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Iowa loose meat sandwich
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Iowa loose meat sandwich

The loose meat sandwich, sometimes called a Maid-Rite after the Iowa chain that started it in Muscatine in 1926, is beef mince simmered until finely crumbled and tender, then piled loose on a soft bun with mustard, pickles and onion. It falls apart as you eat it, so it comes with a spoon. Small-town Iowa cafés have served it at lunch counters for generations. Chef's tip: break the meat up constantly with a potato masher as it cooks; you want fine, even crumbs, not lumps.

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Patatas al cabralesFried potatoes with blue cheese sauce

Cabrales is ripened in limestone caves in the Picos de Europa, and the bars of Arenas de Cabrales and Cangas de Onís pour it, melted into cream, over hot chips as a ración to share with a bottle of cider. The sauce is sharp, salty and very rich, so a little goes a long way. Most cabrales is made with animal rennet; for a strictly vegetarian dish, choose a blue cheese labelled vegetarian. Chef's tip: keep the sauce below a boil once the cheese goes in, or it splits and turns grainy.

45 minSpanishSnacks & StartersGluten free
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Sopa seca chinchanaSpaghetti in basil chicken broth

Despite the name, there is no soup in a bowl: sopa seca is spaghetti cooked like a risotto in a well-seasoned chicken broth with basil, ají panca and tomato until every drop is absorbed and the noodles turn reddish-green and fragrant. In Chincha and Ica it always arrives on the same plate as carapulcra, the two together forming the famous festive 'matrimonio', with a chicken thigh on top. Expect soft, very savoury pasta with a mild warmth from the chilli. Where it goes wrong is pouring in all the broth at once, which leaves the pasta swimming and mushy; add it in stages, as for risotto. Chef's tip: blend the basil with a little oil and stir it in only in the last minutes, so it stays green instead of turning brown.

60 minPeruvianPasta & Noodles
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Shepherds in the Gredos mountains of Ávila once lived on these "tumbled" potatoes, roughly mashed with garlicky paprika oil and topped with crunchy fried pork belly, called torreznos. Bars in Ávila, Salamanca and Béjar now serve them on the house as a tapa, or as a starter before a steak on a chilly evening. This contains pork (pork belly). Chef's tip: save the potato cooking water; a splash makes the mash loose and spoonable without milk or butter.

55 minSpanishSidesGluten free
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90 minGreekSidesVeganGluten free
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120 minPeruvianCurriesVeganGluten free
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40 minArgentinianBakingVegan
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PusandaoCoconut broth with salted fish

Down the Nariño coast, in Tumaco and the river villages towards Ecuador, pusandao is everyday food built from what keeps: salted fish (or salted pork), green plantain, potato and the milk of fresh coconuts. The fish is soaked to draw out the salt, then simmered with the vegetables in a thin coconut broth scented with chillangua, the coast's culantro. Plantain and potato soften and thicken the liquid into something soupy and comforting, salty-sweet and gently herbal; it is eaten for lunch with a squeeze of lime and nothing else needed. Plan on an overnight soak for the fish. The pitfall is boiling the coconut milk from the start, which makes it greasy and grainy; cook the plantain in water first and add the coconut milk for the last few minutes. Chef's tip: salt cod is the easiest substitute for the coast's salted fish; for the pork version, use salted pork ribs soaked overnight and boiled until tender before adding the plantain.

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20 minBritishDessertsGluten free
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Patlıcan musakkaAubergine and mince stew

Turkish musakka has little in common with the Greek bake: there is no béchamel and no potato, just fried aubergine and a mince sauce with peppers and tomato, layered in a pan and simmered until the aubergine melts. It is a summer favourite in home kitchens from İzmir to Ankara, served warm with rice pilaf and a bowl of cacık. Salting and draining the aubergine stops it drinking too much oil. Common mistake: frying the aubergine pale; it needs to be properly golden or it turns slimy in the sauce. Chef's tip: bake the aubergine slices brushed with oil at 220 °C instead of frying if you want a lighter dish.

