Peruvian Seafood Stew with Cilantro Broth- made with fish and shellfish, potatoes, carrots and the most flavorful delicious broth! Healthy, Paleo, Gluten free, Easy! Can be made in 35 minutes!
Spicy, fragrant Cilantro Broth is the delicious base of this flavorful Peruvian Seafood Stew. Those of you who have been here a while will probably already guess how versatile this soup can be, even to the point of substituting the seafood itself.
The takeaway here is the Cilantro Broth, which if you think about it, can be paired with an endless array of ingredients. But today I’m serving it up the same way I experienced it for the very first time, in a Peruvian restaurant in Panama – with seafood. There are some bites of food you never forget.
Along with the seafood – basically a mix of scallops, prawns and firm white fish, there are also diced potatoes and carrots. If you are not a seafood fan, substitute chicken or chickpeas instead. You get the idea. Make sure to serve it with crusty bread to mop up the delicious broth, or serve it over rice. It takes about 35-40 minutes from start to finish, very doable on a weeknight.
It starts with sautéing onion, garlic and poblano chilies. 
Once they are tender, remove from the pot and place in a blender.
Blend with water and 2 bunches of fresh cilantro.
Then you will end up with this beautiful green magic that will turn your broth into something flavorful and delicious!
Set this aside for a while, until right before serving.
In the same pot you’ll simmer diced potatoes and carrots in chicken broth or stock.
Once tender, you’ll add the seafood and let it simmer for a few minutes until cooked.
The best firm fish for soups or stews:
You generally want to use firm white fish for most stews and soups, because they will hold their shape and not disintegrate in the liquid. Here are 10 the best fish (and seafood) to use in soups and stews.
- sea bass
- halibut
- black cod
- haddock
- escolar
- ono
- red snapper
- salmon
- scallops
- shrimp
Then you’ll add the magic green blender sauce to the soup.
Adjust the salt and add the juice of one or two limes.
Scatter with fresh cilantro leaves and serve immediately.
Serve with crusty bread, and for added creaminess, add a dollop of sour cream.
More recipes you may like:
- Summer Seafood Stew
- Clam Chowder
- Simple Authentic Cioppino Recipe
- Brazilian Fish Stew (Moqueca!)
- Simple Salmon Chowder
- 20 Simple Healthy Fish & Seafood Recipes
Peruvian Seafood Stew with Cilantro Broth
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Total Time: 40 mins
- Yield: 6 1x
- Category: Main, stew, soup, fish, seafood
- Method: stove top
- Cuisine: Peruvian
Description
Peruvian Seafood Stew with Cilantro Broth- made with fish and shellfish, potatoes, carrots and the most flavorful delicious broth! Healthy, Paleo, Gluten free, Easy! Can be made in 35 minutes!
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 yellow or white onion- diced
- 1 fresh green ancho chili (or poblano) – deseeded, chopped (if you like spicy, add 2 and skip the bell pepper)
- 1 green bell pepper – chopped (optional)
- 6 cloves garlic – rough chopped
- 1 Tablespoon coriander
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 4 cups chicken broth or stock
- 3 cups water – divided
- 4 cups small diced potatoes
- 2 cup diced carrots
- 2 whole bunches cilantro, including small stems
- 2 lbs seafood, mixed -shrimp, scallops, mussels, fish, (or sub cooked chicken, or chickpeas)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- juice of 2–3 limes
- Garnish: cilantro, thinly sliced jalapeño, dollop sour cream, crusty bread for dipping
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large heavy bottom pot, or dutch oven, over medium high heat. Add onion, and saute for 2-3 minutes, stirring often. Add ancho chili and bell pepper. Turn heat to medium and saute until tender about 10 minutes, stirring often.
- Add garlic and spices and cook for two-three minutes or until fragrant.
- Scrape this all into a blender and set aside.
- In the same pot, add 4 cups chicken broth or stock, plus 1 cup water.
- Bring to a boil.
- Add the small diced potatoes and carrots and simmer over medium heat until just tender, about 10 minutes.
- In the meantime, add two whole bunches of cilantro to the blender, stems and all. I usually cut or twist off 1-2 inches off the stems, leaving the rest. Add 2 cups water to the blender. Bend everything until VERY smooth, at least 45 seconds! Smooth is key here! Set this aside.
- Once the potatoes and carrots are tender, add all the seafood and simmer gently until desired doneness, or about 3-5 minutes ( taking in consideration, some things take longer to cook than others).
- When seafood is cooked to your liking, stir in blended cilantro mixture from the blender.
- Heat, to a gently simmer – but do not boil too long, or you will loose the lovely green color!
- Squeeze limes to taste – I used 2 limes.
- Taste and adjust salt and lime juice, adding more of each to your taste.
- Serve in bowls with cilantro sprigs, optional jalapeño slices, lime wedges, sour cream (optional) and crusty bread.
Notes
- Don’t boil the broth mixture too long or you will lose the pretty green color. In the photos you see me using 2 poblano chilis, and this was quite spicy. The next time I used 1 ancho chili plus a green bell pepper – spicy, but not overly.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 cups
- Calories: 360
- Sugar: 4.5 g
- Sodium: 560.1 mg
- Fat: 16 g
- Saturated Fat: 2.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 26.4 g
- Fiber: 4.6 g
- Protein: 29.2 g
- Cholesterol: 156.4 mg
Easy, delicious. Love the flavors and the vibrant green color.
