Under 45 minutes
1. Laksa lover
This laksa combines fresh ingredients with a commercial laksa paste, meaning a lot of the prep work is done for you. To make this recipe even easier, place the garnishes in the centre of the table, allowing diners to assemble their laksa to taste.
2. Go whole when you go home
A cotriade is a traditional, coastal Breton fish and potato soup and is made using whole fish, cut into pieces, rather than fillets, and it’s best to include at least three different types of fish.
3. Spiced riches
Bouillabaisse is light and tasty fish stew. Feel free to add other seafood such as scallops or calamari rings. For an easy meal, have the tomato base ready and add the seafood just before serving.
4. Time for tea
This tuna, green tea and rice is one speedy bowl on offer.
5. Sweet, sour & salty
A long ingredients list goes some way to explaining the sweet, sour and salty notes of this complex Burmese fish noodle soup.
6. Make your own noodles (or dumplings, or both!)
Whilst certainly not an everyday affair, noodles made from a simple fish paste are eaten in various forms in different regions of Japan. Although you can sometimes find dried surimi-men in Japanese supermarkets the fresh version has a lot more flavour. The mixture can also be used for small dumplings if piping isn’t your bag! Get it here.
7. Bringing back the mullet
The mullet has a deep sweetness but with the intense umami character traditionally associated with lobster or crab. Serve it with roti, lots of crispy roti. Get the recipe here.
8. Basque in this bowl
This traditional soup from the Basque region of France is made with local merlu fish, asparagus, peas and parsley. This recipe takes only 30 minutes to prepare, cook and serve – of course, crusty bread is a must.
Under 60 minutes
9. So hot-pot right now
Saigon’s Chinatown is always an exciting area for street food. Vietnamese hotpot is cooked in a round, metal vessel with a hollow chute up the middle. To make this dish at home, you’ll need a portable gas stove for cooking at the table, and a steamboat hotpot which you can easily pick up in Chinatown.
10. This miso be cray-fish
Making good miso soup is the sort of thing that should be taught in schools, along with other important life skills such as how to boil an egg. Matthew Evans and Nick Haddow share this bowl from a Hobart market. Get this popular bowl right here.
11. Under this Tuscan bowl
This recipe is an easy alternative to the signature dish of Tuscan port city Livorno, the cacciucco or fish stew. Be sure to buy your baby octopus already cleaned to cut down on prep time.
12. The Brazilians sure know how to dance
This Brazilian seafood soup recipe is a great way to spice up fish. It's a simple stew with a base of tomato, onion, garlic and capsicum, with the addition of coconut milk showing its African influence.
13. Tamarind pop
This is a traditional Filipino stew of seafood and vegetables, with a strong tamarind flavour. When you take your spoon to the it you'll instantly be planning its return.
Under 90 minutes
14. Snap it up
This snapper dumpling tom yum soup is all about the broth - sour, salty, hot. Invest time in building complexity in the prawn stock and you'll never stray.
15. A twist on a sweetcorn fav
This is a deluxe version of a very simple Chinese dish - sweetcorn soup. The sweetness of the crab and corn pairing very nicely. Use the meat picked from a raw crab so you can utilise the shells in your stock to give this bowl a deeper crab flavour.
16. When clam is your jam
Fregola is Sardinia's famed, small round pasta. You could use moghrabieh (Middle Eastern pearl couscous); just toast it in a dry pan first, swirling the pan the whole time over a medium–high heat and to save on time if you buy the vacuum-packed, cleaned clams, there’s no need to purge them.
A little more time up your sleeve?
17. Peru's answer to bouillabaisse
Parihuela is fragrant, spicy and loaded with seafood. Don’t be tempted to omit the Peruvian chillies and paste from the recipe, as they lend unique and extremely fruity notes to the base of the soup.
18. Hawker at home
Also known as har mee, this hawker classic uses prawn shells and heads to develop its signature, full-flavoured broth. Do as the locals do and save shells and heads used for cooking other dishes in the freezer until you have enough – the more, the better the broth.
19. Somewhere in the middle
Rasam can be made in many ways – with varying contributions from tomato, pepper, lemon, cumin, chilli and tamarind water – but the result will always be food that comforts and restores. This Yotam Ottolenghi version is a meal in itself, somewhere between a hearty soup and a fish dish with a sauce.
20. Served with garlic aioli
A brodetto is an Italian fish soup or stew. The beauty of it is, once you have a nice base, you can add as many or as few seafood elements as you desire – it can be a simple quick and easy dinner or an extravagant ode to seafood.
21. Sensational satay
Is the peanutty soup in this recipe the original satay sauce? Whether it is or it isn't, this bowl is pretty darn good. Get the recipe here.
22. Show us your mussels
This Spanish-inspired sauce is slightly smoky from the charred onions. Add the crunch of almonds and the delightful astringency of saffron, and you’ve got a recipe for heavenly mussels.
Have we got your attention and your tastebuds? Tune in to The Chefs' Line, 6pm weeknights on SBS. Check out the program page for episode guides, cuisine lowdowns, recipes and more.
SBS Food is a 24/7 foodie channel for all Australians, with a focus on simple, authentic and everyday food inspiration from cultures everywhere. NSW stream only. Read more about SBS Food
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