A Filipino soup filled with unami flavors from the mussels, ginger, corn, cilantro spinach, garlic and onions. I usually made this soup with chicken, but saw my cousin-in-law do a post on her instagram with mussels and gave it a try. It’s delicious either way.
* Scroll all the way down to skip photos and go straight to the recipe.
Picture Walk
Ingredients
2 lbs of mussels soaked for about an hour to get rid of sand
1 head minced garlic
8 cups of water
1/2 onion
1 tsp whole black peppercorns or just black pepper to taste
5-7 slices of sliced ginger
3 large fresh corn on the cob with kernels cut off (you can save the cob part for the broth if you’d like or just throw it out)
1 bunch of spinach (cut in half if it’s long or leave it whole- I cut mine because it’s easier for the kids )
Fish sauce to taste
1 can of creamed corn (optional)
1 bunch cilantro cut up roughly
Salt and black pepper to taste
Chicken bouillon (optional – 1 tbsp- I use a small sprinkle of msg when I don’t have chicken bouillon)
6-8 cups of water
Steps
1- Heat up onion, garlic and ginger in some oil.
2- Add the water, corn cobs and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
3- Take our corn cobs and add in cleaned mussels, corn kernels, cream corn, spinach and simmer on low for anywhere between 15-20 minutes.
***Note: I simmered it for about 20 minutes, but mussels usually just cook in just a few minutes, but you can simmer according to your taste. It only makes sense that the longer you simmer it, the smaller the mussels get, but the flavor of the broth will be a little more concentrated. If I had to do it over, I would do half of the mussels to simmer for 20 minutes and the other half I would add in towards the end for a few minutes more.
4- Add cilantro at the end and either eat rights away, or you can simmer it for a few minutes more (it really is based on preference- my mother in law simmered it along with the spinach or used only cilantro and no spinach and cooked it down until soft).
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