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Belém eats pato no tucupi above all at the Círio de Nazaré lunch in October, but restaurants around the Ver-o-Peso serve it year round. Duck is marinated, roasted until the skin is brown, then simmered in tucupi, the yellow, sour broth pressed from wild cassava, with garlic, culantro and basil, and finished with jambu, a leaf that makes lips tingle and go pleasantly numb. The flavour is tart, savoury and electric. Raw tucupi is toxic: buy only commercial tucupi sold frozen or bottled in Brazilian shops, which has already been cooked, and still boil it as below. Jambu is sold frozen there too, or as fresh paracress (Szechuan buttons). Allow an overnight marinade in the fridge. A frequent mistake is skipping the roast and just boiling the duck, which leaves the skin flabby and the broth greasy. Serve with white rice and farinha d'água. Chef's tip: blanch the jambu separately and add it at the end so it stays green and keeps its buzz.

190 minBrazilianChickenGluten free
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Bolo de roloGuava paste roll cake

Cut a slice of bolo de rolo and you see a tight spiral of a dozen hair-thin layers, alternating pale butter sponge and dark red guava. It is Pernambuco's proudest cake, protected as a cultural heritage of the state, sold in Recife's bakeries and airport shops in long boxes and served at birthdays and with coffee in the afternoon. The batter is rich with butter and eggs, spread so thinly it bakes in minutes; each sheet is brushed with melted guava paste and rolled around the last. It takes patience rather than skill. The classic slip is spreading the batter too thick, which gives a fat swiss roll instead of fine stripes; you should almost see the paper through it. Chef's tip: roll each layer while it is still hot from the oven, on a clean cloth dusted with sugar, because the thin sponge cracks as soon as it cools.

85 minBrazilianBaking
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Biber salçasıRed pepper paste

Late every summer, rooftops in Gaziantep, Kilis and Hatay turn red with trays of puréed peppers drying in the sun, and families fill jars that will season soups, köfte, bulgur and lahmacun through the winter. This oven method makes a smaller batch with the same deep, sweet and slightly smoky flavour; use some hot peppers if you like it acı (spicy). Store it under a film of oil in the fridge. The common mistake is a too-hot oven: the edges scorch and turn bitter before the middle thickens. Chef's tip: stir every 20 minutes and scrape the dried rim back in; the paste is ready when a spoon drawn through it leaves a clean trench.

240 minTurkishBasicsVeganGluten free
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Sopa de tomate à alentejanaTomato soup with poached eggs

In the Alentejo, high summer means tomatoes ripening faster than anyone can eat them, and this is what farm families do with the glut: a thick, oily stew-soup of tomato, onion and green pepper, with eggs poached right in the pot and the whole thing spooned over slices of stale country bread. It is a supper dish, eaten in deep plates on hot evenings, often with grapes or melon afterwards. Many households slip in chouriço; this version keeps it vegetarian. A common mistake is using watery salad tomatoes; you need very ripe, deep-red ones for a soup that tastes of anything. Chef's tip: cook the onion slowly until truly sweet before the tomatoes go in; that sweetness carries the whole dish.

60 minPortugueseSoups
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Sopa de panLayered bread soup

This is not a thin soup but a 'dry' one, baked in layers in a deep dish, and in San Cristóbal de las Casas it belongs to fiestas, weddings and the meatless days of Holy Week. Toasted bread is stacked with fried ripe plantain, green beans, carrot, potato, boiled egg and a tomato sauce, then soaked with a saffron and thyme broth until the bread swells into something like a savoury bread pudding. It is served in deep plates with a spoon. Families in the highlands use chicken stock; a good vegetable stock keeps it vegetarian. Chef's tip: dry the bread hard in the oven first; fresh bread dissolves into mush when the broth goes in.

75 minMexicanSoups
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Pavê de pêssegoLayered peach biscuit dessert

No Brazilian Christmas or New Year table feels complete without a glass dish of pavê in the fridge, and the old joke at every family supper is 'é pavê ou pra comer?' ('is it pavê or is it for eating?'). Rows of Maria or champagne biscuits are softened in milk or peach syrup, then layered with a thick vanilla custard made from condensed milk and egg yolks, sliced peaches and a cloud of whipped cream. It is cool, creamy and fruity, a relief after a heavy ceia. Chocolate pavê is just as common: replace the peaches with a chocolate layer, as in the tip. Too much soaking liquid is the classic fault, and the dessert collapses into a pool in the base. Chef's tip: dip each biscuit for a single count in the syrup; they keep softening overnight in the custard. For chocolate pavê, stir 100 g melted dark chocolate into half the custard and layer it in place of the peaches.

