Fish soup for your gut and for your soul!

Nothing is better for the body and soul like good homemade food. These days life goes so fast that we very often choose the easy way by eating out. But do we question the quality of the food we put into our system? We now live in a world where food does not always come from the purest source. The consumption of highly processed meals is one of the main reasons putting our health under risk.
This is why it is very important to pay attention to what we ingest- the more natural products,the better.

Today I want to share with you one of my favorite soup recipes to cook at home- simple and nutritious fish soup.
Our family loves to spend the summer in Greece- our favorite Greek island Kefalonia, so the photos for the recipe are taken during our last vacation on the island. All the ingredients were produced locally. And every morning local fishermen come to the main city port and sell their morning catch, so the fish I used for the recipe was freshly caught.

For a fish soup to be really delicious, it is important to use at least 3 different types of fish. That morning there were plenty of different fish on the market, so I chose to buy a various mix of small fish, to add flavor to the broth and 2 bigger fish, to have more flesh in the soup.

For the other ingredients, you honestly are free to experiment, but my basic ingredients are always:

1 big potato (peeled)
1/2 leek
1 medium size onion (I used red onion, but you can use any regular one)
2 big carrots (peeled)
1 red bell pepper (without the seeds)
1/2 tomato ( peeled and without the seeds)
celery leaves to taste
salt to taste
a drizzle of olive oil

The fish should be whole, but cleaned from the intestines. Fill one big saucepan with cold water and add all the fish inside. I usually use about 3-4 liters of water, so that there is plenty of broth left after the boil. Heat water with fish inside and boil until fish is cooked. It takes about maximum of 20 to 30 minutes after the water starts to boil.

(Note that I boiled mine into portions, because my saucepan was not big enough)

I leave the lid a little open, so I don't lose the water. Meanwhile, chop all the vegetables and put them aside. After the fish is ready, take it out on a big plate and leave it to cool down a little.

Carefully strain the fish broth to get rid of all the particles in it and put it in the saucepan again.
Then comes the trickiest part of the recipe- you have to clean the boiled fish from the bones and fish bone, and leave only the meat.
Then put the broth on the stove again, turned on medium heat and add all the vegetables to boil in it.

(Hint: leave the celery leaves to be put the last 5 minutes- for a fresh taste).

It should not take long for them to get cooked, so keep an eye every now and then to check.
Lastly add the fish meat and the chopped celery for a final 5 minutes to simmer a bit.
You can also drizzle just a little bit of olive oil at the final.

Voila! Your delicious home made fish soup is ready! Make sure to garnish with some lemon juice when you serve- it really adds to the flavor!

Enjoy and see you next time! :)