Simple Patatas Bravas with Spicy Garlic Aioli + scenes from barcelona!

Simple patatas bravas with a vegan spicy garlic aioli.


I was in Barcelona!

I had a glass of Sangria.

A really long nap.

A table of tapas.

A few more cocktails.

A long night’s rest.

And then a trip to the ER.

The day after I arrived, I woke up with a pain I’d never felt before. A lower abdominal pain so acute I couldn’t walk. Like, literally. I could not walk. I tried to wait it out for a few hours, because who wants to go to a hospital in a foreign country, but it became clear that this pain wasn’t going anywhere and something was seriously not right.

Three blood tests, two sets of x-rays, an ultrasound, a gynecological exam {fun!} and twelve hours in the hospital where no one spoke English and I don’t speak Catalan is how I spent day two in Barcelona. It wasn’t the best. It was incredibly poor timing. I was dealing with a ruptured ovarian cyst. An ovarian cyst I didn’t even know I had.

But, I’m on the mend. Ovarian cysts aren’t crazy rare. Many of you may have had them before. And while hemmoragic cysts are slightly more problematic and certainly more painful, their natural progression is to go away on their own. Waiting three months before getting another ultrasound is about all I can do. So onwards and upwards until then, you know?

But these simple patatas bravas.

These were my everything.

After my stint in the emergency room, I was still in a lot of pain and recovering slowly. The remainder of the trip was pretty chill. The most I could handle was sitting on the beach, short walks to parks and taxi rides home.

I didn’t have much of an appetite so I lived off of the most basic dish of all time. Patatas bravas. Fried potatoes served with a spicy sauce or an aioli or both. Thank god for these crispy golden babes. Potatoes and let’s face it these are french fries, are the ultimate comfort food and they gave me life.

This simple patatas bravas recipe combines both the spicy sauce and the aioli into one totally vegan, spicy garlic aioli sauce. The sauce is great for anything that comes out of your oven. Drizzle it on these patatas bravas, but also on other roasted vegetables and grain bowls and sandwiches. You understand, you can put it on everything.

My favorite Barcelona spots are!
Park Guell.
Miramelindo.
Bar Sauvage.
El Casal.
Teresa’s.
Hotel Colonial.

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Simple Patatas Bravas with Spicy Garlic Aioli

 

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Total Time 45 minutes minutes

Servings 4 small plates

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds yukon gold potatoes
• 1 1/2 cups filtered water
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• sea salt
• black pepper
• 3/4 cup raw cashews
• 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk {or preferred milk}
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/4 cup Frank's Red Hot
• 1 tablespoon parsley chopped

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. 
• Wash and cut the potatoes into quarters.  Arrange the potatoes cut side down on a rimmed baking sheet. Then pour in the water and cover the baking sheet with foil. Seal the edges around the baking sheet rim to tightly trap in the steam. Roast the potatoes for 20 minutes, or until a fork slides easily through the potato. 
• Remove the foil and pour out the water. Drizzle on the olive oil, season with a pinch of salt and pepper, and toss to coat. Arrange the potatoes with the cut side down. Turn the oven to 500 degrees and roast the potatoes for about 20 minutes or until the bottoms are deeply browned and crisp.
• Meanwhile, in a blender combine the cashews, milk, garlic, lemon juice, Frank's and a pinch of salt and pepper. Blend until totally smooth and set aside until you are ready to serve. 
• Plate the potatoes with a drizzle of aioli, cracks of black pepper, salt and fresh parsley. Serve hot and crispy.

Notes

This roasted potato technique comes from Bon Appétit. It's foolproof and tried and true. Like Bon Appétit suggests, yukon gold are the perfect potato variety for roasting. It has just the right starchy-waxy ratio. Click for their step-by-step how-to. 

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