Curried Carrot Soup with Mussels

I struggle when Tom is out of town to come up with healthy single serving dishes, but this time I think I was successful. I made a soup as I usually would, but I added mussels as a treat. This is definitely a keeper of a recipe.

The ingredients were simple. Onions, carrots, butter, curry powder, chicken broth, dry white wine, mussels, and fresh basil. Melt the butter over medium low heat, add thinly sliced onions. Meanwhile scrape and slice the carrots and toss them in. Continue to cook until the onions become transparent, about 5 minutes.

Add a generous amount of sweet curry powder. I used Penzey's, but McCormick makes a decent Madras curry, too. Probably about 1.5 - 2 Tablespoons. At this point, the fragrance is enough to make me swoon. Cook for another minute.

The mussels will require a dry white wine for cooking, so I used it as a good excuse to open a bottle of LMR Sauvignon Blanc and pour a glass for myself.

Add a large can of chicken stock, bring to a boil, cook until the carrots are soft, about 10 minutes.

Take it off the heat and then puree about half to add body (with a hand blender or by putting half in a blender). Season with salt. Chiffonade the basil leafs and add them.


In a separate pot, add a cup of white wine and the mussels and lots of fresh basil. I bought a pound for $2.49 at a fish market. They were farm raised, from Maine.
Cover and boil. Fish them out as soon as they open into a separate bowl.
In your serving bowl, place the mussels--- be sure to capture all of the juices, then spoon over the curried carrot soup. Yummy!

Curried Carrot Soup with Mussels
2 T. butter
2 onions, sliced thinly
1 lb. carrots, 1/4 inch slices
1 -2 T. sweet curry powder
1 large can low sodium, good quality chicken broth
salt to taste
lots of fresh basil
1 cup dry white wine
1 1b. of mussels per person, scrubbed and beards removed

This makes a nice carrot soup on its own. Probably 6 servings. 8 servings if used with the mussels. I reserved the liquids from cooking the mussels for future use.