Healthy Oyster Recipes

If you've never cooked oysters on the grill, you're in for a treat. Grilling oysters whole saves you the trouble of shucking them--they magically pop open when cooked. A simple garlic herb butter adds richness and a bright pop of flavor to this impressive appetizer. To pretty it up use Irish butter, which is extra-golden because Irish cows typically enjoy an all-grass diet.

Take a basic corn chowder recipe, add potatoes, jalapeños, and oysters and what do you get? A hearty 45-minute soup that will have people begging for seconds.

Topped with a buttered-up blend of toasted almonds, savory anchovy and fresh herbs, this broiled oyster recipe is rich, intense and downright delicious. Serve the oysters as a first course with a dry amontillado sherry and crusty bread.

With this easy appetizer recipe, you'll end up with more roasted tomatoes and compound butter than you'll need for the oysters. Use the extra on pasta salad, tucked into sandwiches and on grilled steaks, chicken or fish.

It may seem a little intimidating to open an oyster, but after a little practice it gets easier. Classically oysters are served raw on the half shell with a little mignonette sauce, which refers in French to “black pepper,” but you can also enjoy them without any sauce at all.

It may seems a little intimidating to open an oyster, but after a little practice it gets easier. In this recipe, the oysters are served with a spiced-up, California-style version of mignonette sauce inspired by the folks at Hog Island Oyster Company on Tomales Bay in Northern California.

This healthy stuffing recipe with oysters and butternut squash is a lightened-up version of the must-have holiday side. Whether you call it stuffing or dressing, you can make it moist or crispy. If you're an extra-moist-stuffing type, bake it covered for the full 50 minutes; if you like some crispy bits on top, follow the recipe as written: bake covered for about 30 minutes, then uncovered for an additional 20 minutes.

This oyster stew can be transformed from a comforting one-pot meal to an elegant dish for guests when you top it with Caviar Toasts: Dollop toasted slices of baguette with 1 teaspoon sour cream, 1/2 teaspoon caviar and a sprinkle of herbs. Place each toast atop a steaming bowl of stew. Serve with a salad of butter lettuce, orange segments and red onion tossed with vinaigrette.

The great thing about barbecuing oysters is you don't need to shuck them. Put the oysters right on the grill and cook until the steam inside the oysters pops the shells open. Drizzle with a little spicy Thai sauce and you're done.

If you're intimidated by shucking oysters--this recipe for barbecued oysters is for you. When you grill them, steam builds up inside the shells until they pop open. Then you slather a little garlicky red barbecue sauce on each oyster, put them back on the grill to get hot and bubbly, and you're done. At a party, bring your oysters to the grill and show your guests how it's done so they can barbecue their own.

Invented at Antoine's in New Orleans in 1889, oysters Rockefeller was named for John D. Rockefeller, one of the richest Americans at the time, for its rich sauce. Antoine's has kept the original recipe secret, but basically it includes a cream sauce with spinach and other greens, flavored with Pernod or anisette. This version omits the cream sauce but is still full of flavor.

This oyster soup bursts with the heady flavors of the sea. Rather than heavy cream, this recipe uses pureed rice to add body and the mellow sweetness needed to balance the oysters. It makes an elegant starter for a dinner party.

This delicate oyster soup recipe sets the tone for celebration at any meal. We made this stew healthier by primarily using low-fat milk and increasing the amount of vegetables. Don't worry about shucking the oysters--most supermarket seafood departments carry shucked oysters. Serve with crusty bread to sop up all the delicious bits at the bottom of the bowl.

Packed with oysters, Parmesan and herbs, these stuffed artichokes make a spectacular meal along with a fresh salad. Cooking the artichokes first softens the leaves so they're easier to stuff.

Cioppino is a fish stew traditionally made by Italian fishermen who settled in the North Beach/Fisherman's Wharf section of San Francisco. It was originally made on fishing boats with whatever fish were at hand. This cioppino comes to us from California chef and cooking teacher John Ash, who has been an advocate for sustainable-food issues for years and has served on the board of advisors of Seafood Watch--the advocacy arm of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Ash chose a variety of shellfish for this recipe, all of which are Seafood Watch Best Choices or Good Alternatives.

Oysters, mussels, bass and salmon are cooked in caraway-infused beer broth in this rich seafood stew.