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Mussel soup

Felix Intelegando Updated All recipes

This mussel soup steams fresh mussels in white wine with onion, leek, garlic and herbs, then finishes the broth with vermouth, cream and saffron. It serves four and takes about 30 minutes: 10 to prepare, 20 on the stove.

Easy and quick, it suits a weeknight as well as New Year or a family party.

Creamy saffron mussel soup in a wide white bowl, open mussels in a golden broth with onion, leek, chopped parsley and a thyme sprig, on a wooden table beside a linen napkin
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Creamy saffron mussel soup in a wide white bowl, open mussels in a golden broth with onion, leek, chopped parsley and a thyme sprig, on a wooden table beside a linen napkin

Recipe

Mussel soup

Prep
10 mins
Cook
20 mins
Total
30 mins
Serves
4 servings

Ingredients

Method

  1. Peel and chop onion, leek and garlic nicely.
  2. Remove the root part of the leek and its outer leaves on the white part, and cut it thinly.
  3. Rinse parsley and thyme and chop the parsley.
  4. Bring some olive oil into a large pot, where all the mussels can be placed in, and stir all the herbs for a couple of minutes.
  5. Add white wine and boil.
  6. Add some pepper. In this step, you don’t need to add salt, since by nature, the mussels are salty. So be careful!
  7. Add the mussels – if fresh, they should of course be cleaned first
  8. Cook at high heat for 4-6 minutes while stir the pot a couple of times along the way, so that the mussels are shaken apart.
  9. Add the vermouth and let it boil a little.
  10. Add cream and saffron and let it boil for a faint quench for a few minutes until the soup gets a little color.
  11. Season with salt to taste.

Step by step, in pictures

The whole soup is made in one large pot, so the method is mostly a matter of adding things in the right order. These six drawings follow the card.

  1. Line drawing of a chef's knife cutting an onion on a wooden board, with diced onion, sliced leek rounds and garlic cloves beside itChop the onion, leek and garlic.
  2. Line drawing from above of a pot of chopped onion, leek, garlic and thyme sprigs being stirred with a spoonSoften them with the herbs in olive oil.
  3. Line drawing of white wine being poured from a bottle into a pot on the stovePour in the white wine and bring it to the boil.
  4. Line drawing of mussels in their shells being tipped from a colander into a large potAdd the cleaned mussels.
  5. Line drawing of a steaming pot full of open mussels being stirred with a long spoon over a flameCook on high heat, stirring, until they open.
  6. Line drawing of cream being poured from a jug into a wide pot of open mussels, with a small empty dish beside the potFinish with vermouth, then cream and saffron.

How to clean and check fresh mussels

Rinse the mussels under cold running water rather than leaving them to sit in a bowl of water, and pull off the beards and any grit as you go. Cleaning and checking mussels takes no special skill, whatever the myths say.

Check each one while you clean. Throw away any mussel with a cracked or broken shell. If a mussel is open, knock it lightly against the sink: a live one closes. If it has not closed after a few minutes, discard it. Both checks match the US FDA’s seafood guidance.

After cooking, the mussels should all be open, though not necessarily wide open. If a lot of them are still shut, give the pot a little longer, but not so long that the open ones turn tough. Any that stay closed after that go in the bin; the FDA’s advice is to throw out mussels that do not open during cooking.

Fresh or frozen mussels?

Either works, but fresh ones taste better. It takes a moment to get used to the idea that the mussels are alive, but fresh is what this recipe is written for. If you buy frozen, ask your supplier whether the mussels were frozen while they were still fresh. If they cannot tell you, do not buy them.

Leave frozen packs on the shelf if they are open, torn or crushed at the edges, or if they show frost or ice crystals, which the FDA says can mean the seafood was stored a long time or thawed and refrozen.

What is the broth in this mussel soup?

There is no stock in it. The broth is dry white wine and vermouth, the juices the mussels release as they open, and cream, coloured and scented with saffron. Many other mussel soups are built on tomato, on fish or chicken stock, or on a clear broth; this one belongs firmly to the creamy kind.

Common mistakes when making mussel soup

  • Salting too early. Mussels are naturally salty, so only pepper goes in before them, and salt waits until the very end, to taste.
  • Using a pot that is too small. Every mussel has to fit in the pot at once, with room to stir it a couple of times so they are shaken apart.
  • Overcooking. The mussels need 4 to 6 minutes on high heat. Cooking on and on to coax open a few stubborn shells only makes the rest tough.
  • Cooking mussels that were dead before they went in. Sort out cracked shells, and open shells that will not close when tapped, before the pot goes on.

What to serve with mussel soup

For side dishes and drinks, see our guide to what to serve with mussels.

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