This Easy Octopus Salad with Mint and Lemon is the best dish to welcome Spring!
Similar to the Mediterranean Octopus Salad, it is light with sprinkles of fresh lemon and organic olive oil.
I love serving this Easy Octopus Salad with Mint and Lemon when spring is upon us. The crisp air reminds me to make this irresistible salad to celebrate the warmer weather is coming!
Mediterranean inspired, this Easy Octopus Salad with Mint and Lemon is one of our favourites. Usually we serve it with a lightly tossed garlic and olive oil pasta, and a cold glass of rose wine.
A romantic picnic dish that just focus on fresh, local, and simple ingredients.
This Post is all about Octopus Salad, served with mint and lemon.
For people who never experienced eating octopus before, I know the idea sounds daunting and cooking it can feel even more hesitant. Just one look at those tentacles can make people squeamish.
My first appreciation for octopus was when I took my first vacation with my in laws in Mexico. My father in law loves octopus and would order it when ever he is close to the sea because it always guarantee freshness. When we were in Cancun, he ordered a whole grilled octopus and it was delicious!
Picking the right octopus
I really couldn’t believe myself liking the texture of the octopus. Octopus is absolutely delicious when cooked properly. Today every time I see it on the menu, its a real restraintment to not order it in a seafood restaurant here in Mexico.
Buying a whole raw octopus and bringing it home to cook can feel super intimidating. I prefer to buy octopus already washed and cut in the frozen department of the grocery store. This helps me avoid messy clean ups, and being a mother of two young cubs and one newborn, kitchen shortcuts is my favourite thing to hear these days.
However, if you’re an advocate cooker and want to learn how to cook a raw octopus, I have some simp instructions below to help you learn how to make it!
So if you’re an octopus salad lover or just wants to try something new, this Easy Octopus Salad with Mint and Lemon is perfect for you! It’s absolutely delicious! They type of lemons I love using is the Meyer Lemon, Whole Foods.
A salad dish I'm kind of obsessing over right now is this Double Wall Metal Serving Bowl This beautiful and reasonably priced bowl is perfect for this octopus salad.
Pickled Octopus Salad
Is this a pickled octopus salad? Somewhat. The salad is tossed in some lemon juice so you can say it is pickled. And I do have to say if you have some leftovers, it does taste better the next day.
I assume this is only because the lemon juice helps pickled the tentacles more so the next day the texture is more springy and bouncy. So in conclusion, I'm going to say it is involuntarily pickled.
Can You Give this some Asian flare?
Heck yes! I added some soy sauce to this once instead of salt and it came out delicious! You can definitely turn this into an asian octopus salad by adding some soy sauce, sesame oil, and vinegar.
Why You'll Love this Octopus Salad
Using only high quality fresh produce, the flavours are enlightening and hard to resist. This is one of our marinated octopus salad spring and this is why:
- lightly tossed with olive oil and fresh ingredients with exceptional flavour and texture
- lemon and sea salt tossed lightly to bring savoury sea-like flavour
- perfect cold dish for lunch and dinner
- easy to make and stores well in a container for the day
- easy to pack if you need to go anywhere
- appropriate for people who are looking for low fat dish or on a low calorie diet. Keto friendly.
How to Make Octopus Salad
When searching for a fresh octopus, look for a frozen octopus. Why? Whenever a frozen octopus is cooked, the meat comes out tender, juicy, and soft! So if you do come across a fresh one, just stick it in the freezer.
For each kg or 2 pounds of octopus, cook it for 30 minutes. Dip the octopus in water a couple times. Dump out the water and change it for new water. Add spice to the water and cook with the instructions.
Let the octopus cool completely. Peel it, and chop it. Marinate the octopus and serve cold.
Easy Spring Octopus Salad with Mint and Lemon
Ingredients
- 1kg raw octopus tentacles frozen
- 2 litre water
- 2 bay leaf
- 1 tsp peppercorn
- ¼ small white onion
- ½ lemon
- 1 tsp salt
Dressing
- 2 tbsp organic olive oil
- splash of apple cider vinegar
- ½ lemon juice
- 1 whole lemon zest
- 1 celery stalk chopped
- ¼ red onion thinly sliced
- 2 tomato cut in small cubes, seeded
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 jalapeno washed and seeded
- ½ cup greek olives roughly chopped
- sea salt
Garnish
- 2-3 tbsp fresh mint whole leafs
Instructions
Cooking the Octopus
- Cook: Fill a large stock pot with 2L of water (make sure it is at least half full). Bring it to a boil and using metal tongs to hold the octopus, dip the octopus in the water 3 times (submerge it at least 5 seconds for each dip). Wait for the water to reboil and carefully place the whole octopus inside. Add the spice: bay leaf, peppercorn, onion, lemon, and salt. Cover the stock pot with a lid and cook the octopus in a simmer heat. Each 1kg or 2 pounds octopus is 30 minutes of cooking. Average it will take 45-60 minutes depending on the size. It is done when you can effortlessly stick a fork into the meat.
- Cool: When it is done cooking, turn off the heat and let the octopus cool off in the pot of its own water and juice. At least 2 hours or can be overnight. Take the octopus out onto a large bowl and peel and chop the octopus.
Cooking Frozen Prepared Octopus Tentacles
- Cook: Fill a pot with hot water and bring it to a boil. Put the frozen tentacles into a strainer and dip it into the boiling water 3 times, 5 seconds each dip. Wait for the water to reboil and carefully place all the tentacles inside. Add the spice: bay leaf, peppercorn, onion, lemon, and salt. Cover the stock pot with a lid and cook the octopus in a simmer heat. for 1kg of octopus cooking time is 30 minutes. It is done when you can effortlessly stick a fork into the meat.
Octopus Salad
- Add all the dressings together in a large bowl. Stir in olives and jalapeños.
- Pour the dressing over cooled octopus, stir to combine, and serve cold. Garnish the top with mint leafs.
