asia 🙂

Reply
Salika June 3, 2013 - 4:19 pm

Ooo how i miss all indonesian food that you post… Specially those ak bihon ^^

I not in Indonesia now, so it quite difficult to find some of the ingredient… It’s a challenge to find it from now…

Thank you 😡

Reply
What To Cook Today June 3, 2013 - 4:24 pm

Hi Salika. Yes, it can be challenging to find the spices and herbs especially. Where are you ? if you don’t mind me asking. Online grocery shopping might work 🙂

Reply
Henny March 26, 2013 - 12:31 pm

Looks yummy. Will try out this recipe soon 🙂

Reply
What To Cook Today March 27, 2013 - 12:21 pm

Hi Henny, Yes, please do. We love it! So simple but yummy! If you have a chance, let me know how you like it 🙂

Reply
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5 from 10 votes (8 ratings without comment)

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