The Best Tapas At Home You Can Easily Be Making
The smell of fresh tomatoes and spiced meats and seafood from the kitchens in Southern Spain or just a really good restaurant nearer to home will probably make your mouth water no end and will give you a craving for a Mediterranean feast asap. Alas, if you’re hurrying home to have a quarter life crisis or you get that particular craving after a night out, making it to the nearest tapas place isn’t quite feasible. Luckily you can make some of the best tapas dishes right in your own kitchen. You might not have mussels or the patience to make some fresh gazpacho, chilled vegetable soup, but there are enough that are pretty feasible and absolutely delicious. Here are our top recipes for the best tapas!
1. Spanish Tortilla
This is a classic tapas dish which is as easy to make as a normal omelette but it’s so much better. Try onions and potatoes in 2 tablespoons of olive oil until the potatoes are soft, and add garlic, peppers or your choice of veg, and stir in a few eggs and chilli flakes. Cook the mixture in a preheated oven for 15 minutes or until cooked, cool and serve! A great option for some of the best tapas!
2. Tortillitas de Camarones (Fried Prawn Fritters)
You can serve these with a salad or simply include them in your array of tasty tapas. These are best eaten when freshly fried, so as to get to most satisfying crunch! To make them boil your prawns first, and fry in a batter of flour, parsley, onions, parsley and a pinch of salt.
3. Potato Bombas
Perfect little balls of potato with a meat filling, or veggies if you’re doing meat-free Mondays. These are often accompanied by a creamy aioli sauce. Boil potatoes until they’re soft enough to mash, peel them, mash them, make them into golf balls and batter them up and fry them until they’re them up until they’re crispy and ready to eat. A great option for some of the best tapas!
4. Cheese Croquetas
You can fill these with sliced meat too, but I prefer them with cheese only. If you can find nutmeg you can touch them with a hint of that but if not then vegetable stock, sea salt and pepper will do for flavouring.
5. Patatas Bravas
This sweet and spicy potato dish (literal translation is spicy potatoes because they have a kick!) This dish turns out best if you leave the marinade to mix its flavours overnight, but it’s not essential! Serve your patatas with cocktail sticks to avoid getting your fingers all saucy. Another great option for some of the best tapas to make!
6. Empanadillas
The dough only needs olive oil salt and flour and water. You can fill these with meat too but my favourite filling is a tuna and pepper mixture! You can also freeze these for later if you’re ever feeling peckish for this moreish tapas dish.
7. Delicias de Queso (Fried Cheese)
Fried cheese. Have you ever heard two more beautiful words? Swiss cheese is common to use for this dish but you might prefer parmesan or another hard cheese!
8. Gambas (Prawns With Garlic)
This prawn tapas dish is made up of prawns swimming in a delicious buttery garlicky sauce, and they’re super simple to make. Warm olive oil and butter, and sautée your prawns with garlic (fresh is best) and add lemon juice, paprika, salt and pepper to taste
9. Papas Arrugadas (Wrinkled Potatoes)
These salty potatoes (cue Joey Essex) are famous throughout the Canary Islands and are particularly nice with spuds particular to Tenerife or Gran Canaria, but any potatoes will give you a good variation of the dish. All you need are potatoes boiled in sea salt, until all the water has evaporated, which will give you a delicious crust. A super great option for some of the best tapas!
10. Montaditos (Mini Sandwiches)
Montaditos are small baguettes with all types of fillings like salmon, mozzarella and tuna. There’s also a chain restaurant with the same name all across Spain and Italy which makes the baguettes, both savoury and sweet for ridiculously good value. Check it out if you pass one!
11. Pimientos de Padron (Salted Peppers)
Blistered or grilled these peppers will give you a smokey flavour that reminds you of summer barbecues. They only need a slight dusting of sea salt, which makes them basically healthy!
You don’t even need to go to Spain to have the best tapas! Make them in the comfort of your own kitchen and let us know how they turn out in the comments below!
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UCL student and bonafide brown girl. Sometimes writing, mostly dreaming, always hungry.