Name: Patatas a lo Pobre
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Spanish
Ingredients: 800 g potatoes, peeled and sliced 4 mm thick; 2 onions, about 300 g, thinly sliced; 2 green peppers, about 300 g, cut into strips; 4 garlic cloves, whole; 150 ml olive oil; 1 tsp salt; 1 tsp sherry vinegar

Patatas a lo Pobre

Potatoes, onions and green peppers cooked slowly together in plenty of olive oil until soft, golden and sweet, a Spanish poor man's dish.

45 min total Serves 4 servings Easy

Why This Is Worth Making

Patience, not skill. The name means poor man's potatoes, and the recipe asks for the cheapest ingredients in the kitchen and a lot of time on a low heat. Slices of potato, onion and green pepper are slowly poached in olive oil, then lifted out and sometimes briefly crisped, and the result is soft, sweet and richly flavoured.

The amount of oil is what surprises people. You need enough to come halfway up the potatoes: about 150 ml for 4 servings. This is not deep frying but a gentle confit. Keep the heat low, so the oil barely bubbles. Hot oil browns the outside and leaves the middle raw.

Slice the potatoes 4 mm thick and the onions thinner. Cut the green peppers into strips. Cook them together in the oil in the pan, with a few cloves of garlic left whole, for 30 minutes, turning occasionally. The potatoes should be tender but not falling apart.

Lift out with a slotted spoon, season with salt, and finish with a splash of sherry vinegar. Strain the oil and keep it for another use, as it is full of flavour. Serve as a side with grilled meat or a fried egg.

What Goes With It

Fried egg
Grilled meat
Fish
Red wine

How to Cook Patatas a lo Pobre

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Heat the oil in a wide, deep frying pan over a low heat. Add the potatoes, onions, peppers and garlic.
Cook for 30 minutes, turning gently every 5 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and golden.
Lift out with a slotted spoon onto a plate and season with the salt.
Sprinkle with the vinegar and serve warm.

Worth Knowing Before You Cook

Keep the heat low.

Turn gently so the potatoes stay whole.

Reuse the flavoured oil.

Swaps and Variations

An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

Storing and Reheating

Best eaten warm. Keeps in the fridge for 2 days.