40 minBrazilianDesserts
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Bolo de milho verdeSweetcorn cake

Almost every Brazilian padaria keeps a tray of bolo de milho verde by the till, and in June it multiplies across festa junina stalls, sliced into squares and wrapped in napkins. Everything goes into a blender: sweetcorn kernels, eggs, milk, oil, sugar and a little fine cornmeal, so the cake comes out yellow, dense and moist, almost custardy in the middle, with real corn flavour. It is made without wheat flour, which keeps it gluten free as long as your baking powder is. Eat it with afternoon coffee or warm from the tin. Opening the oven early is where it usually goes wrong; this batter is heavy and sinks if the door opens before 35 minutes. Chef's tip: leave the cake in the tin for 20 minutes after baking; it finishes setting as it cools and comes out in clean slices.

60 minBrazilianBakingGluten free
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Sardalya sarmaSardines grilled in vine leaves

In Ayvalık and on Cunda island, early autumn sardines are wrapped in salted vine leaves and grilled over charcoal, a trick that keeps the oily little fish moist and lets the leaves char and crackle. You peel back the leaf, or eat it too, and finish each with lemon and a drop of olive oil. Serve with a tomato and onion salad and bread. Chef's tip: rinse brined vine leaves well; they already carry salt, so the sardines need only a pinch.

28 minTurkishFishGluten free
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Pé de molequePeanut brittle

Lumpy, glossy slabs of peanut set in dark sugar are sold in every rodoviária snack bar and handed round at festa junina, wrapped in cellophane or set in little paper cups. The name, 'street-kid's foot', probably comes from the cobbled look of the top. Piracicaba in São Paulo state is famous for it, and in the Northeast the same name can mean a cassava cake, so expect confusion. This is the crunchy southeastern style: roasted peanuts cooked into rapadura (unrefined cane sugar) until it caramelises and clings. Rapadura or panela is sold in Latin shops; dark muscovado is a fine substitute. People burn it by walking away; once the peanuts go in, the sugar darkens in seconds. Chef's tip: have the oiled tray ready before you start, because the mixture sets almost as soon as it leaves the heat.

25 minBrazilianDessertsVeganGluten free
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Karışık turşuMixed vegetable pickle

Every autumn Turkish kitchens line up jars of karışık turşu, and in Istanbul pickle shops (turşucu) sell it by the glass with its sour juice to drink. Crunchy cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, green peppers and cauliflower are packed with garlic and chickpeas in a salted, vinegar-spiked brine and left to sour for a couple of weeks. It sits beside bean stews, pilaf and kebab at almost every home meal. Common mistake: iodised table salt, which clouds the brine and softens the vegetables; use rock or pickling salt. Chef's tip: a few dried chickpeas in the jar help the fermentation get going, as Turkish grandmothers swear.

35 minTurkishBasicsVeganGluten free
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SarapatelSpiced pork offal stew

A pork dish with Portuguese roots, sarapatel is cooked in Recife and the Pernambuco interior for big gatherings and Saturday lunches, and bars in Olinda serve it by the bowl with rice, farinha and lime. Pork liver, heart and kidneys are cleaned, diced small and simmered with onion, tomato, cumin, bay and vinegar, then the stew is thickened with cooked pork blood until it turns dark, glossy and intensely savoury, sharp from the vinegar and fragrant with mint and coriander. Buy the offal and the blood from a butcher you trust, very fresh and kept cold; blood should be used the day you buy it or frozen at once. The classic error is skipping the cleaning and parboiling, which leaves the stew with a strong, livery taste. All offal must be cooked through. Chef's tip: dice everything into neat 1 cm pieces; the small size is what lets the sauce coat every bite.

150 minBrazilianCurriesGluten free
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RoscónGuava-filled sweet bread ring

Every Bogotá bakery has a tray of roscones by the counter: soft, enriched bread rings glazed and sprinkled with sugar, hiding a seam of melted guava paste inside. They are eaten at onces, the afternoon coffee break, or for breakfast with hot chocolate, and they are a favourite thing to bring when visiting. The dough is a gently sweet milk-and-butter bread, close to a brioche but lighter. Chunks of guava paste that are too big are what normally goes wrong: they melt, burst the seam and burn on the tray, so cut it into thin batons and seal the dough firmly around them. Plan about 2 hours, most of it rising time. Look for guava paste (bocadillo or goiabada) in Latin shops; quince paste works in a pinch. Chef's tip: brush with the egg wash twice, once before the second rise and once before baking, for a deep, shiny crust that holds the sugar.

