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Batch 017

One-pot
seafood soup.

Hearty meal Liquid Gold Batch 017
4 hours Serves 8 Liquid Gold

A soup for a long Sunday. The broth simmers down with onions, fennel and herbs for a few hours, then the seafood goes in toward the end so nothing overcooks. White fish, scallops, shrimp, crab, whatever the fishmonger has that morning. It serves a table.

A large pot of seafood soup with crab legs, prawns and herbs
Tested by Sinead in our Lisbon kitchen.
Ingredients
  • 6L Liquid Gold chicken broth
  • 1L spring water
  • 1 tbsp olive oil or ghee
  • 4 medium onions, chopped
  • 2 shallots, chopped
  • 3 large carrots, chopped
  • 2 celery stalks, chopped
  • 1 fennel bulb, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 handful flat-leaf parsley
  • 1 handful fresh dill
  • 1 lemon
  • Salt and pepper, to taste
  • Seafood:
  • King crab legs
  • Stone crab
  • White fish (sea bass or halibut)
  • Prawns
  • Sea scallops
Method
  1. Chop all the vegetables to roughly the same size.
  2. Warm the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions, shallots, carrots, celery, fennel and garlic, and saute for 3 minutes until the onions turn translucent.
  3. Pour in the broth and water. Add the bay leaves and bring to a gentle simmer.
  4. Simmer uncovered for about 2.5 hours, letting the broth deepen.
  5. Add the crab legs and let them cook for 30 minutes.
  6. Five minutes before serving, add the white fish, prawns and scallops, so they just cook through.
  7. Stir in the parsley, dill and a squeeze of lemon. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
  8. Serve hot, with bread to mop up the broth.
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"Use whatever the fishmonger recommends that day. The broth is generous enough to hold most things."
— from the kitchen, on this recipe
Common questions

A few things people ask.

Not without losing what makes it good. The two and a half hours of simmering is where the broth deepens and the vegetables fall into the liquid. If time is tight, you can shorten to 90 minutes; the soup will be lighter, looser, more like a fast bouillabaisse than the long version. Don't go below that.
Liquid Gold is the right base; chicken broth holds seafood gently without competing with it. Beef broth makes the bowl read like a meaty stew with shellfish bobbing in it, which isn't the dish. Mushroom broth is interesting but pulls things earthward.
No. Use whatever the fishmonger has good that morning. White fish, prawns and one shellfish (mussels, clams, or crab) is plenty; the king crab and scallops are the more expensive options that take it to a Sunday-lunch level. Mussels and clams are the cheaper way in, and just as good.
The broth base, yes, easily; it improves over a day in the fridge. The seafood, no. Cooked seafood reheated turns rubbery within minutes. Make the broth ahead, bring it back to a simmer, and add the seafood five minutes before serving as the recipe says.
The broth alone freezes well for three months. Don't freeze the soup with the seafood in; thawed cooked prawns and scallops are unpleasant. Freeze the base, then add fresh seafood when you serve.
Generously, yes, as a main course with bread. We've stretched it to ten when there's also a starter and a salad on the table. The 6L of broth and 1L of water is what makes this a soup for a table rather than a bowl for a person.

Cooked, tested and written by Sinead McInerney in our Lisbon kitchen. Last reviewed: April 2026.