One of my favorite vegetarian tapas appetizers is Pimientos de Padron, Spanish green peppers with lots of coarse sea salt. Simple and delicious!
This is such a delicious snack. Feel free to put a whole bowl of Spanish peppers in front of me; I'll eat them all. And the nice thing is: this is also about the easiest tapas recipe there is. You only need three ingredients, and the Pimientos de Padron are ready within ten minutes.
Spanish green peppers, hot hot hot?
Are you thinking: I can't handle that heat? No worries: as a matter of fact, these peppers are not spicy at all. Occasionally, a slightly spicier one can be among them, which makes this tapas even more fun to eat! But usually, Pimientos de Padron can be compared to a paprika's (non-existing) heat rather than a red pepper.
Ingredients Pimientos de Padron
You only need three ingredients for this recipe:
Pimientos de Padron - You can find these in supermarkets or even order them online. You can even try to grow them your own, it's quite simple!
Sea salt - This padron peppers recipe needs coarse sea salt, or fleur de sel, which is also delicious.
Olive oil - I use mild olive oil to fry the peppers and a good quality, extra virgin olive oil to drizzle over the padron peppers before serving.
Use the best extra virgin olive oil you can afford. It will define the taste of this delicious snack.
Here's how to make this tapas snack
You can prepare Pimientos de Padron in various ways. You can grill, deep fry, or put them in a hot oven for 15 minutes. I went for what I consider the most effortless way: frying them in a hot skillet.
It's super simple:
- Heat some mild olive oil in a frying pan.
- Add the peppers and coarse sea salt and heat until the peppers get dark brown "blisters" on all sides.
- Drizzle with a bit of extra virgin olive oil and serve with extra flaky sea salt.
Pimientos de Padron are super tasty as a snack, but you can also serve them during a tapas dinner. Great alongside patatas bravas and some albondigas (Spanish meatballs), for example.
Pimientos de Padron
Equipment
- skillet
Ingredients
- 16 pimientos de padron
- 1 tablespoon mild olive oil
- 1-2 tablespoon extra virgin
- coarse sea salt
Instructions
- Wash the padron peppers and make sure they are as dry as possible before you fry them.
- Heat the mild olive oil in a frying pan. Make sure the oil is nice and hot before you add the peppers. Sprinkle with sea salt.
- Fry the peppers over high heat, and toss them around from time to time until they show brown blisters on all sides. Careful: don't let them burn.
- Transfer the Pimientos de Padron to a serving dish, drizzle the extra virgin olive oil over the peppers and sprinkle with some more sea salt. You can eat them whole, just leave the seeds and the stem.
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