Do you love tapas as much as I do? Check out these Spanish-style Padrón peppers. This is just one of the many delicious classic tapas, which are very easy and quick to prepare in your kitchen. Within a couple of minutes, you can enjoy the succulent blistered green peppers just like that or together with other tapas of your choice.
I can’t remember when or where I have tried the Padrón peppers for the first time. Might have been at a tapas bar or my boyfriend might have made them for us. Not sure. But I’m very sure that I liked them. Wink.
Padrón peppers or originally Pimientos de Padrón are small green peppers, usually with a mild flavour. They got the name after the area where they originate from, Padrón in Galicia (Spain). And, still today, they are cultivated in the same area.
Furthermore, these small green peppers are a classic dish in every tapas bar in Spain. Traditionally they are deep-fried. As a result, their skin gets blisters and the flesh softens.
However, instead of deep-frying them, I pan-fried them. Just like many Galicians, I also enhanced the flavour by adding garlic and fresh lemon juice to the peppers. Just amazing!
Moreover, if you are making a tapas evening, I would suggest making Spanish-style Padrón peppers as last, since making them requires only a short cooking time and no skills.
Besides these delicious green peppers, I decided on making other tapas, too. For instance, I picked fresh red pepper, olives, cheese, some homemade sourdough bread (which I put in the oven for a couple of minutes before serving it) and chorizo. Oh, I adore chorizo sausage.
In addition, if you fancy some more Spanish tapas, you have to check these stunning bacon-wrapped dates. They are the dessert between the tapas. Wink.
Ingredients for Spanish-style Padron peppers and my variety of tapas:
- 2 garlic cloves (peeled)
- 3 Tsp of olive oil
- 400 g Pimientos de Padrón
- 1/2 a lemon (juice)
- coarse sea salt
- green olives stuffed with almonds
- cheese (cubed)
- red paprika (sliced)
- 3-4 chorizo sausages (cut)
- homemade sourdough bread
To begin, fry the chorizo sausage. Without any additional oil, place the sausages in a very hot pan and brown them on all sides. They might get blisters, too. Then, remove them from the pan, slice into 4-5 round pieces and keep them warm.
While the chorizos are getting ready, wash and slice the red pepper into strips, put the olives into a lovely bowl, cut the cheese into cubes (pick any cheese you like) and cut some slices of bread. For the crisp, put the bread slices in the oven for a couple of minutes.
Furthermore, heat the olive oil, together with garlic cloves (leave them whole) in a pan until it gets really hot. Keep swirling the pan and moving those garlic cloves around. Then, add the peppers (in a single layer) and pan-fry them for 1-2 minutes. In between give them a little toss and when they are charred and totally blistered, they are done. Ready for tapas? Yes, you are.
Put each of the tapas in a separate bowl or plate and serve them as they would do in a tapas bar. In order to brighten the flavours, sprinkle the Padrón peppers with salt and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Spanish-style Padrón peppers are a great idea for a snack, side dish or tapas.
Enjoy!
PS
If you like the recipe, if you make the recipe or if you have any new ideas how to improve or change it, let me know in the comments section below or alternatively share your photos and reactions with me on Instagram (@Passionspoon), Facebook or Twitter (@PassionSpoon1). Simply use the hashtag #passionspoonrecipes in your posts. I would love to see them! (wink)
