Seafood Made Simple: This mussel minestrone is a good way to clean out your vegetable drawer

Aishling Moore's mussel minestrone. Picture: Chani Anderson

Minestrone, Italy’s national soup is one of my most favourites for cleaning out the vegetable drawer in the fridge. 

Odds and ends of left over root vegetables, the dregs of the bottom of the pasta packets, a tin of beans from the back of the press and you have the makings of a serious pot of food. 

A soup like minestrone is not just an accompaniment to a sandwich, it has the all the flavour and nourishment of an evening meal.

The key to any good soup or stew relies solely on the stock you’ll choose to use. When I want to add real depth of flavour to any seafood dish, I’ll always use mussels. 

The umami rich sea essence that’s released from these tiny little molluscs is the finest marine stock of them all.

Mussels are the future of how we are going to be consuming seafood so its important we all familiarise ourselves with easy ways to incorporate them into our diets and into our busy schedules. 

Mussels are jam packed with nutrients; vitamin B- 12, iron, omega-3 fatty acids and protein containing all nine essential amino acids. 

Along with numerous health benefits, the act of growing mussels; Regenerative aquaculture provides ecosystems for other marine life, sequesters carbon and nitrogen from the environment and improve the water quality around them. 

One mussel can filter up to 15 gallons of water a day! 

In this weekend’s recipe I have used margheritine, a small little shell or petal shaped pasta as it cooks super quick and looks adorable, but any pasta you have will work. 

Just follow the recommended cooking times on the package. The pasta could be swapped out for some diced potato, pulses or grains.

Chef know-how

 

• Mussels should only be cooked when alive so discard any that have cracked shells or do not close when tapped. They should smell fresh and of the seaside.
• To clean mussels fill a large bowl with water and add the mussels to the water. Using a small paring knife remove any barnacles from the shells and the beard of the mussel. The beard is what the mussel uses to attach itself to the surface on which it grows: you’ll find it halfway up the mussel.
• Rinse the cleaned mussels in a colander and refrigerate until just before cooking
• Building layers of flavours is key to creating a delicious soup. So, taking the time to allow each addition of vegetable to cook and sweeten is worthwhile.

Mussel Minestrone

The key to any good soup or stew relies solely on the stock you’ll choose to use. When I want to add real depth of flavour to any seafood dish, I’ll always use mussels.

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 40 mins

Cooking Time

 10 mins

Total Time

 50 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 1kg mussels, cleaned

• 150ml dry white wine

• 2tbsp rapeseed oil

• 1 small onion, diced

• 1 celery stalk, diced

• 1 carrot, diced

• 4 garlic cloves, minced

• ¼ tsp black pepper, freshly cracked

• Sea salt

• 1 courgette, diced

• 700ml fish stock

• 75g kale, chopped

• 2 tbsp rapeseed oil

• 2 tbsp rapeseed oil

• Juice and zest 1 lemon

• 75g chard, chopped

• 90g pasta

Method

1. To cook the mussels pre-heat a heavy based pot on a medium – high heat.

2. Drain the mussels well. Add the white wine to the pot then immediately adding the mussels and place a tight-fitting lid on the pot.

3. Give the pot a little shake and leave to cook covered for 3 minutes.

4. Remove the lid, all the mussels should be cooked at this stage. Discard any that haven’t opened.

5. Tip the whole contents of the pot into a colander sitting on top of a bowl to catch all that mussel stock. Pass through a fine sieve to remove any grit that may have been released when cooking. Set aside.

6. Allow the mussels to cool slightly before picking each from their shells and setting them aside.

7. Begin to make the base of the soup. Heat the rapeseed oil and sweat the onion, celery and carrot for 3 minutes. Add the garlic and sweat for a further 2 minutes. Season with black pepper and sea salt.

8. Next add the diced courgette and sweat for 1 minute before adding the reserved mussel stock and fish stock. Bring the soup to the boil.

9. Whilst the soup is coming to the boil place the chopped kale, rapeseed oil, lemon juice and zest in a food processor and blend on full speed until pureed.

10. Once the soup has come to the boil add the pasta and cook depending on the size of the pasta until al dente.

11. Once the pasta is cooked add the pureed kale mixture, chopped chard and shelled mussels to the pot to the pot and bring back to the boil before serving.

12. Serve with pesto and warm crusty bread.