Mussel soup. Creamy soup with mussels Mussel soup

When you want something special and unusual, sophisticated and refined, you don’t have to go to a restaurant. Try making mussel soup at home and you will surprise even the most picky guests. With this dish you are guaranteed success. In addition, frozen mussel soup is prepared very quickly.

Mussel soup was first prepared in the 16th century in New England. At that time, seafood was widespread due to its availability and low cost. Clam chowder is a traditional English clam soup with cream. The Manhattan version is made with tomato puree instead of cream, and vegetables are also added.

How to cook mussel soup:

For the soup, you can use boiled frozen mussels or a sea cocktail (a mixture of mussels, shrimp, squid, cuttlefish, small octopus).
You can also make soup from canned mussels.
Cook mussels for 3-5 minutes, frozen for up to 10 minutes. Overcooked seafood becomes tough and tasteless.
To avoid overpowering the delicate taste of seafood, do not add artificial seasonings or a lot of spices.

A simple and quick version of a classic dish. Ready in 20 minutes.

Ingredients:

400 ml cream with 10% fat content;
300 gr. frozen mussels;
2 cloves of garlic;
1 teaspoon curry powder.

Preparation:

Pour the cream into a saucepan and put on fire, bring to a boil, add curry powder and finely chopped garlic.
Cook for 5 minutes. Then add mussels to the soup, without defrosting, cook for another 3 minutes after boiling. Infuse the finished soup covered for 5-7 minutes and serve.

Manhattan mussel soup

This is a popular American tomato mussel soup.

You will need:

frozen sea cocktail, 200 grams;
5 stalks of petiole celery;
1 small carrot;
2 potatoes;
1 onion;
3 large tomatoes;
100 gr. fresh bacon;
2-3 cloves of garlic;
Bay leaf;
sprig of thyme;
parsley;
salt and pepper.

If you're wondering why you need bacon to make frozen mussel soup, it's simple. During rendering, the necessary fat is formed, and simply amazingly appetizing cracklings, which, however, will become one of the unusually tasty ingredients of the soup.

Preparation:

Boil the potatoes in their skins until half cooked, so that when cutting they do not lose their shape. Or you can bake unpeeled potatoes in the oven. Then peel the potatoes and cut into small cubes.
Pour 1 liter of water into a saucepan, bring to a boil and add the mussels there without defrosting first. Cook for 4-5 minutes, then remove the mussels from the broth.
Place chopped bacon in a preheated deep frying pan or saucepan. Fry over moderate heat until the lard is rendered and the cracklings turn brown. We take the cracklings onto a plate and set them aside.
Fry diced vegetables in melted lard: onions, carrots, celery (leave the upper part of the stem for serving) for 7 minutes.
Then add bay leaf, thyme and peeled tomato puree. Simmer for 3 minutes.
Pour in the broth in which the mussels were cooked. Add chopped garlic, salt. Cook for 20 minutes over low heat.
Now add prepared boiled potatoes, mussels, and parsley to the soup. Cook for another 2 minutes.

Pour the finished soup into bowls, add bacon cracklings if desired, and garnish with the top of the celery. Serve with saltine crackers.

Tip: If you have a cauldron, feel free to use it to prepare this soup. It is convenient to stew vegetables and cook soups in a cauldron.

Mussel soup with shrimp

To prepare you will need:

200 gr. frozen mussels;
5 large king prawns (preferably fresh frozen or fresh);
200 gr. fresh champignons;
3 meaty tomatoes;
2 tbsp. spoons of tomato paste;
a few drops of lemon juice;
1 tbsp. spoon of oyster sauce;
a bunch of cilantro.

Preparation of seafood soup with mushrooms:

Add tomato paste, lemon juice and oyster sauce to boiling water.
We divide the cilantro into beautiful leaves and add it to the soup.
Cut the champignons into quarters and add to the broth. Cook until tender, 15-20 minutes.
Peel the tomatoes and remove seeds, chop finely and add to the soup.
Then add the washed mussels and headless shrimp. Cook for another 5 minutes.

The soup is ready, serve hot!

Cheese soup with mussels

Ingredients:

A pack of mussels or sea cocktail;
1 carrot;
processed cheese;
1 onion;
2 potatoes;
3 tbsp. spoons of sweet green peas;
vegetable oil;
greens, pepper, salt to taste.

Preparation of tender cheese soup with mussels:

Add melted cheese to boiling water, stir until completely dissolved. If you use cheese in a briquette, first grate it on a medium grater. Cream cheese dissolves faster in tubs.
Add diced potatoes to the cheese broth
Then add fried onions and carrots in vegetable oil.
You can add sweet peas to the soup.
A couple of minutes before the soup is fully cooked, you need to add seafood.
Before serving, the delicate soup can be decorated with herbs to taste.

