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Super easy Lobster Bisque Recipe, perfect for the everyday home cook and new cooks too! This elegant but easy soup is perfected with garlic, onion, clam juice, sherry, tomatoes, creme fraiche and fresh herbs.
Classic French recipes are always appealing to me. They are the basis for modern western cooking, you probably eat French-inspired food frequently without knowing it. Do you remember that sausage gravy your mom used to make and serve over biscuits in the morning? The gravy is started with a roux which is how a French classic Béchamel mother sauce is made. How about brown gravy for your mashed potatoes? Another French mother sauce called Espagnole. Eggs Benedict is served with Hollandaise, you guessed it, another French classic.
This time I am trying a bisque for the first time. A classic seafood soup with origins in France. Normally the flavor is extracted using several steps in order to extract the most flavor out of crustacean shells like lobster or shrimp. I have taken the long version and adapted a quicker version that does not sacrifice flavor or depth. Bottled clam juice is the key here which adds a tremendous amount of flavor while making this soup very easy to make. In fact, beginner cooks can make this and really impress their friends and family.
The bisque is started by frying some simple ingredients, adding the liquid and pureeing with a stick blender. A few garnishes and you’re done! Easy peasy but ohhh so good! This got two thumbs up from the family.
I have always bought frozen lobster and crawfish for this recipe but if you are curious about how to buy live lobsters, this Lobster Buying Guide is for you. After you select the perfect lobster, you can learn more about cooking live lobsters from Lobster Anywhere.
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Easy Lobster Bisque Recipe
A french classic made easy. Lobster bisque with tomatoes, clam juice and dry sherry. This lobster soup is my favorite!
Ingredients
- 3 Tbs butter 1 cup of cream salt to taste Garnish Creme fraiche Fresh thyme
- 1 Tbs olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and chopped (1 1/2 cups)
- 1 large russet potato, peeled and chopped
- 1 Tbs fresh thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 8 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 cups of vegetable broth
- 28 oz can of diced tomatoes
- 8 oz bottled clam juice
- 1/2 cup dry sherry
- 1 1/2 lb lobster meat, may substitute crawfish tails.
- 1 cup of cream
Garnish Optional
- Cream Fraiche and fresh thyme
Instructions
- In a large dutch oven heat butter and oil over medium heat, add onion and sauté until onion is translucent but not browned.
- Add potatoes and sauté for 3 minutes.
- Add thyme, bay leaves, garlic and sauté for 1-2 minutes, don't let the garlic turn brown.
- Add broth, tomatoes, clam juice. Simmer for 30 minutes, remove bay leaves.
- With an immersion blender, blend until smooth. Alternatively you may blend in a food processor or blender before the soup gets hot (very important).
- Simmer 10 minutes, add lobster, sherry and cream, simmer 5 more minutes.
garnish with creme fraiche and fresh thyme
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 487Total Fat: 33gSaturated Fat: 19gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 177mgSodium: 851mgCarbohydrates: 20gFiber: 3gSugar: 6gProtein: 29g
Do you love soup? Me too friend! Check out these soup recipes to help carry you through the Winter months.
Barbara
Friday 18th of December 2020
Some lobster bisque recipes call for flour as a thickening agent. Does the potato do the same thing in your recipe? I prefer a thick bisque and am wondering which would make it thicker.
Tina
Saturday 19th of December 2020
Great question Barbara. The potato does the same thing. The starches in the potato make the soup thicker, they are released when the soup is blended and allowed to simmer. The longer it simmers, the more the starch has time to do its thing. Also, the starch sets up overnight so the leftovers will be thicker than the original dish. In order to make it even thicker you can do a few things. You can add 2 Tbs of flour when you add the potatoes to give it more starch. You can also allow it to simmer longer, allowing the starches to set up even more. Or you can make this a day ahead. Let me know how yours turns out. Bon Appetit!
Hannah
Sunday 6th of January 2019
Wow this soup had a great flavor. I was a little afraid it may be too rich for me so I used milk instead of cream and it was just perfect! What a great soup for a cold winter night.
Tina
Monday 7th of January 2019
I'm glad you liked it Hannah. Great tip with the milk substitute. David and I both really liked this soup, I need to make this more often. One issue with food blogging is that you want to keep trying new recipes so you don't get back to your favorites very often. Blogger problems:)
Savita
Tuesday 31st of October 2017
What a delicious combination of flavors. And the color on this soup! Omg! Major drool! :)
Andrea @ Cooking with Mamma C
Tuesday 31st of October 2017
I love lobster bisque but never tried making it. The clam juice sounds like a perfect solution! I really enjoyed your discussion of the French origins of some of our food. Nice post!
Valentina
Tuesday 31st of October 2017
My dad loves lobster bisque, so I'm bookmarking this to try for him! (I love your photo of that gorgeous garlic!)