Thai Ocean Breeze Soup

If you’re ready to break free from your usual cooking routine, this soup is your invitation. Light yet astonishingly flavorful, it’s a dish that rewards patience and attention to detail. Every step—from preparing a delicate, aromatic fish stock to finishing with a drizzle of infused oil—builds layers of taste that are as surprising as they are comforting.

This isn’t a quick fix. The process takes 2–3 hours, with most of the time devoted to letting flavors develop while you relax and prep the rest of your ingredients. But for anyone who loves cooking as an experience, this is pure magic: the stock simmers gently, the fish and shrimp are treated with care, and aromatic oils infuse the dish with a fragrance that will make your kitchen smell irresistible.

By the end, you’ll have a soup that is clean, balanced, and deeply satisfying—a perfect blend of simplicity and sophistication. It’s the kind of recipe that turns a quiet afternoon into a culinary adventure and will have anyone who tastes it wondering how something so light can be so bold.

Ingredients

• 1 Pangasius (about 750g / 1kg) - gutted, but whole (This could be any mild flaky fish too - Pangasius just happens to be the cheapest around here)
• 1kg mild flaky fish fillets (Pangasius, Tilapia, Swai, Pollock, Hake)
• 300g of leeks (about 2 trimmed leeks)
• 200g of carrots (about one large carrot)
• 450g of shrimps with heads and tails
• 400g of brocolli (a small head)
• 100g of dill
• 3 - 4 branches of thyme
• 1 large onion
• 8 cloves of garlic
• 500ml coconut milk
• ginger
• chilies (to taste - I used about 7-8 - you might want to go milder)
• 3 or 4 spring onions (you want about 1 cup of them chopped)
• neutral oil (avocado, peanut, sun flower)
• Sesame oil
• Parsley (optional)
• 2 limes (optional)

Extra side peanut sauce (add a table spoon in your dish when served if you wish)

• 8 table spoons of peanut butter (regular, not sweetened)
• 8 table spoons of coconut milk
• 2 table spoons of brown sugar
• 2 table spoons of soy sauce
• 2 table spoons of fish sauce
• 1 table spoon of grated fresh ginger

Pre-Prep

1. Fillet the fish - reserve the fillets for the other part of the recipe. Coarsely chop the bones and reserve
2. clean your fresh shrimps. Reserve heads and tails, remember to de-gut the shrimp. It´s boring and time consuming, but you deserve it. Reserve the shrimp bodies for the main part of the dish.
3. finely chop the leek
4. clean and coarsely grate the carrot
5. cut the broccoli florets and reserve, then coarsely chop the stems for the stock
6. coarsely chop your onion (you can use the skins too - just make your you've cleaned them well)
7. Coarsely cut the fillets into chunks (you want them to be roughly the same size and about 5cm - 8cm in size)
8. finely chop your garlic - reserve about two thirds of it for the main dish.
9. finely chop you ginger and reserve
10. finely chop you chilies (again to taste here)

The stock

1. heat up a large pot (3L - 5L), and when hot add some neutral oil.
2. in medium heat, throw in you fish head and bones, skins, trimmings and let them sit, you want to render down some of the fish fats and oils, and get some color on that.
3. when you start seeing some browning on the fish, add in your shrimp heads and tails and occasionally stir things up (about 5 minutes)
4. Add in 1/2 your sliced leeks, 1/4 of your garlic, your onion, your broccoli stems and grated carrot and top with water (a good 3L/4L should do. Let this simmer away.
5. When your stock has started simmering, carefully remove the denser froth that will form on the surface. It helps make your broth cleaner and lighter.
6. About 10 minutes into the simmer, add in your finely chopped dill and thyme sprigs.
7. Let this simmer gently for about another 30 - 45 minutes (covered).
8. Strain this through a fine mesh or cheese cloth and reserve the stock. You may now discard the solids.

You should have about 3–3.5 L of a light, fragrant stock.

A few important notes: this recipe is designed for a regular pot, not a pressure cooker. If you choose to use a pressure cooker, limit the cooking time to 20 minutes, or the bones may over-extract, resulting in an off flavor. Also, when using a pressure cooker, add the dill coarsely chopped, rather than finely, to preserve its aroma and freshness.

The Flavored oil

1. heat up about 300ml of a neutral oil in a pan.
2. in a separate pan (preferably a deep sauce pan), add your chillies, remaining garlic, spring onions and ginger.
3. when the oil is almost at smoking point, carefully pour it hot over the aromatics.

The Soup Prep

1. In a skillet (non stick will work fine if you don´t have a good stainless steel one), you want to flash sear the pieces of fish. Heat up your skillet on high, lightly oil it. Pat your fish dry, add it to the pan and let it sit for about 20/30 seconds before flipping and sitting for another 30 seconds. Please be patient here. You want to go in small batches and keep you pan hot. You want to sear and not cook the fish. Reserve the fish.
2. do the same with the shrimps. Throw them in the piping hot skillet, 20/30 seconds and they are done.
3. now to the fishy/shrimpy skillet add the remaining leeks and lower the heat. Let them wilt and cook down. they will start to brown. Stir constantly to avoid burning them.
4. When they look like they are almost too far, deglaze the skillet with some of your stock and reserve
5. Steam or quickly boil (2 minutes) your florets, then place them in an ice cold water bath

The soup

This is the final bit. Where everything comes together.

1. in a large pot, heat up about 3L of your stock and add in 500ml of coconut milk
2. let that simmer for about 5 minutes and add in your cooked down leeks
3. taste and salt your soup to your preference, but try to keep it mild.
4. add in the fish and shrimps, count 5 minutes.
5. add in the florets, cover and turn off the heat.
6. Let this sit for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Serve the soup in a bowl, making sure to include shrimp, broccoli, and pieces of fish, then pour the light, fragrant broth over the top. Finish with a drizzle of the flavored oil for an extra burst of aroma.

Optional 1:

You can add the juice of about half a lime to the soup (I would recommend taking it slow since you want to just add some freshness to the soup and not make it taske like lemon). In the serving dish, add a couple of slices of lime and some freshly chopped chillies for some kick and visual appeal.

Optional 2:

For a heartier option, serve the soup with rice in a deep bowl to add some quick carbs. For a touch of creaminess, you can also drizzle in a spoonful of peanut sauce, which pairs beautifully with the flavors of the broth.

Peanut sauce

Mix all the ingredients together and spoon over the soup when serving.