Ginger is inexpensive, a lovely, zesty flavour comes from it and it also has a multitude of health benefits attached to eating it.
Ginger is good for settling a stomach, can fight off nausea, is good for your blood circulation and it promotes the production of bile in your gall bladder.
Ginger is used to make the popular Ginger Ale, used often in the making of sweets, teas and of course, savory dishes.
This soup was a surprise in flavour and in appearance. The ginger and the mussels are pronounced and the red bits of red pepper provide the soup with some sweetness to offset the bold taste of mussels and mellow out the spicy ginger.
You can use fresh steamed mussels or use the frozen varieties out there which are perfectly fine for this quick soup. I thawed some mussels and threw them into the soup at the end to cook through.
Add a swirl of heavy cream at the end and you have an exotic, restaurant type of creamy soup that will impress your dinner guests, despite the minimal effort.
With Mussels and Ginger
1 lb. of shucked or thawed from frozen mussel meat
1/3 cup Muscat white wine
2 Tbsp. of grated fresh ginger
1 large onion, diced
1 leek, white part only, diced
1/4 cup olive oil
3 Tbsp. of flour
6 cups of vegetable or seafood stock
1/2 red pepper, finely diced
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp of Old Bay seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
- In a medium sized pot, add your olive oil and heat up under medium-high heat. Add your onions, leek and ginger and saute for 7-10 minutes to soften.
- Add your flour and stir with a wooden spoon to cook the flour out for about 2 minutes.
- When the flour becomes a paste, add your wine, stock and red peppers and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cover with a the lid ajar for about 30 minutes.
- Remove the lid, adjust seasoning and cook for another 10 minutes for the soup to thicken.
- Add your mussel meat, turn off the heat and cover your pot. Give the mussels about 10 minutes to cook from the residual heat.
- Add your cream and adjust your seasoning with salt and pepper.
Sounds delicious. I’ve already saved this post to del.icio.us so I can link to it when I write something about ginger! No mussels here though, darn. Maybe I could use shrimp?
This sounds like a comforting and yet extraordinary soup Peter…like a restaurant at home :D
I have fresh ginger a lot at home. I make lentil soup, curry chicken using it. That gives a special flavor to any dish.
Hi Peter, This looks and sounds delicious. Ginger is one of my favourite foods of all time – I have never tried it with mussels, but this sounds like a great way to team them up.
That looks heavenly! I love ginger root so much, and if I could find good mussels, I would make this.
The soup looks delicious, but I came back to your site to have another look at the phyllo pastry – that is a damn good effort and I still have to scrap together some courage to try it. I put your blog on my favorite list.
The soup looks delicious, but I came back to your site to have another look at the phyllo pastry – that is a damn good effort and I still have to scrap together some courage to try it. I put your blog on my favorite list.
The soup looks delicious, but I came back to your site to have another look at the phyllo pastry – that is a damn good effort and I still have to scrap together some courage to try it. I put your blog on my favorite list.
The soup looks delicious, but I came back to your site to have another look at the phyllo pastry – that is a damn good effort and I still have to scrap together some courage to try it. I put your blog on my favorite list.
The soup looks delicious, but I came back to your site to have another look at the phyllo pastry – that is a damn good effort and I still have to scrap together some courage to try it. I put your blog on my favorite list.
The soup looks delicious, but I came back to your site to have another look at the phyllo pastry – that is a damn good effort and I still have to scrap together some courage to try it. I put your blog on my favorite list.
The soup looks delicious, but I came back to your site to have another look at the phyllo pastry – that is a damn good effort and I still have to scrap together some courage to try it. I put your blog on my favorite list.
The soup looks delicious, but I came back to your site to have another look at the phyllo pastry – that is a damn good effort and I still have to scrap together some courage to try it. I put your blog on my favorite list.
The soup looks delicious, but I came back to your site to have another look at the phyllo pastry – that is a damn good effort and I still have to scrap together some courage to try it. I put your blog on my favorite list.
This must be a great soup but I don’t think it’s something I will be cooking soon. I’ve been trying to find ginger for a time now (I’ve tried the big supermarket chains, unsuccessfully) so I must try and find an Asian food shop and there are not many in Athens.
Peter, this sounds like a wonderful soup for us to try but where are your dolmades? :P
It seems that you were exhausted after the phyllo dough… he,he! An easy soup, but it has impressed me the same!!! I must try ginger, never did before. Plus it gives a beautiful colour to the dish!
Kalyn, that sounds wonderful, thank you! It seems you folks in the West have difficulties getting mussels there…shrimp would change the flavour quite a bit.
Val, at my “restaurant”…no bill to pay!
Helene, I’ve become a big fan of ginger.
Sher, once again..it seems folks on the left coast don’t have mussels readily available, strange in this world where everything can be flown in.
Nina, thank you very much for adding me to your blog’s links.
Ivy, you’re in Athens – not the horio…try Chinatown…must be some ginger nearby.
Pixie…see the Dolmades yet? lol
Nuria, ginger is a great accent for dishes.
Looks and sounds like something you would order in the best of restaurants, Peter!!
I love bivalves. Nature’s Hoover, they are!
Does that lovely amber color come from the seafood stock? I have a bunch of crawfish stock that needs eating.
Maria, I would order this in a restaurant too!
Heather, mollusks are tops, despite them living on the bottom!
Lovely creamy soup it looks delicious. :-)