Recipe Roundup

35 Mussels Recipes for Fancy but Easy Weeknight Dinners

It's time to mussel up! The quick-cooking shellfish is prime for an elegant but truly no-fuss meal.

August 10, 2020

Beersteamed mussels with chorizo and baguette slices in a shallow bowl.

A mussels recipe just might be the answer you're looking for, if your question is what to make for dinner tonight that's both quick and special-feeling. Whether they're simply steamed, sauced up, or tossed with pasta, mixed into a seafood stew or blitzed into a bisque, mussels are easy to cook and fun to eat. Once you’ve purchased them, clean and debeard the mussels. Then, let this collection of our best mussel recipes help you find your way to an elegant dinner—yes, even on a Tuesday.

Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Anna Stockwell
1/35
Mussels With Chorizo and Tomatoes on Toast
Topping fried bread with brothy mussels, beans, and tomatoes turns it into a hearty knife-and-fork dinner. It's a truly satisfying mussels recipe that uses just a little bit of highly-flavorful Spanish chorizo for deep flavor.
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Photo by Evan Sung
2/35
Mussels in Light Broth
These mussels from chef Asha Gomez are steamed in a tomato-based rasam that's scented with cumin, asafoetida, ginger, and garlic. They're topped with a tarka of curry leaves and mustard seeds.
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Gentl & Hyers
3/35
Mussels With White Wine
Start with some onions, garlic, tomato paste, and white wine, add debearded, scrubbed mussels, and you'll be ready for dinner in a jiffy. A homemade aioli with lemon for brightness is a luxurious addition—you can make it a day in advance if you'd like.
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Photo by Charles Masters, Food styling by Sue Li
4/35
Cioppino Seafood Stew With Gremolata Toasts
This fragrant seafood stew features mussels alongside littleneck clams, shrimp, and your choice of flaky white fish. (Halibut is nice!) Making the soup base a day in advance makes dinner prep much more manageable.
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Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Joanna Keohane
5/35
Beer-Steamed Mussels With Chorizo
Add a green salad, and dinner’s on the table in less than half an hour.
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Photo by Christopher Testani.
6/35
Shellfish Boil with Spicy Green Dipping Sauce
With a mega-flame and a gargantuan pot, you can cook an ocean's worth of seafood in a fraction of the time it would take on the stovetop—without stepping foot in a steamy kitchen.
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Ditte Isager
7/35
Mussels with Fennel and Lovage
If you're looking to get a little more ambitious with your mussels game, look to this method with verjus (a tart bottled juice made from unripe grapes) and lovage, a leafy herb that looks and tastes similar to celery leaves.
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Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Ali Nardi
8/35
Sheet-Pan Paella With Chorizo, Mussels, and Shrimp
Lose the paella pan: with a sheet pan as a DIY steamer, this classic Spanish dish comes together in a snap.
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Photo by Romulo Yanes
9/35
Summer Tomato Bouillabaisse with Basil Rouille
Briny clams or cockles and mussels give this quick bouillabaisse its depth of flavor. The basil rouille (a garlicky Provençal mayonnaise) adds vibrance to the dish.
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Photo by Alex Lau
10/35
Mussels With Spicy Tomato Oil and Grilled Bread
Mussels steam in the same saucepan as chili-and-fennel-spiced tomato sauce in this effortless supper.
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Photo by Romulo Yanes
11/35
Mussels and Fries with Mustard Mayonnaise
Moules-frites is not as difficult as you'd suspect. The trick to making really great French fries at home is frying from frozen. This allows them to crisp up on the outside just enough and reheat the interior. Then dinner can be like a night at your favorite bistro, even if you're home.
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Photo by Kamil Bialous
12/35
Stout-Steamed Shellfish with Charred Onions
Stout and shellfish are a classic combination. In this mussels recipe, you just need a single bottle of the beer, and plenty of scrubbled mussels or clams. Garlic and thyme add flavor to the broth; be sure to have some bread on hand for dipping.
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Linda Xiao
13/35
Steamed Mussels with Tomato and Chorizo Broth
Sweet cherry tomatoes, earthy chorizo, and a splash of wine do the heavy lifting. Just stand back and watch.
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Photo by Tara Donne
14/35
Shellfish and Potatoes à la Marinière
While they cook, mussels release juice that blends with the white wine in the cooking broth.
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