How to cook mussels in a simple, yet utterly delicious way – steamed in a garlic white wine lemon sauce! It’s quick, easy and the best part is mopping up the incredible sauce with crusty bread!
Mussels recipe
Mussels are highly underrated – they’re cheap, quick and easy to cook, and delicious!
And there’s something so impressive about placing a giant bowl of mussels on the table for family and friends to get stuck into with their hands. No cutlery around these parts – just lots of napkins!
How to cook mussels
This recipe I’m sharing today is a very classic way to cook mussels – steamed in a garlic butter white wine broth. It’s very quick and easy, and really makes the most of mussels:
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Saute aromatics to create the flavour base (butter, garlic, onion), cook off white wine then stir through tomato (colour, adds texture, interest and a bit of flavour);
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Add mussels;
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Clamp lid on, cook 8 minutes shaking once or twice;
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When cooked, mussels will open;
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Pour the mussels and all the broth in a big bowl – or serve it straight from the pot!
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Crack the mussel open, scoop up broth and devour!
Can you eat mussels that haven’t opened?
Yes you can! It’s an old wives tale that mussels that don’t open are off. The only reason to not eat mussels that don’t open are if they are too hard to pry open!!
How to tell if mussels are fresh?
Easy – the smell. When raw, mussels smell fresh, like the ocean. Off mussels smell very unpleasant. Just trust me when I say you will KNOW if they are off!
What you need for steamed mussels
Fundamentally, the only ingredients you need to make really tasty mussels is garlic, white wine and butter or olive oil. Everything else you see below are extras that add an extra element of flavour, but they aren’t mandatory.
White wine really is the ingredient that makes all the difference here. Wine adds complexity and flavour to the sauce of an otherwise very simple recipe. Non alcoholic sub – low sodium chicken broth/stock.
The best part is the SAUCE!
It might be totally inappropriate to say this, but for me, the best part of every mussel recipe I’ve every tried or ordered is the SAUCE.
As the mussels cook, they drop an astonishing amount of liquid which is essentially real (and free) seafood stock. The BEST stock one could ever ask for!
So when the mussel juices mingles with everything else in the pot, you end up with the most outrageously tasty sauce to dunk bread into!! – Nagi x
More mussel recipes
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Mussel pasta – cook mussels per this recipe, remove meat from mussels, leaving some in shell for presentation. Cook pasta, then toss pasta into skillet with the sauce from these mussels, then toss in mussels, lemon juice, season to taste!
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Seafood Marinara Pasta – cook mussels per recipe, remove meat from mussels and use in the Marinara Pasta recipe. Add the cooking broth from this recipe into the tomato sauce in the Marinara Pasta recipe and cook down to reduce. AMAZING!??
Watch how to make it
Watch how to cook mussels in garlic white wine butter sauce!
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Steamed Mussels
Ingredients
- 50g / 3 tbsp butter , unsalted
- 1⁄2 onion , finely chopped (brown, yellow, white)
- 3 garlic cloves , very finely chopped
- 1 kg / 2 lbs mussels , bearded and scrubbed (Note 1)
- 1 cup (250ml) dry white wine
- 2 tomatoes , deseeded and diced (Note 2)
Serving:
- 1⁄4 cup flat leaf parsley , roughly chopped
- Lemon wedges (essential!)
- Crusty bread to serve (essential!)
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large, heavy pot over medium heat, melt butter.
- Add the garlic and onion, stirring occasionally until onion is soft and fragrant - about 3 minutes.
- Turn heat up to high, add wine and bring to boil. Simmer 2 minutes until the harsh alcoholic smell is gone.
- Stir in tomatoes, add mussels stir to coat in sauce a bit.
- Cover, lower heat to medium high and cook, shaking pot once or twice.
- The mussels are cooked when they are open - around 6 to 8 minutes.
- Toss through parsley and season to taste with salt and pepper. Be careful with the salt as the mussels are already salty, so taste first.
- Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, and serve with lemon wedgeds on the side so people can use as much as they wish. Serve immediately with crusty bread to mop up the sauce!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published May 2014. Updated July 2019 with brand new photos, new video and new writing! Recipe got a refresh too but the core of the recipe is the sam.
