Happy Halloween!! I couldn’t help but post a spooky black and white photo of this Red Mussel Paleo Soup. I guess you can’t see the red shade, contributed by the tomato paste, when the photo is black and white but doesn’t that smoke look sweet? :)
I wonder how many trick-or-treaters we’ll get this year.
I’m always torn on whether to buy candy or not. It feels wrong to give it out to kids when I don’t think they should be eating it in the first place. Plus I don’t want any leftovers in the house.
Last year I think we got maybe ten kids. You can read all about why that is in last years Paleo Pumpkin Pie post.
I spent all day last Halloween in the kitchen, for a cooking marathon and I think I’ll be doing that again today.
Over the weekend our friend Tom gave us bushel’s full of fresh peppers, eggplant, cabbage, celery and more fresh from his garden. All week I’ve been having a blast trying to cook it all before it goes bad. I wonder if our house would get egg’d if I give out fresh celery or jalapeño peppers to the kids instead of candy. :p
A couple days ago I made this Mussel soup. Mussels are really not hard to cook at all. Really all you have to do is steam them till they open – which only takes 5-10 minutes – and then you’re ready to roll.
If you’ve never had mussels I highly recommend you give them a try. They’re not as savory as a big hunk of meat but if you’re looking for a light meal, mussels will do the trick…although you’ll have to work a bit to get those suckers out of the shells. And don’t forget to add a garbage bowl to the table for all those empty shells.
If you don’t have a fresh batch of mussels waiting to turn into soup for dinner tonight, maybe you’d like to reach for those bat and witch cookie cutters instead and make some funky shaped meat cookies! Jeff & Dave sure loved them. :)
Red Mussel Paleo Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon grass-fed butter
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 orange bell pepper, chopped
- 5-7 ribs of celery, sliced
- 2 portobello mushrooms, sliced
- sea salt and coarse ground black pepper, to taste
- 3 cups beef broth
- 3 cups water
- 1 (6oz) can of tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 5lbs mussels, cleaned & beards removed
- fresh parsley
- fresh lemon juice
Directions
- Melt butter in large pot over medium heat.
- Add onions and cook for 2-3 minutes.
- Add pepper, celery, mushrooms and season with sea salt and black pepper. Stir to combine.
- Once onion is translucent (4-6 minutes) add beef broth, water, tomato paste, garlic powder and onion powder. Stir to combine, cover, increase heat to medium-high heat and bring to a boil.
- Add mussels and reduce heat to medium for 5-7 minutes, until mussels open up.
- Remove from heat. Serve soup in bowls topped with fresh parsley and a few drops of fresh lemon juice per bowl.
- Enjoy! :)
