Keskeitto (Summer Vegetable Soup)
Finnish summer vegetable soup with fresh garden vegetables, shrimp, and a silky cream-enriched broth. Keskeitto celebrates peak-season produce in a light, delicate one-pot soup.
YIELD
6 servingsPREP
15 minCOOK
15 minREADY
30 minKeskeitto is Finland’s celebration of summer in a bowl. The recipe opens with a direct instruction that doubles as the whole philosophy: use the youngest, freshest vegetables you can find. Carrots, new potatoes, green beans, cauliflower, peas, radishes, and spinach all go in, and the quality of those vegetables is what makes or breaks the soup.
The technique here is a little more involved than a basic vegetable soup, and it’s worth understanding why. The vegetables cook first in salted water, then the broth gets strained off and used to build a butter-flour roux that forms the soup’s creamy base. Milk goes in next, then comes the key step: an egg yolk and cream liaison. You whisk a cup of the hot soup into the egg mixture gradually to temper it, then pour it back into the pot. Skip this step and rush it, and you get scrambled eggs.
Cooked shrimp go in last, just long enough to heat through. A handful of fresh dill or parsley finishes the bowl.
Chef Tips
- Tempering the egg yolk slowly is critical: add the hot soup two tablespoons at a time, whisking constantly, before reversing and adding the mixture back to the pot
- Add spinach in the last 5 minutes of vegetable cooking so it stays bright green
- Don’t let the soup boil after the egg yolk goes in — it will curdle
- Fresh dill is the more traditional Finnish garnish; parsley works but dill is the right call here
Variations
- Skip the shrimp for a fully vegetarian version; the soup stands on its own
- Add a small bunch of fresh chives, chopped fine, as a garnish alongside the dill
Ingredients
Directions
Select the youngest, freshest vegetables that you can find. Wash, scrape or cut them to the sizes specified in the ingredient list.
Then, except for the spinach, place all of the vegetables in a 2 to 3 quart pot, cover with cold water and add the salt. Boil uncovered for 5 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Add spinach and cook another 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and strain the liquid through a fine sieve into a bowl. Set the vegetable stock and the vegetables aside in separate bowls.
Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in the pan over moderate heat. Remove from the heat and stir in the flour. Slowly pour in the hot vegetable stock, beating vigorously with a wire whisk and then beat in the milk.
In a small bowl, combine the egg yolk and cream. Whisk in 1 cup of the hot soup, 2 tablespoons at a time. Now reverse the process and slowly whisk the warmed egg yolk and cream mixture back into the soup.
Add the reserved vegetables to the soup and bring to a simmer.
As soon as it comes almost to a boil, reduce the heat, add the cooked shrimp and simmer uncovered over low heat for 3 to 5 minutes or until the shrimp and vegetables are heated through.
Taste and season the soup with white pepper as well as additional salt if necessary.
Pour into a soup tureen and sprinkle with finely chopped parsley or dill.
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