Portuguese Bacalhau Salad
The beauty of growing up on an island with so many cultures is that you inadvertently take over traditions from others and they all merge into one. My godmother was from Madeira and introduced me to Madeiran and Portuguese food and this salad was one of them. This would appear on our table every Easter and upon request throughout the year. It wasn’t until years later when I started experiencing how other people celebrate their Easter that I realized this is not a local tradition and something that appears on everyone’s table in Curaçao.
The amount of olive oil and vinegar you add is completely up to you, but your ratio should be slightly more olive oil than vinegar. This is our family recipe and I like to have all the liquid to soak up with my paleo rolls, but if that’s not your jam add the liquids slowly and decide at which point you reached the right consistency for you.
The traditional recipe also calls for chickpeas but if you’re doing paleo you can omit the chickpeas and add more eggs to it. The chickpeas offer a nice neutral flavor to the acidity and saltiness of the salad and the eggs could function as a great substitute for that.
Portuguese Bacalhau Salad
Ingredients
- 500 gram salted cod fish
- ½ white onion sliced
- 1 green paprika chopped
- 1 red paprika chopped
- 1 can chickpeas rinsed
- 4 boiled eggs
- ¾ cup olive oil
- ½ cup vinegar
Instructions
- Place the salted cod in warm water to soften the fish and remove some of the salt taste. It all depends on how salty you like it but you will have to change the water a few times to get the desired level of saltiness. After the first time you are just using water at room temperature.
- While the cod is soaking you can start boiling your eggs and cutting the veggies.
- Once the onion is sliced you can pour boiling water over it to remove the spiciness of the onion you might get by adding raw onion to a salad.
- Check the cod fish, if you’re happy with the level of salt remove the water and shred it into smaller chunks. If not remove and soak in fresh water.
- Add all ingredients except the eggs to a bowl and mix well. Taste everything together to check if it’s to your liking. If you accidentally removed all the salt from your fish not to worry now is the time you can re-season with additional salt.
- Lastly add the quartered boiled eggs to the mix allow to chill a bit and enjoy!