It took 15 minutes to cook this little guy. BTW the head is eatable, too!

Portuguese octopus salad

As I mentioned before, this year I travel Portugal by cooking local dishes here in Queens, NY. I already tried an amazing orange cake, kale, fish and tomato soups, and now it’s time to tell about this incredible octopus salad.

The recipe was found in the book “Eat Portugal”. It takes about 20 minutes to cook this dish, and it will definitely surprise you with its fresh taste!

They don’t tell that in the book: you can buy a frozen octopus (in fact, it will taste even better than a fresh one!) and unfreeze it slowly in the fridge (keep it there up to 24 h).

Here’s what you need:

• a small octopus (~2 pounds or 1 kg);
• 2 onions (one to boil with octopus, and other to put in the salad);
• red and green pepper;
• parsley;
• salt;
• olive oil;
• white wine vinegar.

Step-by-step

1. Clean and boil the octopus in a deep pan, with plenty of water, but do not add salt yet. Lots of people place a raw onion in with it. After about 15 minutes, check if you can stab it with a fork. If you can, it’s done.
2. Let it cool then chop in a small pieces or fine slices if you prefer.
3. Finely chop the vegetables and parsley and toss with the octopus pieces. Dress with the oil, vinegar and salt.

Serve with white dry wine.

Enjoy!