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Top five vegetables
TOP FIVE FRUITS
Known for their short squat shape, dark green colour and spiny skin, Spanish cucumbers have a characteristically intense flavour and aroma.
Soaking up the sunshine in Almería and Granada, they are a source of vitamin
B – good for your nervous system – and also contain folic acid, vitamin C, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and zinc.
Cucumbers are versatile and marry well with peppers, onions and tomatoes, adding a refreshingly crunchy snap to salads. Drizzle with olive oil and sherry vinegar for a cooling addition to spicy tapas, slice and serve with oily fish such
as sardines, or use them in gazpacho.
Cucumbers
Providing the base to many dishes as part of a sofrito, sweet Spanish onions have flavoured meals for centuries, supplementing bread and pulses on the humblest tables. Some taste as good raw as they do cooked, like the crisp and succulent Cebolla Fuentes, grown in Zaragoza.
Calçots are reminiscent of oversized spring onions or skinny leeks and grow in Catalonia (under the Calçot de Valls PGI), where shoots of fully developed white onions are replanted. Then, as they grow, the plants are dug up and the base is blanched and eaten.
It was a farmer from Valls, known as the Chat Benaiges, who began cooking these tender buds, which have become the basis for a traditional feast known as a calçotada. The charred spears are barbecued and dunked into romesco sauce. Whoever eats the most is crowned champion and toasted with crisp cider.
As the season progresses, calçots become firmer and more intense in flavour.
Onions
Spain’s long relationship with tomato growing goes back to 1540, with Andalusia and Extremadura now leading the way as producers par excellence.
This essential ingredient appears in countless dishes, from pan con tomate to salads and chilled soups such as salmorejo and gazpacho (Spain’s ultimate homage to the tomato).
Natives of the New World, tomatoes were brought to Spain in the early 16th century – the name is derived from the Aztec language. The fleshy Montserrat tomatoes of El Vallès are partly named after a holy Catalonian mountain and just one of many star picks: cherry tomatoes, a type of Almerian Tomate La Canada, are aromatic; pretty heritage tomatoes Raf have grooved sides; the firm, pink-toned Rosa de Babastro from the north can grow up to a kilogram in weight; and the intense, sweet flavour of black Kumato tomatoes is popular with Michelin-starred chefs.
La Tomatina, the late-summer festival held in Buñol in Valencia, celebrates the fruit in a famous food fight where people pelt each other with squashed tomatoes.
Tomatoes
Fat white tips of asparagus poke through the fertile soil of La Ribera del Ebro,
a landscape dotted with hills and mountain ranges. The special espárrago de Navarra is smooth, snowy in colour and tasty, with a slight bitterness on the bite thanks to the cold nights and water quality in the area where it is grown. Planted in February, its pale stems sprout in spring and summer, with the spears harvested by hand and celebrated on local menus in myriad dishes.
Sold both fresh and preserved, white asparagus can be enjoyed all year round. Simply cook until tender, sprinkle with salt and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.
The greenish-purple or bronze spears of the espárrago de Huétor-Tajar are
a natural cross between cultured and wild varieties. After soaking up the spring rain, they pop up and are collected from the fields of Granada by hand. Cook a la plancha (grilled), or sauté and serve with runny eggs and slivers of
a hard cheese like Manchego.
Asparagus
A true hero of vegetarian and vegan diets, aubergines are super at soaking up flavours and work well in stews and curries, baked or barbecued. They’re a dream with goat’s cheese and equally good roasted with peppers or fried and drizzled with honey. Try berenjenas al ajillo, a garlicky Spanish aubergine dish, where the vegetable is griddled and sprinkled with paprika.
Thought to originate in China and India, and part of the nightshade family, aubergines were first planted in Spain by the Moors. Today, covered cultivation in Almeria means a year-round supply. In Catalonia, Valencia and Seville, small numbers of aubergines are still grown outside and picked by hand in June.
The PGI Almagro aubergine from Castilla-La Mancha is preserved, giving a distinctive flavour that makes for a perfect appetiser. In Catalonia, the roasted vegetable dish escalivada is a must-try – chargrilled peppers, aubergine and onions take on the smokiness of the flame and can be topped with olives
and anchovies.
Aubergines
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DISCOVER MORE
Top five vegetables
Top five fruits
Spanish delight:
cook up a storm with asparagus from Navarra, artichokes from Tudela and piquillo peppers from Lodosa
Root for vegetables: elevate your soups,
stews and salads with this Spanish produce
PHOTOHRAPHY: ©JC de Marcos/LH Photoagency
For more on Spain’s fantastic fruit and vegetables – including inspiration
on where you can pick your own and meet passionate producers keen to share
their wares – visit foodswinesfromspain.com/spainfoodnation
Meet Nieves Barragán Mohacho
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