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Pimientos de Padrón

Blistered Galician green peppers with olive oil and flaky salt

Pimientos de Padrón come from Herbón, near the town of Padrón in Galicia, where they are fried whole in olive oil and showered with coarse salt. They are small, thin-skinned and mostly mild and grassy, but the Galician saying goes 'os pementos de Padrón, uns pican e outros non' (some are hot and some are not): roughly one in ten has a real kick, which is half the fun. They take five minutes and make the perfect tapa with a cold drink, tortilla or bread. Chef's tip: get the oil properly hot and leave the peppers alone for the first minute so the skins blister and puff; stewing them in lukewarm oil makes them soft and khaki instead of bright and blistered.
Total time
8 min
Difficulty
easy
Serves
4
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Ingredients

Serves4

Method

0/4 done
  1. Step 1: Dry 9 oz Padrón peppers thoroughly with a tea towel; any water left on them makes the oil spit.

  2. Step 2: Heat 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil in a wide frying pan over a high heat until it shimmers and a pepper sizzles hard when you test one.

    2 min
  3. Step 3: Add all the peppers in one layer and leave them for 1 minute, until the undersides blister and blacken in spots. Then toss and keep cooking, turning often, for 2–3 minutes more, until they are puffed, blistered all over and just softened.

    4 min
  4. Step 4: Tip onto a plate, scatter generously with 1 tsp flaky sea salt and serve straight away, holding them by the stem. Eat everything but the stalk.

Nutrition per serving

Calories
70 kcal
Protein
1 g
Carbs
4 g
Fat
6 g
Fibre
2 g

Nutrition values are estimates.

K
Recipe by

KrazyBadal

All recipes by this chef →

Good to know

How long does pimientos de Padrón take?
About 8 minutes in total: 2 minutes to prepare and 6 minutes to cook.
How many people does it serve?
4 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
Is it vegan?
Yes. It has no meat, fish, dairy or eggs.
Is it gluten free?
Yes, as written. Check the labels on stock, sauces and spice mixes, which sometimes contain gluten.

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