Zucchini-Pea Soup with Smoked Salmon
One pot, one blender, fifteen minutes. Zucchini and garden peas simmered in broth, blended smooth with a spoonful of yogurt, topped with cold smoked salmon strips that warm just enough at the edges.
31 grams of protein and 15 grams of fiber from a bowl that looks light enough for summer and fills like a proper meal.
Ingredients
- onion 0.5
- garlic 1 clove
- zucchini 1
- olive oil 1 tablespoon
- vegetable bouillon 1 cube
- water 1.5 cup
- garden peas (frozen) 0.75 cup
- yogurt, nonfat 2 tablespoon
- smoked salmon 2 ounce
Method
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Finely chop the onion. Mince the garlic. Wash the zucchini and dice it.
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Heat the oil in a soup pot and sauté the onion and garlic for 2 minutes over medium-high heat. Add the zucchini cubes and sauté for 2 more minutes. Add the bouillon cube and water, then bring to a boil. Let it simmer for about 7 minutes. Finally, add the garden peas and cook for an additional 3 minutes.
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Remove the pot from the heat, add the yogurt and puree the soup using an immersion blender.
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Slice the smoked salmon into strips.
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Pour the zucchini and pea soup into a large bowl and arrange the salmon strips on top. Season with pepper according to taste.
Take the pot off the heat before stirring in the yogurt. Nonfat yogurt curdles fast in boiling liquid, but adding it to hot (not simmering) soup and blending right away gives you the creaminess without any grain. A handful of fresh dill or mint on top works well with both the peas and the salmon.
Smoking does more than add flavor. Research on Atlantic salmon found that cold-smoked fillets lost only 7% of their EPA and DHA over four weeks of storage, while raw fillets lost three times that amount. The smoke compounds saturate the fat and slow oxidation. Since this recipe never heats the salmon further, those preserved omega-3s go straight from package to bowl.
Bienkiewicz et al. 2022 · DOIBehind this recipe
Can I use fresh salmon instead of smoked?
Yes, but cook it separately first. Pan-sear or poach a small fillet, flake it, and place the pieces on top of the soup. The texture and flavor will be different, and you will lose the omega-3 preservation benefit that cold smoking provides. Research found that cold-smoked salmon retains nearly three times more EPA and DHA than raw salmon stored the same way.
Where does the 31 grams of protein come from?
Three sources split the load: the smoked salmon contributes about 14 grams, the garden peas add roughly 10 grams, and the yogurt plus small amounts from onion and zucchini cover the rest. Peas are one of the highest-protein common vegetables, which is why a bowl of soup can hit a number most people associate with a chicken breast.
Is this filling enough for a full meal?
At 477 kcal with 31 grams of protein and 15 grams of fiber, this soup sits in the range that research consistently links to sustained fullness. The protein triggers satiety hormones. The fiber from garden peas slows digestion. And the soup format itself adds volume without adding calories, since most of the bowl is water-based broth.
Read the full evidence review