145 minColombianBaking
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Bastani sonnatiSaffron rosewater ice cream

On summer evenings in Tehran, queues form outside old ice-cream shops for bastani sonnati, scooped between two thin wafers or into a glass beside faloodeh. The custard is rich with egg yolks and coloured deep gold with saffron, perfumed with rosewater and studded with pistachios and little shards of frozen cream that melt on the tongue. This home version uses an ice-cream machine or a fork-and-freezer method. Chef's tip: freeze the cream chips in a thin sheet the day before, so they are hard enough to stay as separate shards when folded in.

60 minPersianDessertsGluten free
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Peixada cearenseFish poached in coconut broth

Fortaleza's beach restaurants, the barracas on Praia do Futuro, build a whole Sunday around peixada: thick steaks of firm white fish poached in a coconut broth with potatoes, carrots, chayote, cabbage and peppers, crowned with halved boiled eggs. The fish is mild and juicy, the broth fragrant with coriander, and half of it is ladled off and thickened with cassava flour into pirão, a soft, savoury porridge eaten alongside with white rice and pepper sauce. A common mistake is putting the fish in with the vegetables from the start, so it breaks up before the potatoes are done; the vegetables get a head start. Use snapper, sea bass, hake or another firm white fish in steaks. Chef's tip: stir the farinha into the hot broth off the heat, a little at a time, and whisk hard; it is the only way to get a smooth, lump-free pirão.

65 minBrazilianFishGluten free
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Sopa de limaLime and chicken soup

Sopa de lima is the soup Mérida is proud of: a clear, golden chicken broth lightly spiced with oregano, allspice and clove, sharpened with a sofrito of tomato and green pepper and perfumed by the lima, a fragrant, mild Yucatán citrus. Restaurants around the main square serve it at lunch with a heap of crisp fried tortilla strips that soften as you eat. Lima is almost impossible to buy elsewhere, so this version uses ordinary lime plus a little orange or grapefruit juice to mimic its floral, less sour taste. Serve with extra lime slices and a fiery habanero salsa on the side. Chef's tip: fry the tortilla strips just before serving and add them at the table, so they still crunch.

95 minMexicanSoups
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Peixinhos da hortaBattered green beans

Order a round of petiscos in an old Lisbon tasca and a plate of these often lands first: flat green beans in a thin, crackly batter, eaten with the fingers alongside a cold drink. The name means 'little fish from the garden', because on meatless church days the beans stood in for fried sardines. Portuguese missionaries are often credited with carrying the idea of batter-fried food to Japan in the 1500s, where it may have grown into tempura. Serve them hot, with lemon wedges and a pinch of flaky salt. Chef's tip: dry the blanched beans completely on a towel; any water left on them stops the batter sticking and makes the oil spit.

40 minPortugueseSnacks & Starters
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Pestrofa sti skaraGrilled whole trout

Trout farms line the cold rivers of Tzoumerka and the springs of the Louros, and the tavernas beside them grill the fish whole over charcoal, served with ladolemono, horta and chips. At home a hot grill pan or overhead grill does the job: the skin blisters and crisps while the flesh stays moist and pink-white. Common mistake: turning the fish too early, so the skin tears — leave it until it lifts away by itself. Chef's tip: slash the skin twice on each side so the heat reaches the thick part near the head and the fish cooks evenly.

25 minGreekFishGluten free
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Pejelagarto asadoGrilled fish with green salsa

In Tabasco, pejelagarto, a prehistoric-looking freshwater gar from the rivers and lagoons, is skewered and grilled whole over wood in its armoured skin, then eaten with tortillas, lime and fierce chile amashito at roadside stands around Villahermosa. The fish is almost never sold outside the region, so this is a practical version using any firm white fish, such as snapper, sea bass or thick hake fillets, grilled until smoky and served with a bright green tomatillo salsa. Serrano or bird's eye chillies stand in for amashito. Serve with warm corn tortillas for tacos. Chef's tip: oil the fish, not the grill bars, and leave it alone for the first few minutes so the skin releases by itself.

45 minMexicanFishGluten free
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Sopa de grão com espinafresChickpea and spinach soup

This is everyday food in the villages of the Beira interior, where chickpeas are a winter store-cupboard standby and a big pot of soup starts most lunches and suppers. Part of the chickpeas are blended with potato and onion for a creamy base, the rest left whole, and fresh spinach is stirred in at the end. It is filling, cheap and ready in under an hour. A common mistake is boiling the spinach in the soup for too long; add it at the end and cook it only until it wilts. Chef's tip: add the spinach only at the last minute, as long cooking turns it grey and bitter.