Try the delicious aromatic mussel soup. You now know how to prepare this dish and will easily please your household with a real restaurant dish. Enjoy your delicious culinary masterpieces!

Mussels are bivalve mollusks. Their meat is low in calories, but despite this, it is very nutritious and healthy. Mussels have an extraordinary supply of proteins, fluorine, phosphorus and iodine, which are necessary for our body. Their meat is used in many cuisines and is suitable for both salads and soups. It has a characteristic smell and a slightly sweetish creamy taste.

Great Mediterranean soup

You can prepare a wide variety of soups with mussels. They go well with tomato sauces, cheese, cream and milk. Often soy sauce or hot chili is added to this soup. It is not customary to use broth as a base, but sometimes you can find fish, vegetable or even meat broth. Mussels cook very quickly, which is a definite advantage.

How to cook mussel soup?

For soup, you can take frozen mussels, pre-cooked, or assorted seafood. Sometimes canned shellfish are used. The main thing is not to overcook this product, otherwise the meat will become tough and tasteless. Cook for 5 minutes, and frozen mussels for up to 10 minutes.
Spices and seasonings are usually not used, since the mussels themselves have a rich flavor that should not be overpowered.

Soup ingredients

For the dish you will need:

mussels - 250 g;
celery - 4 stalks;
tomatoes - 4 pcs.;
potatoes - 3 pcs.;
carrots - 1 pc.;
garlic - 2 cloves;
bacon - 100 g;
onion - 1 pc.;
fresh parsley;
thyme;
Bay leaf;
salt.

Bacon will be needed for frying vegetables, but it can be replaced with regular vegetable oil.

Step-by-step recipe instructions

Let's start preparing the soup:

Cook the mussels in a saucepan for about 5 minutes. Place the finished shellfish on a separate plate.
Boil the potatoes in their skins, peel and cut into small cubes. If you have free time, bake the potatoes in the oven, this will highlight the special taste of the delicacy.
Cut the celery stalks into rings.
Scald the tomatoes with boiling water and remove the skin. Cut into small cubes. You can even grind them into a paste using a blender.
Peel and finely chop the onion, grate the carrots.
Finely chop the bacon and fry in a frying pan until cracklings form. Remove the pieces from the pan and cook the vegetables in it.
First add the onions and carrots, then add the celery. Fry for about 5 minutes over high heat.
Sprinkle 0.5 teaspoon of thyme, previously crushed into dust, and add a bay leaf, hold for a couple more minutes.
Add tomatoes and pour in 2 cups of mussel broth. Simmer a little and put all the contents into the pan.
Salt, add chopped garlic. We wait until it boils and cook for half an hour.
Add potatoes, bacon cracklings and prepared mussels, sprinkle with chopped parsley. Turn off the heat and let it brew.

The soup tastes best when eaten hot. Garnish the plate with a sprig of celery or parsley. Use saltine crackers instead of bread.

Mussels (mytilids) are bivalves that live in seawater. They are mined everywhere, as they are distributed throughout almost all known seas and oceans. Shellfish meat has low calorie content and high nutritional value. Mussels contain a large percentage of protein, as well as iodine, fluorine and phosphorus - minerals characteristic of many seafood.

Their meat is widely used in Mediterranean, Asian and American cuisines. Cheap seafood has a pleasant sweetish taste with a barely pronounced creamy note and a characteristic odor. Shellfish are added to appetizers and salads, risotto and spaghetti, vegetable stews and soups.

Mussel soups are very diverse. They go well with the tomato, cheese and soy base of the broth. First courses with them are often seasoned with cow and coconut milk, cream, fish sauces and hot chili sauces. As a rule, broth is not boiled for soup, but in adapted versions, vegetable, fish and meat broths are used.

Mussel Soup Chowder

Soup in the traditions of American cuisine. According to this recipe, it is cooked not only from mussels, but also from any other seafood on hand.

Ingredients for 1.5 l. soup:

Mussels – 250 g.
Celery in stalks – 1-2 pcs.
Tomato – 2 pcs.
Carrots – 1 pc.
Garlic – 3 cloves.
Potatoes – 2 pcs.
Bacon - 3-4 strips.
Parsley – 50 g.
Bay leaf – 2-3 pcs.
Butter – 30 g.
Thyme.
Water – 1.5 l.

