Pimientos de Padron

Name: Pimientos de Padron
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Spanish
Ingredients: Padron peppers; Olive oil; Coarse sea salt

Pimientos de Padron, plated as one serving.

33 kcal a serving, against 126 for the traditional version. That is 93 kcal off, or 74%, with 0.9g of protein. Serves 4. 15 minutes.

What the traditional version is

The real deal: small green Padron peppers, fried fast and hot in a deep puddle of olive oil, then heaped onto a plate and drowned in coarse salt. The frying oil seeps into the skin, turning each pepper rich, soft and silky underneath the charred exterior. You eat them stems and all, minus the bitter end (and the odd mouthful of fire).

What changed, and what each change costs

Deep-frying swapped for dry-cast-iron blistering and minimal oil

Blistering in a hot dry pan charrs the skin without swallowing a ladle of oil. A spray or brush at the end gives a touch of the original gloss, far less drip.

What it costs you. You won't get quite the same melting texture under the skin. The oil in the classic version soaks in, making the flesh soft and richer. Here, the skin blisters nicely, but the inside stays a touch firmer and less lush.

Olive oil down from 48g absorbed to a 6g spray

The main calorie culprit is the oil absorbed during frying. With just 6g sprayed at the end, you cut most of it out, while still letting the salt stick and the pepper shine.

What it costs you. A 6g spray doesn't deliver the velvet mouthfeel of the deep-fried version. The salt clings, but there's a missing silkiness. No one will mistake this for the bar at midnight. They're brighter and not as lush, but for something you eat by the fistful, you won't miss the richness after the third pepper.

What goes in it

The ingredients, without the quantities. The weights are what the figures below are computed from, and they are in the book.

Padron peppers
Olive oil
Coarse sea salt

How it starts

Get your heaviest frying pan or a cast iron pan ripping hot.
Rinse and dry the Padron peppers thoroughly.
When the pan is nearly smoking, tip in all the peppers in a single layer.

The rest of the method, and every weight, is in Authentic-ish Spanish.

The numbers

Per serving	Traditional	Lightened
Calories	126	33
Protein	0.9g	0.9g
Fat	12.2g	1.7g
Saturated fat	1.7g	0.3g
Carbohydrate	4.6g	4.6g
Protein per 100 kcal	0.7g	2.6g

Every figure is computed from the recipe's own weighed ingredient list against public food composition databases. The appendix in Authentic-ish Spanish prints the exact database row used for each ingredient, so any number here can be checked. How every number is computed sets out the method.

The method is in the book

These aren't the Padrons of the corner bar at midnight, shimmering with oil and tasting like fried silk. If you want that, fry them and deal with the oil. But blistering in a dry pan gets you most of the way there, and after half a plate you won't care about a little less velvet. What you lose in richness you gain in speed, ease and a cleaner shirt.

The quantities and the method for this dish are in Authentic-ish Spanish, along with 57 more. Buy the paperback