The beauty of this dish, halfway between Mexican aguachile and national salpicón, is that it has a good amount of lemon dressing, even enough to eat it with a spoon. Because? Because you get something that looks like a primitive ceviche, which can satisfy your whim without having to prepare tiger’s milk or take the necessary precautions with raw fish. Cooked octopus can easily be found in the form of whole or chopped legs vacuum-packed, frozen or canned, and you could also make it with squid.
For those who are not very lemon lovers, the other option is to add a splash of vinegar or just the lemon zest and take it as a normal splash. If what you don’t like is octopus and its relatives, the easiest and most economical thing is to change it for some cooked prawns or prawns, although some sardines in oil or a slightly drained melva – not much either: if the oil in which it is have preserved is of quality can replace the added in the vinaigrette – they can also go well if what you fancy is fish.
You can replace the vegetables with others that you have on hand, just add just before eating those that may ‘suffer’ from resting in the vinaigrette, such as tomato, which you can put on top at the last moment. You can also add chopped cilantro, a little grated ginger or a can of cooked corn, which helps give it a little more punch. Turning it into a unique dish using cooked legumes or rice is a little more complicated, but if you want to try it I would without hesitation go for chickpeas, which go great with all the other elements of the dish.
Time: twenty minutes
Difficulty: The one to cut the vegetables
Ingredients
For 4 people (as a starter)
For the vinaigrette
- Lemon juice to taste (ideally, in a generous amount, I used about 150 milliliters)
- 3 or 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- ½ clove of grated garlic (or to taste)
- Salt
- Pepper
- Herbs to taste (optional, I used za’atar)
Besides
- 500 g cooked octopus
- 1/2 sweet onion or 1 spring onion and its stem
- 1 small cucumber
- ½ red pepper
Instructions
If the octopus is in the refrigerator, take it out a while beforehand so that it cools down.
Prepare the vinaigrette by mixing all the ingredients and set aside.
If the octopus legs are whole, cut them into slices about half a centimeter thick and put them in a bowl or salad bowl. Mix the juice left in the container and the cutting board with the vinaigrette.
Cut the vegetables into cubes and, if using, the stem of the onion into slices, and mix them with the octopus.
Season – if you want, add some fresh herbs, sesame or olives – and let it rest for about 10 minutes so that everything absorbs the flavor of the dressing before serving.
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#Citrus #octopus #splash
