Octopus Salad
In Croatia, especially in Dalmatia region, octopus plays the main role in many healthy and tasty dishes like octopus under the lid, baked octopus with vegetables and various salads. Octopus salad is definitely a must-try dish when in Croatia accompanied by a delicious glass of local wine.
When cooking octopus, the most important thing is to prepare it in a way that it becomes tender. Well, there are several ways to do that. Fisherman used to beat the octopus vigorously against the rocks, then dip it several times into boiling water, then they would proceed with cooking under the lid or some other way. Read our additional tips on how to prepare a super tender octopus meat.
Ingredients
- 2 kg octopus
- 15 – 20 cherry tomatoes
- 15 – 20 black olives
- extra virgin olive oil
- 1 lemon
- 5 g parsley
- Salt
- Pepper
Preparation
- Put the octopus in a boiling water and cook for about an hour on low heat and put the lid on.
- When the octopus is ready, put it under the cold running water for a few minutes and cut it into small pieces.
- Out it in a bowl and mix with previously chopped tomatoes and olives in half, or as you prefer.
- Season with chopped parsley, extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, and parsley. You can serve it immediately or you can put it in the fridge for an hour if you prefer it cold.
♣ Additional tips ♣
- If you buy fresh octopus, freeze it before cooking as it will be much more tender.
- Temper the octopus with salt before the end of cooking so it won’t harden.
- It is always better to buy two smaller octopus (500 g each) than one bigger, as it will become tender faster.
- If you buy a fresh octopus and you want to freeze it, remember to remove the innards, tooth, and the eyes before freezing it.
