Fishy Looking Green Soup
This fishy looking green soup is like a thick salsa verde soup with fried mackerel. Very filling, very tasty, very green, very healthy altogether.
So this recipe is what I’m offering as an alternative to the old Green Mackerel Soup which was made with cockscomb mint. This isn’t. I haven’t had cockscomb mint – or even come across it – since. Also, looking at the list of the ingredients that had I’m not at all sure that the ground allspice and sugar wasn’t what gave the soup the taste of Red Strespils minus the numbing agent – intrigued? You shouldn’t be.
Anyway the name Green Mackerel soup for some reason made me think of salsa verde with fried mackerel. So that’s kind of what this is – as a soup. Except the recipe for the salsa verde is slightly different to the usual one. Was that because I got creative or just confused in the supermarket? Yes. So I’m calling my salsa verde green sauce.
Ingredients
- small handfull of tarragon
- handfull of parsley
- handful of chives
- handful of mint
- 60 - 75g green olives, pitted
- 2 x 50g tin of anchovy fillets in olive oil
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustards
- 1 teaspoon wholegrain mustard
- 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 quantity of green sauce
- 700g green beans
- 750ml chicken stock
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and flattened with the flat side of a knife
- handful of basil
- 2 mackerel fillets, boned, halved lengthwise and sprinkled with salt and lemon juice
- butter
- olive oil
- lemon slices for serving
Instructions
- Remove the leaves from the stalks of the fresh herbs and discard the stalks. Add all the ingredients for the green sauce into a food mixer and blend well.
- Heat a little olived oil in a deep saucepan. Add a knob of butter to oil. When it is melted add in the green beans, chicken stock and garlic, stir around and bring to the boil. Cover the pan and let it boil away until the green beans are cooked and tender - about 10 minutes
- Add a little olive oil to a frying pan that will hold the mackerel fillets. Add a pat of butter to olive oil. Take a small flake of fish and when the butter is melted add it to the frying pan and if it sizzles then add place the halved fillets in the pan skin-side down. Leave them cook on a high heat. After about 4 minutes you can turn the fish over. The juices and butter should be brown at this stage, just gently shake the pan around then leave them to cook for 1 - 2 minutes or until all the flesh is fully opaque you'll have to turn the fish over to check. Remove from heat once cooked.
- Once the green beans are cooked, pour the contents from the deep saucepan into a deep bowl, add in the fresh basil leaves and using a stick blender blend till you have a thick soup-like consistency.
- Add 3 teaspoons of the green sauce to a ramekin. Pour the rest of the green sauce into the soup and stir around well.
- Take out 2 of the pieces of fish from the frying pan and leave on a plate chopped up. Roughy chop up the remaining fish in the pan and add this and any of the remaining juices to the soup, and stir it around.
- Serve in small bowls, each taking 2 ladles full of soup, top each with a quarter of the fish, a quarter of the green sauce from the ramekin and a slice of lemon. Hope you like it!