50 minPortugueseSoupsVeganGluten free
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MalassadasFried yeast doughnuts

On Terça-feira Gorda, the last day before Lent, kitchens all over São Miguel smell of hot oil and sugar, as families fry malassadas to use up eggs and butter before the fast. Emigrants carried them to Hawaii and New England, but on the islands they are still a Carnival treat: irregular, puffy and light, with a crisp sugared outside. Eat them within an hour of frying. Chef's tip: stretch each piece thin in the middle with oiled fingers; it puffs up dramatically and stays airy.

60 minPortugueseDesserts
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MalakofftorteNo-bake sponge finger torte

Malakofftorte is the cake Viennese families put together for name days and summer parties, because the oven stays off. Sponge fingers are dipped in milk and layered with a rich almond cream made from butter, cooked vanilla custard and whipped cream, then chilled until it slices like a soft mousse cake. In many Austrian homes the soaking milk is laced with rum or almond liqueur; this version is alcohol-free and uses vanilla milk, and you can add 2 tbsp dark rum to the milk if you want the traditional taste. A common mistake is soaking the biscuits too long, so they go soggy and the layers collapse; one quick dip is enough. Chef's tip: make it the day before; it needs at least 6 hours to set and tastes best the next day.

55 minAustrianDesserts
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WeißwurstfrühstückWhite sausage with sweet mustard

In Munich the Weißwurst breakfast is a late-morning ritual, eaten between ten o'clock and noon in beer halls and butcher's cafés, with soft pretzels and a pot of sweet Bavarian mustard. The pale sausages of veal and pork back fat, flavoured with parsley, lemon and mace, are bought fresh from the butcher and gently heated, never boiled, then the skin is peeled off at the table. Making the mustard yourself is the easy, rewarding part. Vegetarians can heat plant-based white sausages the same way and keep the mustard and pretzel. Chef's tip: keep the water just below a simmer; boiling splits the skins and the sausages go grey and dry.

40 minGermanMeat
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Salame de chocolateNo-bake chocolate biscuit log

Every Portuguese child seems to have helped make one: crushed Maria-style tea biscuits folded through rich chocolate, rolled into a log, chilled and dusted with icing sugar until each slice looks like salami. It turns up at birthday parties, in café display cases around Lisbon and on Christmas dessert tables. The traditional mix uses raw eggs; this version leaves them out and sets with melted chocolate and butter instead, so there is nothing raw in it. A splash of port is often added, which contains alcohol; leave it out or use milk. A common mistake is crushing the biscuits to crumbs; leave some larger pieces, or the slices lose their marbled look. Chef's tip: break the biscuits by hand into pieces the size of a fingernail; crumbs turn it into fudge and you lose the salami look.

25 minPortugueseDesserts
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BitoqueSteak with fried egg and chips

Bitoque is the dish Portuguese office workers order when they can't decide: on every café lunch menu in Lisbon there is a thin steak in a garlicky pan sauce, a fried egg sliding over it, and chips, rice and a little salad heaped alongside. It is cheap, filling and quick, and a good one depends on a properly hot pan and a runny yolk that mixes into the sauce. Some cooks splash in beer; this version keeps it alcohol-free with stock. A common mistake is crowding the pan, which stews the steaks instead of searing them. Chef's tip: fry the eggs in the steak pan's garlicky fat so they pick up its flavour.

55 minPortugueseMeatGluten free
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Pellkartoffeln mit Quark und LeinölJacket potatoes with herb quark

Ask anyone from the Spreewald, the river-and-forest country south-east of Berlin, for the taste of home and many will name this: small potatoes boiled in their skins, a bowl of cold herb quark and a thread of golden, nutty linseed oil poured over the top. It is a weekday supper in Brandenburg and Berlin, cheap, quick and surprisingly filling, often with a Spreewald gherkin on the side. Fresh linseed oil tastes of hay and walnuts; old oil turns bitter and fishy, so buy a small bottle and keep it in the fridge. A common mistake is peeling the potatoes before boiling; cooking them in their skins keeps them firm and flavourful. Chef's tip: beat a splash of milk or sparkling water into the quark, which makes it light and creamy instead of stodgy.

