This Spicy and Creamy Shrimp Bisque is a creamy, seafood lovers delight, with a little kick! Packed with flavor, fresh herbs and spices, and loaded with cream, this soup feels and tastes like a fancy, restaurant quality dish. You can make it at home for any special occasion, or if you’re just craving something truly yummy! Not your average seafood bisque!
Now, we loooove soup and seafood, but we have to admit, we have always been a bit intimidated by seafood bisque recipes. We realize that there are a lot of ingredients, but we promise, this soup delivers a major punch of flavor and is worth the extra effort.
A couple years ago, we hosted a lobster dinner party for a couple of friends, made this soup and they were completely in awe. Since then, we’ve made the recipe over an over again, and in fact, we updated it from our original posting date back in 2018.
After scouring through countless recipes, we got a good idea of what an “average” shrimp bisque should look like. Then, we added some spice. (Of course, does anyone know Chamere?!) The result? Delicious. We are so proud to serve this on our dinner table.
We can assure you that if you can read a recipe, and commit to prepping all of your ingredients before starting, that this soup will be so much easier than you anticipated. Although this soup is a medium difficulty one, it’s truly worth it. Our friends loved it. This keto shrimp bisque will be the star of any dinner table.
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Ingredients:
- Yellow onion, diced
- Olive oil
- Unsalted butter
- Celery, diced
- Garlic, minced
- Dill, fresh or frozen
- Thyme, fresh or frozen
- Oregano, fresh or frozen
- Smoked paprika
- Red pepper flakes
- Cayenne pepper
- Kosher salt
- Tomato paste
- Worcestershire sauce
- Dry white wine
- Seafood stock (homemade or store bought)
- Raw shrimp, peeled and deveined (reserve shells if making your own shrimp stock)
- Bay leaves
- Ground black pepper
- Parmesan cheese, grated
- Heavy whipping cream
Let’s Make Creamy Shrimp Bisque!
Cook The Vegetables and Aromatics:
In a stock pot or dutch oven, add your butter and olive oil, then add in your diced onions, and celery. Add a pinch of salt and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add in your garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
Now, put the minced fresh herbs into the pot (dill, thyme and oregano) and cook for another minute.
Add in tomato paste, and dry spices. Cook until tomato paste has deepened in color. This should take about 2 minutes.
Add The Liquids:
Pour in the wine and Worcestershire sauce, cook for about 5 minutes to cook off the alcohol. Pour in the seafood stock. Warm the stock mixture for about 3 minutes.
Puree The Soup:
Add the warmed stock with vegetables into a blender, or use an immersion blender to puree it until silky smooth. Once pureed, add in the grated parmesan cheese, and heavy whipping cream. Stir to warm and melt the cheese, until the mixture is silky smooth.
Add most of your shrimp to the pot and simmer in the soup until the shrimp is cooked through, about 5-7 minutes. If desired, set aside a few shrimp, dry them off, and then sprinkle with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and a little cayenne. Cook them off in a hot skillet with a little olive oil.
Assemble The Bowls!
Before serving, remove the bay leaves. Top the bowls with cooked shrimp, and garnish with fresh dill and thyme. Serve this Creamy Shrimp Bisque and enjoy!
How To Make Shrimp Stock:
Shrimp stock is easy to make. You can just peel off the shrimp shells, and toast them until they turn a bright orange color in a stock pot. We usually add in a little bit of garlic, as well as maybe some scraps of celery, carrots, onions and a couple of bay leaves, along with some salt and pepper.
Add a few cups of water, then simmer for about 10 minutes, or until you achieve your desired level of shrimp flavor. Then, strain away the shells and extra bits. Discard, then, there you have it! The perfect shrimp stock for this keto shrimp bisque recipe. 🙂
Should I Use Fresh Herbs?
You could technically use all dry herbs and spices for this shrimp soup, but we love using some fresh thyme, oregano, and especially fresh dill. If you only have dried spices and herbs, that should be totally fine. You can use about 1 teaspoon each of dried dill, oregano and thyme. We do recommend using fresh dill and thyme if you can.
How to Best Reheat The Shrimp Bisque:
To reheat the shrimp bisque soup, you will want to simmer it on stovetop until it is just heated through. Since it’s packed with cream, you don’t want to heat it too quickly or too much, because it will just make the cream curdle.
You also have to pay special attention to the shrimp. Please note that every time you reheat this soup, the shrimp will cook further, making it tougher. You could set the shrimp aside when you heat up the broth, then just add it back into the hot soup for about a minute before eating again. Over all, this soup is truly best when it’s served hot and fresh.
Can I Cook Shrimp Separately For Topping The Bisque?:
Yes! Another option for the best tasting (and best looking) shrimp bisque would be to reserve some of the uncooked shrimp by not cooking them in the soup. You can set them aside, dry them off, and then sprinkle with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and a little cayenne. Then, cook them in a hot skillet with a little olive oil. Now, you can top your soup with these gorgeous morsels. Drizzle the olive oil you cooked the shrimp in and voila!
Looking For More Keto Friendly Shrimp Recipes?
- Chipotle Lime Shrimp
- Keto Maple BBQ Glazed Shrimp
- Cajun Shrimp Sausage and Peppers Skillet
- Low Carb Jambalaya
- Creamy Mozzarella Shrimp Pasta
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Until Next Time,
Briana & Chamere
Creamy Shrimp Bisque Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 3 oz unsalted butter
- 3 stalks celery, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 5 sprigs fresh dill (or about 1 tsp dried)
- 5 sprigs fresh oregano (or about 1 tsp dried)
- 5 sprigs fresh thyme (or about 1 tsp dried)
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tsp black ground pepper
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 cups dry white wine
- 2 cups seafood stock (homemade or store bought)
- 32 oz raw shrimp
- 3 whole bay leaves
- 4 oz fresh grated parmesan
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
Instructions
- Peel the shrimp and discard the shells, unless you are making your own seafood stock. Set peeled shrimp aside.
- In a stock pot or dutch oven, add your butter and olive oil, then add in your diced onions, and celery. Add a pinch of salt and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add in your garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Now, put the minced fresh herbs into the pot (dill, thyme and oregano) along with your dry spices (red pepper flakes and cayenne) cook for about 1 minute.
- Now, add in your tomato paste and cook (stirring frequently) for about 2 minutes. Next, add in your wine and Worcestershire sauce, cook for about 5 minutes to cook off the alcohol. Pour in the seafood stock.
- Add the warmed stock with vegetables into a blender, or use an immersion blender to puree it until silky smooth. Once pureed, add in the grated parmesan cheese, and heavy whipping cream. Stir to warm and melt the cheese, until the mixture is silky smooth.
- Add most of your shrimp to the pot and simmer in the soup until the shrimp is cooked through, about 5-7 minutes. If desired, set aside a few shrimp, dry them off, and then sprinkle with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and a little cayenne. Cook them off in a hot skillet with a little olive oil.
- After soup is done, remove the bay leaves, top with cooked shrimp, garnish with fresh dill and thyme. Serve this Creamy Shrimp Bisque and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
These nutrition facts are provided as a courtesy and are only estimates. We cannot guarantee the accuracy.
regina salley says
this recipe looks so delicous will try very soon
Briana says
Hey Regina! Thanks so much for that. It’s truly delicious, we know you’re going to love it! 🙂