Preparation:

Boil or bake potatoes in their skins. Cool, peel (to make this easier, you can immerse it in cold water for a minute) and cut into cubes.
Blanch the tomatoes in boiling water, then remove the skins. Remove the seeds and grind the remaining pulp in a blender.
Chop the onion, celery, bacon and carrots into small cubes.
Boil water and place mussels in it. There is no need to defrost them. Cook for 2-3 minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon and set aside for the time being. If the mollusks still have spiracles (resemble a piece of sponge or algae), remove them.
Melt the butter and sauté the onions and carrots in it. Transfer the prepared vegetables to the mussel broth. Cook over low heat.
Separately, fry the bacon until crispy. Remove the bacon and set it aside, and crush three cloves of garlic into the resulting fat. After a couple of minutes, pour in the tomato puree, add thyme and celery cubes. Place bay leaf.
Add celery with tomato puree to the soup, removing the bay leaf that has already given off its aromas.
Salt and season the dish. Cook for a couple of minutes, then add the mussels, baked potatoes and chopped parsley.
Serve the finished soup with salted crackers or dried and salted pita bread.

Creamy soup with mussels in English

A very simple seafood dish. In the original version, it is prepared with three (not counting spices) main components - mussels, garlic and thickened cream, but now nuts, dried seaweed, onions, etc. are often added to shellfish.

Ingredients for 1 liter. soup:

Mussels – 300 g.
Leek – 1 stalk.
Butter – 30 g.
Walnut - to taste.
Cream 20% fat – 700 ml.
Curry seasoning – 2 tsp.
Garlic – 2 cloves.
Salt and favorite spices to taste.

Preparation:

Place the saucepan with the cream on low heat and boil.
Melt the butter and sauté the finely chopped lower part of the leek in it (bringing until golden brown is not required).
As soon as the onion becomes translucent, remove it from the pan, leaving any excess fat on it.
Pour frozen mussels into boiling cream and cook for 3 minutes. Add curry seasoning, mashed garlic and salt.
As soon as the mussels are cooked, season the soup with fried leeks. Cook for a couple of minutes and remove from heat.
Serve with white bread croutons, sprinkled with walnuts, roasted in a dry frying pan.

Cheese mussel soup

It turns out quite attractive even without the addition of dry white wine and spicy basil, but for a festive occasion it is better to use all of the above components. Wine and dried herbs give the soup a special piquancy. It's also a good idea to add cumin or fennel seeds to the dish.

Ingredients for 1.5 l. soup:

Processed cheese – 200 g.
Mussels – 400 g.
Dry white wine – 100 ml.
Dried basil – 3 tbsp. l.
Fresh cilantro – 50 g.
Water – 1 l.
Salt.

Preparation:

Pour dry wine into a thick-walled pan. Boil it and add frozen mussels. Cook over low heat, gradually evaporating it.
When there is almost no wine left, pour water over the mussels. Boil it, then gradually add grated processed cheese into the water, mixing the contents of the pan well.
After melting the cheese, add herbs, salt and any other spices.
Cook for about 3 minutes and turn off the heat.
Serve with white bread and garnish the plate with finely chopped fresh cilantro.

Step 1: prepare the mussels.

Place the mussels in a deep bowl and rinse thoroughly under running water. Drain the water and set aside for a while.

Step 2: prepare the garlic.

Using a knife, peel the garlic and rinse lightly under running water. Place the cloves on a cutting board and finely chop. Transfer the crushed component into a free saucer.

Step 3: prepare the dill.

We wash the dill under running water, shake off excess liquid over the sink and place it on a cutting board. Divide the bunch of greens into two halves and set one of them aside for a while. Finely chop the second part with a knife and transfer it to a deep bowl.

Step 4: prepare the lemon.

Rinse the lemon under running water and place on a cutting board. Using a knife, cut the citrus into two halves and place them in a clean saucer.

Step 5: prepare mussel soup.

Pour olive oil into a large saucepan or cauldron until it completely covers the bottom. Place the container on medium heat. When the oil is hot, turn on the burner and add chopped garlic to the pan. Stirring everything from time to time with a wooden spatula, fry the component until caramel color. After this, put finely chopped dill into a container and mix everything well.

Now place the mussels in a container, sprinkle the remaining sprigs of dill on top and cover everything with a lid. Cooking mussels 20 minutes. During this time, the shells will open and the seafood will release juice. Actually, this liquid will be our kind of soup. After this, open the lid and squeeze the juice from two lemon halves into the pan. Now we need to separate the soup from the mussels. To do this, do not completely close the container with the lid and, holding everything with oven mitts, pour the liquid into a medium saucepan. That's it, the mussel soup is ready!

Step 6: Serve the mussel soup.

In this form we serve mussel soup to the dinner table. Already in the presence of guests, we pour the liquid using a ladle into deep plates.

Using a kitchen spoon, place the mussels in their shells onto flat plates. To taste this unique dish, we repeat the sequence of these actions: with clean hands we tear off part of the shell and put it aside (we won’t need it). In the second part, together with the mussel, we take a little soup and enjoy the dish. This is an unearthly dish that will conquer everyone not only with its taste, but also with its aroma.
Enjoy your meal!

