This is a lovely, light, clear fish soup with cherry tomatoes, greens and peas. I designed it as a walleye soup, but any white fish works. This is great as a first course or light supper.

This is a very simple soup that hinges on the quality of the ingredients. It’s a zillion times better if you make your own fish stock, or, even better, a fish consomme. While you could make a walleye soup with store-bought fish stock, I highly recommend you making your own.

Here’s my fish stock recipe, and here is how I make fish consomme.

The fish stock takes only about 45 minutes, the consomme is more involved, but cleaner and clearer and way better. So stock if you are rushed for time, consomme if you want to impress someone… or yourself.

Either way, to make this a clear fish soup, you must not boil the stock. That will turn it cloudy and fishy. Put yourself in the mindset of making tea rather than boiling a stew. If you do that, your stock will be reasonably clear, and you can get away without making a consomme.

Obviously, the fish is important to this recipe. Walleye are my model because I live in Minnesota, but any lean, firm fish works fine: snapper, black seabass or striped bass, crappie, perch, Pacific rockfish, lingcod, porgies or grouper or even catfish will all work.

Sharp-eyed folks will notice that I used walleye cheeks here. I like using fish cheeks because they have a denser texture and look cool — and, they don’t fall apart as easily as do chunks of the fillet. But chunks of fillet are fine, too.

Because the broth is the star in a clear fish soup, you want it to be as tasty as you can get it, then garnish with things that add to the party. I chose peas to add color and heft, lambsquarters for greens, cherry tomatoes for color and tartness and a touch of sweet, then thinly sliced serrano chiles for a bit of heat.

You don’t need my exact ingredients for your walleye soup, but remember:

• Something to bulk it up, like peas, beans, pasta or rice (cooked separately to keep the broth clear), or even diced potatoes.
• A green thing, wild or store-bought, like spinach, amaranth greens, chard, mustard greens, beet greens, radish greens, etc.
• Either cherry tomatoes or diced, seeded Roma tomatoes, or roasted sweet peppers.
• A touch of chile, if you want it. Freshly ground black pepper works, too.

Super simple. You serve this clear fish soup by getting the broth to the steaming point, or even a very gentle simmer, then adding the remaining ingredients for only a few minutes. Everything should be bright and fresh and light. Do not cook anything in the broth for more than 5 minutes.

If you have leftovers, gently reheat. I like to make a large batch of consomme or broth and then dip into that for multiple rounds of walleye soup, each slightly different than the last, depending on my mood or what I have around.