Life of Dozer
He was about 5 kg / 10lb when I got him…. he’s now 40kg/80lb!!!!
Hi Nagi I’d love to see your take on a chilli mussels recipe, my husband loves it but I’ve never made it. All your recipes that I’ve tried have been absolute crackers I can’t thank you enough for this site x
Can I make this in a Red Sauce?
Really amazing… I MAY have thrown in a bit extra butter but other than that followed as written. So good!!! The whole family enjoyed!
Hello love it I will try it for the holidays I’m portuguese so we use a lot of chourico .. for the mussels is it okay to used frozen ?
Hi, Nagi. I’m in Australia. Haven’t used alcohol in my dishes before.
Which brand of wine do you recommend for this dish?
Thank you.
Hi! You can use White Sherry Wine to cook with.
OMG Nagi, Your chilli mussels are divine. The broth and the bread are a marriage made in heaven. Three dozen between four people was too much but we managed to finish.
Full to the brim but happy tummies.
Thanks yet again for a yummy meal.
Hi Nagi,
I absolutely love your recipes and want to try chilli mussels, but I was wondering if you do a tomato chilli mussels recipie too? Thanks Janna
Hi Janna, I don’t have one at the moment but feel free to pop any requests on my recipe request page! N x
I’ve noticed a couple people mentioning chorizo – but I don’t see chorizo on in the recipe anywhere! What am I missing? I want to make these and don’t want to mess it up 🙂
Hi Heidi, you’re not missing something – the post has been updated to a newer recipe 🙂 N x
So quick and easy, they were a hit!
Nagi, you are my go to for delicious recipes that are simple to follow 🙂
😋😋😋 made these tonight with your Irish Soda Bread!! Both so easy, but SO tasty.
Great recipes throughout your website – made many – first time commenter. Love the Dozer escapades!
Wahoo!!! Perfect Sue! N x
Did you know I’ve never ever cooked a pot of mussels before? Despite the fact that I love love love mussels, I have always been a little scared of cooking these little beauties. Besides, J Daddy will not eat mussels – at all – because the texture makes him gag. After cooking your recipe, I am left wondering why I’ve been a little scared all this time!
My visiting in-laws paid us an all too short visit over the Queen’s Birthday long weekend. My MIL has coeliac disease and is extremely sensitive to even a trace of gluten, so I had to ensure our meals were completely gluten free without the fear of cross contamination. My lovely FIL loves mussels but doesn’t get to eat a lot of seafood at home because his beautiful almost-90yo mother (who lives with them) is not a fan of seafood. Whenever my in-laws visit us, I always put on a huge seafood feast on at least one night of their stay, because I love spoiling my FIL. It was an absolute pleasure to cook and share the warming and wholesome pot of mussels with him. The sauce was sweet and full bodied and the chorizo added extra warmth and a little bit of zing to the dish. We didn’t have any bread to soak up the sauce, so we drank it with soup spoons instead!
Big One was introduced to his first taste of mussels tonight. Verdict? Thumbs up! Thanks for a fantastic recipe that I will keep cooking in years to come! I honestly don’t think you could have made this any easier for my first foray into cooking mussels.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BGmI8hnqydV/
Ohhhhh…..I loved reading this message Gloria! You’re so thoughtful! And give Big One a HIGH FIVE for me please!!!
Mmmmmm. I quite enjoyed this. I love chorizo, tomatoes. garlic, & mussels! I don’t know that I’d have ever put them together like this though!
My only question is regarding the broth. Yours looks clear while mine is not at all clear. I kept reading the recipe over & over, scratching my head….I finally had to resign myself to you having camera tricks! Regardless, it’s delicious!
So glad you enjoyed it Josie! Actually, it’s a photo flaw 🙂 There’s a ring of the red liquid on the bowl but the liquid in the bowl is below the mussels so you can’t see it much. I must remember to rephotograph the next time I make this!!!
Ahhhh! That makes sense now. Great recipe regardless!
Hi Nagi,
Just wondering how many grams 3 cups of crushed tinned tomatoes works out to be?
Thanks 🙂
Hi Elisa! About 800g – a large can of canned tomatoes is about 3 cups! 🙂