Recipe Collection: Shrimp Bisque

Written by Kate Tietje

I love shrimp.

And I love creamy soups.  It’s just good food.  Combine creamy soup and shrimp into this very simple bisque?  Perfection.  You can make bisque out of any seafood, really — shrimp, crab, lobster, etc.  I’ve had many in restaurants.  I’ve made crab bisque lots of times with canned crab (which is much cheaper than this).  This time, though, I wanted shrimp.

Plus, it’s an incredibly nourishing dish.  Shrimp stock contains iodine and other key nutrients.  Shrimp is also high in selenium, copper, and choline (see this nutrient chart for more details).  Then there’s the cream, and the butter…. It’s just a rich, wonderful dish.

I know — “bisque” sounds so fancy, and it seems like something like this would take a long time and be really hard to do.  Right?  But it’s not.  Really, it’s not.  This can come together in under 30 minutes, which makes it perfect for a quick lunch or dinner.  It’s even faster if you do the shrimp stock ahead of time.  I didn’t this time, but I probably should have (the little ones aren’t very patient when hungry).

Really.  It’s easy.  Let me show you how…

Shrimp Bisque

You’ll need some raw shrimp for this, preferably with shells or at least tails.  I couldn’t find affordable shrimp with complete shells, so I used the tails.  It would be better with whole, shell-on shrimp.  But you work with what you have.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lbs. raw, tail-on shrimp
• 3 cups filtered water
• 4 tbsp. butter
• 1 medium yellow onion
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/4 cup flour (I used whole wheat)
• 1/2 cup sherry
• 3 tbsp. tomato paste
• 1/2 cup cream
• Sea salt to taste

Directions:

Step 1: Remove the tails and/or shells from your shrimp and throw them in a pot with the water.  Boil this gently for 10 – 15 minutes, then strain it out.  Toss the shells and reserve the liquid.

Step 2: Melt the butter in a large soup pot.

Step 3: Add the onion and saute.  I added my bay leaf, too, at this point.

Step 4: Add the flour.  If you want it to be gluten-free, skip this and add 2 tbsp. of arrowroot at the end…or add the traditional 1/2 cup of white rice (cooked).

Step 5: Stir the flour in, then add the shrimp stock.  If you don’t have any, you could use vegetable or chicken stock or even just water instead.

Step 6: Add the tomato paste and the sherry and stir until smooth.  Then, add the raw shrimp (chopped up).

Step 7: Stir them in.  Give this about 5 minutes to cook until the shrimp have shrunk and turned pink.  Then!  It’s time to blend it up until it’s mostly smooth.  You can do this in a regular blender in batches.  I used my immersion blender.

Step 8: Add the cream and then salt to taste.  You’re ready to serve.

Have you ever had shrimp bisque?