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If you guys know one thing by now it’s that I’m a massive foodie; to me any celebration or notable occasion needs to be centered around well, food! I love nothing more than to enjoy a meal with loved ones which I get to do that bit more over the long balmy evenings at home during the summer.

I live with my partner who loves to cook and friend who’s big into his wines; on the rare evening that the three of us are home together we like to mark it my sharing a meal so, when Bord Bia contacted me about preparing mussels at home, this evening felt like the perfect time try a recipe when we could all (hopefully!) enjoy it.

I went pescatarian almost a year ago and while I’m loving it, it has made me more aware of diversifying my diet to get nutrients from other sources. I read that Irish mussels are high in protein and iron and realised how inexpensive they actually are when I picked them up for the recipe so, I’m feeling that this meal will be the first of many we put together with mussels over the summer.

I absolutely love eating mussels when I’m dining out but I’ll be the first to admit that I would’ve been more than a little daunted by trying to whip them up at home so, this collaboration on Bord Bia’s #FlexYourMussels campaign seemed like the perfect time to take the challenge head-on and see how easy it is to plate up a beautiful meal of mussels at home… I chose a recipe from the Bord Bia site and toyed around with it a little to make it my own.

Below is exactly the ingredients I went with which served 3 dinner portions of my ‘Spicy Mussels with Tomato and Chickpea’ dish:

INGREDIENTS

2 kg mussels, scrubbed and de-bearded

2 tablesp. olive oil

2 onions, finely chopped

4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

1 tablesp. smoked paprika

2 red chillis, finely diced

400g tin chopped tomatoes

400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed

125ml water

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Handful of basil leaves,

To serve: Fresh white cob bread.

METHOD

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until soft. Add the smoked paprika and chilli and cook for a minute or two.

Add the tomatoes, chickpeas, 125ml water, salt and pepper, increase the heat to high and bring to the boil.  Add the mussels, cover and cook for 4-5 minutes, shaking the saucepan a few times until the mussels have opened. Discard any that have not opened.

Sprinkle over the basil leaves and serve with white cob bread or any bread of your choice.

This meal was so much easier to prepare than I imagined and, an absolute winner with all 3 of us. I bit the bullet by cooking something I would’ve previously shied away from… now that I’ve done it I can honestly that they’re not daunting to cook at all.

Be sure to have a look at Bord Bia’s mussels recipes here for some inspo and let me know how you get on yourself with recreating them… and, if you’d like some suggestions on Dublin eateries that offer epic servings of mussels I’m always happy to recommend places xx

Disclaimer: This post is a sponsored collaboration with Bord Bia.