A watercolour of a pan of red tomato rice with small orange mussels scattered through it
Generated with OpenAI gpt-image-1
Adapted from Spanish arroz con mejillones

Mussel and tomato rice

An established dish converted to shelf-stable ingredients. Every substitution is documented below.

How long it keeps

About 6 months, set by Olive oil.

Indicative, for planning a build before you buy. The answer for a pack you already own is the best before date printed on it, and that only holds if it has been stored as the label says.

Serves
3
Burners
1
Pans
1
Water
0.7 L
Active
12 min
Total
35 min

Ingredients

Keep the brine from the mussel tins. It is the closest thing to shellfish stock available from a cupboard and it goes into the cooking liquid.

  1. Oil, dried onion three minutes, garlic and paprika twenty seconds.
  2. Tomatoes in, cooked down hard 10 minutes to brick colour.
  3. Rinsed rice stirred through the sauce for a minute so every grain is coated.
  4. 400 ml water plus the drained mussel brine. Boil, lid on, lowest heat, 12 minutes without lifting the lid. Then 10 minutes off the heat, still covered.
  5. Off the heat, fold the mussels through. Lemon juice over.

Cook it to the meal. See the rice page.

Serves 3.

What this was adapted from

Spanish arroz con mejillones: the everyday shellfish rice, not paella

  • fresh mussels steamed open in the pan → tinned mussels stirred in at the end

    Fresh mussels open into the rice and their liquor seasons it. Tinned ones are already cooked and go rubbery if simmered, so the brine from the tin is used for the seasoning and the mussels themselves go in off the heat.