When serving the dish at the dinner table, you can also offer guests wet hot towels so that they can dry their hands every time they open the mussel shells;

When serving the dish, guests can also be offered a glass of dry red wine and grilled vegetables;

To prepare the soup, you must use only fresh mussels. Attention: without water, such seafood can live for another three days. In this regard, they can be purchased in advance and even transported from another place.

Mussel soup cooked with fried vegetables is a tasty and nutritious dish, and mussels can be replaced with any seafood or a “sea cocktail” type mixture. American cuisine has excellent thick soups made from all kinds of shellfish, the common name for soups is Chowder, or Clam Chowder.

I still don't understand what clam means. It is believed that this term refers to any edible bivalves, with the exception of mussels and oysters. Very tasty thick soups are prepared from such shellfish. Once in the USA, in Monterey Bay, we tasted one of the options - clam chowder, the so-called cream, New England clam chowder. Served in sour dough bread with selected crumb. It's unusual and very tasty.

One subtle point in preparing real Clam chowder: our choice of shellfish is usually limited to mussels or sea cocktail - a frozen mixture of seafood (shrimp, mussels, octopus, cuttlefish, squid). But, as they say, even without fish there are fish. Let's limit ourselves to mussels and prepare a delicious mussel soup.

Clam chowder is considered a traditional and popular American dish, known since the 16th century. It was first prepared in New England. The clams were very affordable and easy to assemble, making a great base for soup. Restaurants very often prepare Clam chowder according to their own recipes, departing quite significantly from the classics. Although there are plenty of disputes about what a classic is.

Unlike the New England version, Manhattan Clam Chowder is made with tomatoes rather than cream. With the addition of potatoes, onions, stalked celery, carrots. Manhattan chowder is also called “New York” chowder, or Fulton Fish Market clam chowder. And only at the beginning of the last century the name was assigned to the soup - Manhattan.

Inspired by the Manhattan Clam Chowder, you can make a wonderful mussel soup without deviating too much from many of the original recipes. Regular vegetables that are in the refrigerator or are easy to buy, a piece of pork bacon, lard or lard product - this is necessary for frying vegetables, frozen mussels and saltine crackers. The soup itself is very easy to prepare. By the way, it is convenient to cook mussel soup not in a saucepan, but in a deep saucepan.

Mussel soup. Step by step recipe

Ingredients (2 servings)

Frozen mussels 200 gr
Celery (petiole) 2-3 stems
Potatoes 2 pcs
Carrot 1 piece
Tomatoes 3-4 pcs
Onion 1 piece
Garlic 2 cloves
Parsley 3-4 sprigs
Lard or bacon 50 gr
Thyme, bay leaf, salt, hot red pepper Spices

Bacon or a piece of any lard is needed to render fat for subsequent frying of vegetables into mussel soup. And the greaves remaining after rendering, if not eaten immediately, will be an excellent addition to the soup. All other ingredients are available vegetables. And mussels are always available frozen.
Vegetables for Clam Chowder
Cut the celery stalks (petioles) into cubes. It is worth leaving a couple of stem tips with leaves to decorate the soup. Scald the tomatoes with boiling water and remove the skin. Remove the seeds and chop the pulp very finely. Or even grind it in a blender until pureed.
Frozen mussels
Peel the onions and carrots and cut into cubes. Cut the lard into small pieces.
Mussels do not need to be defrosted. Boil mussels in 1 liter of water to obtain broth. No more than 3 minutes, otherwise the mussels will become tough and rubber-like. Use the broth to make soup. By the way, if the mussel broth does not look very appetizing, and when using “grown” mussels, this is very likely, then it is better to drain it and cook the mussel soup in water.
Fry the chopped bacon in a frying pan until it becomes semi-dry cracklings. In terms of color, they will already begin to burn. Carefully remove all the cracklings onto a plate and set aside.
Fry chopped bacon in a frying pan until it becomes semi-dry cracklings.
Fry the chopped onion in the pork fat formed after the greaves. When the onion becomes soft, add carrots and chopped stalked celery. Continue to fry over high heat, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes.
Fry chopped onion
Add 0.5 tsp of dry thyme (thyme), rubbing it with your fingers. Add bay leaf. Fry for another 2-3 minutes, stirring.
Add carrots and chopped stalked celery
Add tomato puree to the mussel soup. Stir, pour in 2-3 cups of broth in which the mussels were cooked, or water.
Add tomato puree to soup
Salt the mussel soup and add finely chopped garlic. There is no need to grate the garlic, it is better to chop it with a knife, then there will be less garlic juice.
After 10 minutes, add not very coarsely chopped potatoes to the mussel soup and cook for 15 minutes until the potatoes are ready.
Add not very coarsely chopped potatoes to the mussel soup
Add the boiled mussels, stir and let the mussel soup simmer over low heat for another 2-3 minutes.