Balkan Adriatic Octopus Potato Salad 🐙✨

Description

Balkan Adriatic Octopus Potato Salad is a tender coastal seafood salad with slow-cooked octopus, warm potatoes, olive oil, lemon, garlic, parsley, capers, red onion, and a glossy sea-salt finish. It tastes bright, rustic, and elegant, with the clean flavor of the Adriatic and the comfort of a village tavern plate. ✨

Hook ✨

Tender octopus, soft potatoes, lemon, garlic, olive oil, and parsley make this Balkan seafood salad fresh, glossy, and unforgettable. 🐙

Ingredients

• Octopus base 🐙
• 🐙 1.2 kg cleaned octopus, fresh or thawed (2.6 lb)
• 💧 2 l water, for simmering (8 cups / 68 fl oz)
• 🍃 2 bay leaves
• 🧅 100 g yellow onion, halved (⅔ cup / 3.5 oz)
• 🍋 20 ml lemon juice (4 tsp / 0.68 fl oz)
• 🧂 6 g fine sea salt (1 tsp / 0.21 oz)
• Potato salad base 🥔
• 🥔 700 g waxy potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks (5 cups / 1.54 lb)
• 🧂 6 g fine sea salt, for boiling water (1 tsp / 0.21 oz)
• 🧅 80 g red onion, thinly sliced (½ cup / 2.8 oz)
• 🧄 8 g garlic, finely grated (2 cloves / 0.28 oz)
• 🌿 25 g fresh parsley, chopped (¾ cup / 0.9 oz)
• 🫒 25 g capers, drained (2 tbsp / 0.9 oz)
• Lemon olive oil dressing 🍋
• 🫒 90 ml olive oil (⅓ cup + 1 tbsp / 3 fl oz)
• 🍋 45 ml lemon juice (3 tbsp / 1.5 fl oz)
• 🍷 15 ml white wine vinegar (1 tbsp / 0.5 fl oz)
• 🧂 5 g fine sea salt (¾ tsp / 0.18 oz)
• ⚫ 2 g black pepper (1 tsp / 0.07 oz)
• 🌶️ 1 g chili flakes, optional (½ tsp / 0.04 oz)
• Serving ✨
• 🍋 1 lemon, cut into wedges
• 🫒 40 g olives, optional (¼ cup / 1.4 oz)
• 🥖 300 g warm crusty bread, for serving (10.6 oz)

Preparation

1. 1️⃣ Simmer the octopus 🐙
2. Place the octopus in a large pot with water, bay leaves, onion, lemon juice, and salt. Bring to a gentle simmer, cover partly, and cook for 55–65 min until tender when pierced with a knife.
3. 2️⃣ Rest and slice 🛋
4. Turn off the heat and let the octopus rest in the cooking liquid for 10 min. Lift it out, cool slightly, then slice into bite-size pieces.
5. 3️⃣ Boil the potatoes 🥔
6. While the octopus rests, boil the potatoes in salted water for 14–16 min until tender but not falling apart. Drain well and keep warm.
7. 4️⃣ Make the dressing 🍋
8. In a large bowl, whisk olive oil, lemon juice, white wine vinegar, salt, black pepper, and chili flakes if using until glossy. Add the grated garlic and stir again.
9. 5️⃣ Toss while warm ✨
10. Add the warm potatoes to the dressing and toss gently for 30 sec so they absorb the lemon olive oil flavor. Add sliced octopus, red onion, parsley, and capers.
11. 6️⃣ Rest for flavor 🌿
12. Let the salad rest for 15 min at room temperature so the potatoes, octopus, garlic, lemon, and parsley settle into one bright coastal flavor.
13. 7️⃣ Serve Adriatic style 🫒
14. Transfer to a dark serving bowl or platter. Finish with olives if using, lemon wedges, extra parsley, and a small drizzle of olive oil. Serve with warm crusty bread.

Total Time

⏱ Prep: 20 min
🔥 Cook/Bake: 1 h 20 min
🛋 Rest: 25 min
⏰ Total: 2 h 5 min

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