Healthy Mussel Recipes

This Fisherman's stew recipe is loaded with cod, shrimp, and mussels and will warm you right up on cold winter days. The crostini served alongside are made with homemade roasted garlic, and perfect for soaking up every last morsel of the stew.

This combination of mussels with plenty of garlic, parsley, saffron and white wine was inspired by the Venetian soup zuppa de peoci, which is usually ladled over sliced crusty bread. Here we serve it over pasta. For a more elegant presentation you can remove the mussels from their shells before serving…but then again, who wants to be elegant? Enjoy!

Our quick take on paella is studded with mussels and shrimp. Traditional paella made with short-grain rice takes a while to cook and can be a bit tricky. Instant brown rice is a great shortcut--what it lacks in authenticity it more than makes up for in convenience. Make sure you seek out saffron, which gives the dish its distinctive yellow color and signature flavor. Serve with: Spinach salad.

With fresh mussels increasingly available at supermarket fish counters, you can easily make this bistro favorite at home.

You will find versions of this hearty fish stew all along Italy's Adriatic coast. In Abruzzo, the stew is spiked with hot pepper and served with grilled or toasted bread to sop up the sauce. Be sure to find the freshest fish possible and serve with your favorite Italian wine.

In this Italian paella recipe, potatoes and other vegetables are layered with mussels and rice and baked in a casserole dish. Be sure to cover the rice completely with vegetables to ensure it cooks properly.

This simple but elegant dish pairs flavorful steamed mussels with crispy oven fries. Uncork an American chardonnay to sip alongside.

In this healthy seafood dinner recipe, a 3-ounce serving of mussels delivers 665 mg of heart-healthy omega-3s--about what you'd get from the same amount of albacore tuna. Serve with crusty whole-grain bread or brown-rice noodles to soak up the delectable sauce.

Paella started as an outdoor dish. Grilling seafood, zesty sausage and vegetables before combining them with saffron-scented rice replicates that traditional character. Note that perfectly done paella rice will be dry and the slightest bit toothsome: it's not creamy or overly moist.

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 It was originally made on fishing boats with whatever fish were at hand.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.

Cooking mussels in a slow cooker? You bet! It's the right tool for building the rich and spicy broth in which these shellfish cook to perfection. Use the freshest mussels you can find, and have the fishmonger clean them for you.

This simple and delicious mussels recipe is restaurant-worthy. Just make sure you clean your mussels well before cooking: Give them a rinse under cold running water and use a brush to remove any barnacles or grit from the shell. Discard mussels with broken shells or those whose shells remain open after you tap them lightly. Pull off any fibrous "beard" that may be pinched between the shells.