Crawfish Bisque

About this time last year, I posted a Blue Crab and Chipotle Tabasco Bisque that quickly because one of my most-cooked soups (and this is coming from a guy who cooks a lot of soup). I’ve been playing around with the formula a bit, to the point where I felt it was appropriate to post another one using shellfish (and that Shellfish Stock recipe from last week).

Quick reminder – I am giving away eight $25 Costco gift cards, and the giveaway ends on Thursday, so jump on it if you haven’t already.

And now for the big news: I found out that my cookbook, Paleo Takeout, made it onto the New York Times best seller list for July! How cool is that? Now I need to go through all of my social media profiles and add my new title to everything. I’m super excited and tremendously thankful for the support I’ve received in getting this book off the ground and into people’s hands. And to think, less than six months ago I planned on releasing it as an eBook because I didn’t think it would have a large audience – thank you for your readership and enthusiasm, which convinced me to release it as a hard copy book! Okay, enough gushing, let’s make some food.

This is one of those rare treats in cooking where it really doesn’t matter how you cut the vegetables – they’re all going to get blended anyway. So go nuts, keep the skin on your carrots, and have some fun.

Crawfish Bisque (Gluten-Free, Perfect Health Diet-friendly)

  • Servings: 4
  • Difficulty: Easy
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6 tbsp butter, divided
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
2 carrots, coarsely chopped
2 tomatoes, coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1/2 tsp dried tarragon leaves or dried parsley
2 cups white wine
2.5 cups cooked basmati rice
2 quarts shellfish stock
1/4 cup heavy cream or coconut milk
salt and white pepper to taste (about 1/2 tsp each)
1 lb crawfish tails or raw shrimp, peeled
1 handful chopped flat-leaf parsley

1. In a stockpot or Dutch oven, warm 2 tbsp of the butter over medium heat, then add the chopped onion, carrot, and tomatoes; sauté until softened, about 7 minutes. Add the garlic and herbs, sauté until aromatic, about 1 minute, then add the white wine. Cook, stirring often, until most of the liquid has evaporated, about 2 minutes, then add the rice and stock.

2. Bring to a simmer then reduce heat to med/low; simmer until the rice is very tender, about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

3. Using an immersion blender, blend the soup until smooth. Alternatively, you can transfer the soup to a blender and blend in batches before returning to the pot. Once smooth, remove from heat and stir in the cream or coconut milk and add salt and white pepper to taste. Stir in the crawfish or shrimp, simmer until warmed (or cooked through if using raw shrimp), then divide into bowls and garnish with parsley and a cube of the remaining butter.

** While adding rice to thicken the soup sounds like the most brilliant thing I’ve ever come up with, it isn’t – this is actually the traditional method for thickening bisques.

** For a fancier, more authentic flavor, use 1/2 cup brandy instead of the white wine.

37 thoughts on “Crawfish Bisque”

  2. Pingback: Crawfish Bisque | Paleo Digest

  4. Oh my this looks so appetizing, I need to get Mike home to make this. Russ, never ever did I doubt that you wouldn’t make it in the Culinary world! Congratulations, the reviews are great.

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  7. I just love this, reminds me of my first trip to Boston and Quincy’s Market where I had Lobster Bisque in a sour dough bowl (yes, in the wheat eating days!). If you were not into a lot of rice, do you think cauliflower rice would thicken this the same? I’d say you wouldn’t cook it as long though.
    Congrats on your new cookbook, I’m looking forward to getting mine from Amazon, in the next week.

    I’ll also reblog this on paleowithcream!

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    1. Hi, thanks for the reblog! I’m not sure cauliflower rice would works as well, since it’s the starch in the rice that does the thickening. You could potentially use a coconut flour based roux and add that to the soup to thicken it! Yes and you definitely would only need to cook the soup about 20 mins to allow the flavors to marry.

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  8. Reblogged this on Paleo with cream and commented:
    Crawfish, Crayfish, Lobster or whatever you call it where you are is divine, don’t you think? Once you get past those claws! I’ve already talked about my love of Boston’s Quincy Market where I first tasted Lobster Bisque. Sitting in a crowded market stall slurping it out of a sour dough bowl (yes in my wheat eating days!).
    Russ has included rice as a thickener for this soup. There are number of things to use to thicken if you are not into the rice. You could go floury and use tapioca flour or try coconut flour. If you wanted to keep the carb count low, use cauliflower rice.
    Enjoy cooking it up!

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  9. Russ, small thing to be thankful for – but thanks for allowing an actual “Print” button on your recipes. So many blogs these days don’t have that option. I’m no luddite, but I do love to print hard copies of recipes for using and archiving at home. A lot of blogs just have share option buttons. Now, off to the kitchen!

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  18. Russ,

    This looks and sounds amazing. And although you say that adding the white rice to the soup is not something you’ve invented but something traditional for thickening soups, I’ve never heard of it. It’s absolutely genius! ;)

    I’m so happy to have your Paleo Takeout cookbook; and I’ll be doing a giveaway very soon so we can share all those great recipes and ideas in your new book!

    Thank you,
    Debra

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  20. My wife and I had this last night, and loved it – the consistency really reminded us of the porridges we used to have in South Korea (a very good thing). Delicious!

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