Frozen Seafood Soup

This frozen seafood soup recipe uses up all of that frozen seafood that has been sitting in your freezer, and puts it to good use! Frozen fish fillets, frozen shrimp, and any other frozen seafood that you have, gets tossed into this one-pot creamy soup. Other canned foods get added to this delicious dinner, making it super easy and a great way to use up extra food! It’s creamy, comforting, and loaded with delicious seafood flavor.

Why I Love This Frozen Fish Recipe:

I am a HUGE soup lover. I’m not exaggerating when I say I could eat soup every single day. I actually just had a bowl while writing this!

When grocery shopping at the beginning of the pandemic, I panic-purchased a bunch of frozen seafood and quickly realized that it took up a lot of room in my freezer.  What is the best way to use all of your seafood at once?…a chowder! 

I was actually nervous about attempting to develop this frozen seafood soup recipe, since I had never seen another recipe using mostly frozen food and canned goods. But I must say, I was pleasantly surprised by how tasty it is! 

See for yourself, you will be on bowl 3 before you know it! 

If you like this soup, you will also love my Greek Lemon Soup With Chickpeas recipe!

Why This Easy Seafood Chowder Recipe Is So Good:

Just trust me, this easy seafood chowder recipe is REALLY GOOD.

• If you are looking for recipes using frozen fish fillets, this is a great way to use them up!

• It’s a great recipe to reduce waste. How many times have you cleaned out your freezer, only to find an old fish filet or bag of shrimp shoved in the corner?! This recipe uses up ingredients that might otherwise expire or get thrown out.

• Aside from using a frozen seafood medley, this is also a great recipe to make with canned goods! Instead of the fresh produce, you also have the option to toss in some canned beans or corn for added texture and flavor. This is already a recipe using canned clams, so feel free to add any other canned goods that you need to use up!

What Frozen Seafood Can You Use?

I dare say, just about ANY frozen seafood you have in your freezer will work! You can also use fresh seafood, but cooking times will differ, as will the texture of the soup.

You can use FROZEN (or fresh):

• Calamari
• Halibut
• Shrimp (raw or cooked)
• Clams and Muscles
• Octopus
• Lobster
• Crab
• Scallops

Is It Mediterranean Diet Friendly?

Is this a Mediterranean Diet friendly soup recipe? Not as it is, but there are a few changes that you can make to make it work!

If you are new here, I have a ‘mostly‘ Mediterranean Diet food blog, and I love to show how you can transform almost any recipe into a MedDiet-friendly one!

First, let’s talk about the foods that are MedDiet-approved. Fish is highly encouraged on a Mediterranean diet, and frozen seafood is perfectly fine to use! Canned and fresh vegetables are also perfect, as every meal should have a few varieties of vegetables.

Now let’s get to the things we need to change. In this specific recipe, we use a LOT of dairy. Milk, butter, and heavy cream, to be specific. TECHNICALLY, you can enjoy meals with dairy on occasion, they are not off limits, per say. But if you are trying to reduce the amount of dairy that you consume, feel free to swap the milk and cream out for coconut milk and coconut cream! And you can just omit the butter if you choose.

Bacon is also not the healthiest food choice, so feel free to omit that as well, or replace pork bacon with turkey bacon or a plant-based bacon.

I think this recipe would look gorgeous cooked and served in this Le Creuset Enameled Cast Iron Signature Round Dutch Oven in White, don’t you?

When To Serve This Frozen Seafood Soup:

This is such a great dump dinner recipe…dump it in the pot and leave it!

I personally find that I like to clean out my freezer around the start of fall. There is something ingrained in me that when September rolls around, it’s time for a fresh start.

Plus, there are so many earthy vegetables that are harvested at this time of year that can be added the soup. So I like to make this as an autumn chowder recipe.

But honestly, you can serve it whenever you have some seafood leftovers or frozen fish that you need to use up.

Tips For Success

• Since frozen seafood holds more water, you may want to add a little more salt. Taste it after adding 1/2 a tsp of table salt, and add more from there as needed.

• Purchase deveined frozen shrimp, or you are going to have to thaw them and devein them yourself prior to tossing them into the chowder.

• I would not freeze leftovers, since the seafood was previously frozen. Store any leftovers in a glass, airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.

• When I first made this recipe, I didn’t have any seafood stock. Most of the recipes online say to use the shells of the shrimp to make your own stock, but that is pretty difficult when they are frozen to the shrimp!  I decided to use a mixture of chicken broth and vegetable broth and it was FINE.  I can’t emphasize enough the importance of not sticking to a recipe and using the ingredients that you have to make it work.

• The starch from the potatoes should help to thicken your chowder, but if you find it too liquidy, ladle some of the broth to a new bowl and add 2 tbsp of flour to it.  Whisk until there are no flour clumps, and add it back to the chowder pot.  

More Delicious Soup Recipes

Looking for some more simple, cozy soup recipes? Here are a few more of my favorites!

Did you make this creamy fish chowder recipe?  Interested in the Mediterranean diet? Check out my 21-Day Mediterranean Diet Meal Plan here! Take the stress out of meal planning and let me do the hard work for you!