Charred octopus, piquillo pepper & butter bean salad
Charred octopus, piquillo pepper & butter bean salad
6
30 minutes
75 minutes
This is a dish for which you can get everything ready in advance, leaving just the charring of the octopus on the barbecue until the last minute – a real show stopper. Freezing the octopus will help tenderise the flesh, but be sure that it is completely thawed before cooking.
Ingredients
- 1-1.5kg cleaned octopus
- 1-2 red chillies, sliced in half
- 4 cloves of garlic, whole but crushed
- 1 large bunch flat leaf parsley
- ½ tsp salt
- 150ml extra virgin olive oil
- 1 x 660g jar butter beans, drained
- 6 piquillo peppers, sliced
- 2 lemons, cut into segments
Directions
Take a small saucepan and pack in the octopus’ head and tentacles with the chillies, garlic, parsley stalks (keeping the leaves for the salad), salt and the olive oil. The octopus should be almost covered by oil.
Cover and place the pan on a really gentle heat, just a low simmer, for anything between 30 mins and 1 hour, until the flesh is tender when prodded with a fork.
Meanwhile, pour the beans onto a large serving dish and sprinkle with the sliced peppers and parsley leaves.
Once the octopus is ready, strain the fabulous hot juices over the bean salad. Taste and adjust with salt and lemon juice if required.
You can refrigerate both the salad and octopus now, but be sure to eat it at room temperature.
Just before serving, use a barbecue to sear the octopus for a couple of seconds until it begins to char (a heated griddle pan will also do the job). Place on top of the salad with the lemon wedges and dig in.
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