Glad this worked for you Monte!
Me encantan tus recetas y la presentación
Thanks Marta!
After eating spicy food all of my life, unfortunately I now find that at my age, I cannot do spicy at all. Is this recipe spicy? Thank you.
Hi Rene- it is pretty mild- but if unsure swap out the poblano peppers for green bell peppers?
Thank you for this recipe, it was somewhat labor intensive I enjoyed the process, the end results was absolutely delicious. Flavors blended perfectly, I used 2 pablanos and about 1/3 of a bell pepper I had left. I split the recipe and will freeze the green sauce and potato/carrot broth separately. Be careful not to overcook the fish. Thank you for this recipe, definitely a keeper as my grandson tells me.😀
Thanks sue- glad this worked for you!
Delicious! next time I will add even more garlic and a little less cumin. (just fyi -I skipped the coriander because I didn’t have any)
Sounds good Lisa! Glad this worked for you!
An absolute favorite!!! … amongst kids & adults! so easy to make! So fresh!! I make it all ahead in the morning and add shrimps and/or all the leftover fish from the freezer to the heated potato/carrot broth & then the green sauce right before serving… all stays fresh , green & w/ a bite while literally taking the 5 minutes (the minutes fish needs to cook ) to serve!
Awesome Elzeline- happy you enjoyed this!
This looks amazing! I see the calories listed as 363 per serving but what is the serving size?
2 cups. 🙂
Delicious! Very green which was fun. My husband wants chicken and chick peas next time.
Perfect, those would work here too!
Excellent dish! The cilantro was definately the star of the dish, but it did not overpower the delicacy of the seafood. I added monkfish to the mix. I think it has a lobster like texture, and a mild flavor. I also added a little potato starch slurry just before adding the seafood, to give it a more stew like consistency. The squeeze of lime is a must for a perfect balance. Thanks.
Great to hear! Glad you enjoyed this!
I love all of your recipes; they have made our transition to a plant based diet exciting and fun. I am craving green and would like to try this cilantro soup base even though i t highlights seafood. What would be the ramifications of substituting firm roasted tofu, white beans, or even sweet potato? Or other? Thanks for your recommendations!
I think you could easily make this vegan! I love the idea of roasted sweet potato, white beans, crispy tofu. And maybe just more colorful veggies and greens? Serve over rice?
Made it with an entire rotisserie chicken so had to add more broth and seasoning but wow so yummy!!! Also added cayenne pepper for more heat. Would probably be great with asparagus and kale for a vegan option. Great raw fresh recipe!
Thanks and glad you enjoyed!
This *does* freeze well!! I froze the green blender broth separate from the veggie broth (which I froze before adding the protein) – then after defrost resumed recipe instructions at step 8. It was delicious and very beautiful!
Great to hear Jessica- thanks helpful!!! 🙌
p.s. What is this soup called in Spanish?
It is a twist on Parihuela 🙂
Delicious! We like it a little hotter so we added more chilis and used Peruvian aji amarillo chilis. However, prep was a LOT longer than in the recipe. Maybe it was because we used dungeness crabs, so it took quite a bit of time to get the meat out. But overall, this is an excellent recipe!!
Thanks Gina!
Made this last night. Loved the ingredients. Also I have never eaten so much cilantro in one sitting!! Truly a wonderful soup. Just the broth alone is perfect on a winter night!!
wow, this is so flavorful and so easy! I had everything but the seafood so I used chicken and it worked well. And I look forward to making it with shrimp and scallops! I love the brilliant green. Thanks for another fast, wonderfully seasoned recipe!
I love the green too. Perfect for today 💚. Glad you liked!
I cannot wait to make this! Sooooooo beautiful. Do you think it would freeze?
I’m having a heard time picturing freezing this. It might lose the vibrant green color?
Delicious! I made with 2 deseeded jalapeño peppers- great flavor with no heat.
Hi Sylvia,
Im planning on making this tomorrow, super excited. Haven’t worked much with poblano chillies before, did you leave the seeds in? Thanks!
I deseeded them!
I made this tonite with chickpeas because that’s what I had on hand, it was amazing! The broth is outstanding! My husband and I are already making plans to try it with chicken. I may someday do the seafood version too! I loved it so much!!!
I made this last night and it was absolutely delicious. Wow!
This looks amazing! Can I ask which fish was used so it doesn’t disintegrate?
I listed some up in the post. Great question by the way! 🙂
This was so good! I didn’t have any potatoes, so I just omitted them and decreased the amount of liquid by a cup so it wouldn’t be too soupy and I used a combination of scallops, shrimp, and triggerfish. I also added two jalapeños to the blended mixture. It turned out really well!!! Adding it to my recipe box!
Amazing! Because of covid, couldn’t find the fresh anchos. Used a jalapeño and Cubanelle peppers and it tasted wonderful.
This was excellent. I used vegetable broth and clam juice instead of water, and added a couple of serrano peppers since we like spicy food. Otherwise I made it as instructed. For the seafood I used halibut, bay scallops and calamari.
The halibut kind of disintegrated, unfortunately, but it made for a nice component of the stew anyway. There was a lot of broth left over so the next day I cooked some more potatoes in stock to get them to the same consistency as what was already in the pot, and added some shrimp. It was even better the 2nd day.
Love it Matt- thanks for sharing! I’m working on a Portuguese Stew that has potatoes- so tasty!