creamy coconut-milk salmon and mushroom chowder with parsnips, tarragon, and dill

Buying fresh tarragon and dill for one pot can feel like a stretch when so much of the elimination phase already asks you to plan ahead, track down ingredients, keep to a rotation of the same few things. Buy them anyway, this once. A chowder this good is worth the extra stop, and some weeks the whole reward you get for doing this work is a bowl exactly this warm.

Salmon is what gives this chowder its omega-3 fats, the kind your body reaches for when it is trying to quiet down inflammation that has had far too long to settle in. Parsnips soften into their own sweetness and hold a steady dose of fiber, and the coconut milk gives the whole pot a silky body without a trace of dairy.

Salmon like this swam somewhere real before dill and tarragon ever touched it, and a plain nod to that is worth more than skipping past it without a thought. Poach it gently at the very end, off a full boil, so it stays tender rather than tough. Slow it down there and you will have honored the one real thing this dish is asking of you.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons solid cooking fat (read here as coconut oil to keep the chowder dairy-free, since AIP excludes butter and ghee)
• 6 shallots, halved and thinly sliced
• 3 ribs celery, thinly sliced
• 3 cups bone broth
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 3 large parsnips, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1 pound mushrooms, halved and thinly sliced
• 1 can (14 oz) coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons fresh tarragon, minced
• 2 tablespoons fresh dill, minced
• 24 ounces salmon, skin removed and cut into 2-inch chunks
• 1/2 lemon, juiced

Method

(stovetop)

Melt the coconut oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the sliced shallots and celery and cook gently until they soften and turn translucent, around 5 minutes, stirring so they sweat rather than brown.

Pour in the bone broth and water, add the sea salt, and bring to a simmer. Add the parsnip chunks and let them simmer until they are nearly tender when pierced with a fork, roughly 12 to 15 minutes.

Stir in the sliced mushrooms and let them cook down for a few minutes until they soften, then pour in the coconut milk and bring the chowder back to a gentle simmer. Stir in the minced tarragon and dill.

Now lower the heat so the chowder is hot but no longer boiling and slip in the salmon chunks. Let them poach gently in the hot liquid, undisturbed, until they are just cooked through and flake easily, roughly 5 to 8 minutes; keeping the heat low is what keeps the fish silky. Add the lemon juice, taste for salt, and serve warm.

Instant Pot variation

Use the saute function to melt the coconut oil and sweat the shallots and celery, then turn it off. Add the bone broth, water, salt, and parsnips, seal the lid, and cook on high pressure for about 4 minutes with a quick release. Switch back to saute, stir in the mushrooms, coconut milk, tarragon, and dill, and let it return to a gentle simmer. Turn the pot off, add the salmon chunks, and let them poach in the residual heat until just cooked through and flaking, around 5 to 8 minutes. Finish with the lemon juice. This pressure-cook time is an untested estimate, so check the parsnips and salmon for doneness rather than relying on the clock.

*Adapted from autoimmunewellness.com*