30 minGermanVegetarianGluten free
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Romeu e JulietaGuava paste with fresh cheese

Two ingredients, no cooking, and a name every Brazilian knows: Romeo is the dark red goiabada, Juliet the mild white queijo Minas frescal, and they are always eaten together. Mineiros serve it after lunch on a saucer, at the end of a feast in a roadside restaurant, or as a mid-afternoon snack with coffee; the sweet, dense guava and the cool, milky, lightly salty cheese balance each other perfectly. Variations melt the guava into a warm sauce over the cheese, or bake both inside a pastry. Queijo Minas frescal is often made with animal rennet, so pick one labelled vegetarian, or use a young vegetarian farmer's cheese or paneer-style fresh cheese. The usual fault is cutting the guava thicker than the cheese, which buries Juliet; keep both slices the same size. Chef's tip: take the cheese out of the fridge 15 minutes ahead so it tastes of fresh milk rather than cold rubber.

5 minBrazilianDessertsGluten free
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Malloreddus alla campidaneseSaffron gnocchetti with sausage

Malloreddus, small ridged shells of semolina pasta coloured with saffron, are Sardinia's festive pasta, and on the plain of Campidano, north of Cagliari, they're served at weddings, saints' days and Sunday lunch with this sauce. It's a pork dish: crumbled fennel pork sausage is browned, then simmered with tomato until rich, and the little ridged shells catch every bit of it. A shower of sharp pecorino sardo finishes it. Dried malloreddus (sometimes sold as gnocchetti sardi) are easy to find; homemade ones are a lovely weekend project. Chef's tip: steep the saffron in a spoonful of hot water before adding it to the sauce; the colour and perfume spread evenly instead of staying in threads.

50 minItalianPasta & Noodles
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Sopa de feijão verdeGreen bean and potato soup

From June to September, Minho kitchen gardens are heavy with runner and flat beans, and this soup is what most families make with them, served as the first course of an ordinary weekday lunch. A smooth base of potato, onion and carrot is puréed, then the beans, cut into thin diagonal slivers, are simmered in it until just tender. It is thick, mild and comforting, finished with a thread of olive oil. A common mistake is adding the green beans with the potatoes; they turn grey and soft, so add them only for the last few minutes. Chef's tip: slice the beans very thinly on a slant, as Minho cooks do, so they cook evenly and every spoonful gets some.

50 minPortugueseSoupsVeganGluten free
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Bocadillo veleñoGuava and panela paste

Vélez, a hill town in Santander, has given its name to Colombia's favourite sweet. Bocadillo veleño is guava pulp cooked down with panela and sugar until it sets into a firm, sliceable paste, deep red and fruity with a caramel edge, then cut into bars and wrapped in dried bijao leaves. It is the snack of bus journeys and school lunchboxes, and with a slice of fresh white cheese it becomes the classic pairing Colombians call a matrimonio. Plan for overnight setting. Stopping the cooking too early is the familiar mistake: the paste looks thick in the pan but stays soft and weeps once cool, so cook until it pulls away from the pan and a spoon drawn across the bottom leaves a clear track. Long sleeves are a good idea; it splutters. Bijao leaves are hard to find abroad; banana leaves or baking paper work. Chef's tip: use pink-fleshed guavas for colour, and add the lime early so the pectin sets firm.

150 minColombianDessertsVeganGluten free
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Iscas com elasFried marinated liver with potatoes

In the old tascas of Lisbon's Baixa and Alfama, iscas com elas was cheap, filling food for workers: thin slivers of liver marinated overnight in white wine, vinegar, garlic and bay, flash-fried and served 'with them', the boiled potatoes that soak up the sauce. This contains pork (pig's liver); calf's liver works too. The marinade uses white wine, which contains alcohol; stock with an extra spoon of vinegar is a good alcohol-free option. A common mistake is slicing the liver thick: it must be thin so it cooks through fast without turning hard. Chef's tip: dry the slices well before frying so they sear instead of boiling.

50 minPortugueseMeatGluten free
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Sopa de espárragos triguerosWild asparagus and bread soup

In March and April people across Extremadura walk the field margins and olive groves picking thin, bitter wild asparagus, and much of the haul goes into this soup. The spears are fried with garlic and smoky pimentón de la Vera, simmered with water, thickened with thin slices of stale bread, and an egg is poached in the pot for each person. It is a country supper for chilly spring evenings. Thin green asparagus from the shops works well. Chef's tip: take the pan off the heat before adding the paprika, so it doesn't scorch.

45 minSpanishSoups
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