I love Spain! I just spent new year in Barcelona, and spent 3 days eating tapas and pinchos pretty much non stop, sitting outside as it was around 15 degrees C!! As you can imagine coming back to a cold and rainy Manchester was seriously depressing. not to mention the fact that after 2 weeks of overeating and overspending during the Christmas break, I had to resist the temptation to go out for tapas when we got back to revive the holiday feeling.
Not to worry though as I got busy in the kitchen and rustled up some cheap, healthy and seriously tasty small sharing dishes. Not typically Spanish as far as I know, but the concept of little dishes to share was the same and the flavours did feel Mediterranean. Of course the way we eat tapas in this country is usually totally different to the way the Spanish do it. While we tend to go to a 'tapas' restaurant and order lot of dishes all together to form a full meal or as I did prepare lots of dishes at once to serve as a meal, the Spanish will usually go to a bar and have one or two tapas per round. Its a much more relaxed way of eating and drinking and I love it! But when I'm cooking at home its easier to get everything ready at once so that's what I do.
Here are some of my favourite 'tapas' style dishes which are great as a snack with a drink on their own or together as a meal. Again I must stress, these are dishes made up by me and probably in no way typically Spanish but to me the relaxed style of eating takes me right back to Spain.
In the spirit of the January health kick most of us are probably on they are all low in starchy carbs, high in veg or fiber and not deep fried.
Clockwise from the top:
Roasted sweet potato chunks with garlic and herbs
Chicken thigh with lemon, chilli and spices
Char-grilled courgette salad with lemon and mint
slow roasted tomato and fennel with garlic and parmesan breadcrumb topping
Click the links on the right for the recipes.
Below is a picture from my old blog of a similar meal i made in the summer.
This meal consisted of
- Chicken in white wine, garlic and lemon juice
- Sweet potato chips with red chilli
- Stuffed peppers with feta and pine nuts
- roasted courgette and manchego bites
For the rest of these recipes please click here.
I'm always on the lookout for new tapas or sharing style dishes. Picky sharey food as I call it is my favourite way to eat.
On New Years day in Barcelona, my friends and I went to eat in the most amazing restaurant which specialised in sharing dishes. Its called Bar Mut and if you are ever in Barcelona you need to give it a try. The food was simply unbelievable. As anyone who knows me will be aware, I don't like any fish or seafood. This is something I am working on as I really do want to like it so I am slowly trying seafood here and there in the hope that I will get a taste for it.
It seems to be working as I will now eat tuna, cod, sea bass and calamari and enjoy it. However some of the scarier looking stuff like shellfish i cant bring myself to try yet. the reason I tell you this is because at Bar Mut my friends ordered a dish of barbecued octopus, something I would never have thought that in a million years I would be able to put in my mouth, never mind enjoy. However when it came to the table, it smelled and looked so good (cooked with garlic, paprika and potatoes) that I had to try some and although reluctant at first, i LOVED it! The moral of the story is that any restaurant that can make a seafood-a-phobe like me not only try octopus but love it, must be a pretty amazing restaurant. Check out their website here and if you are in Barcelona please give them a visit! Best food I've eaten in a loooong time.
:)
Labels: light, main meals, savoury side dishes, tapas style dishes
