Oh, for the love of the humble potato. And the corn. And the rice. I am just going to put it out there. Portuguese side dishes are the best side dishes.
They are warm and filling and often have a spicy little kick that makes you feel alive. It is regular food meets comfort food meets me floating on a carb-lover’s cloud nine.
And the best part is that Portuguese chefs use tons of veggies and healthy ingredients so you get a balanced meal that doesn’t feel heavy. I am so down with that.
1. Portuguese Fried Potatoes
It should come as zero surprise to you that Portuguese chefs are experts at frying potatoes.
We are talking thinly sliced potatoes smothered in butter and olive oil.
They get seasoned with salt, pepper, and rosemary, and while they have a mild flavor compared to other Portuguese foods, they are unbelievably yummy.
2. Portuguese Potato, Tuna, and Olive Salad
This tuna salad is thick and chunky, meaning it is meant to be eaten as a salad rather than a sandwich spread.
You do have to boil the eggs and cook the potatoes, but the rest is just a matter of mixing the ingredients.
You get a heavy dose of earthy, umami flavor from the olives, tuna, and chickpeas, while the onions, potatoes, and eggs bring a heartiness that keeps you full for hours.
The parsley, red wine vinegar, and olive oil add a lightness that really sets the whole thing off.
3. Broa de Milho (Portuguese Corn Bread)
Portuguese cornbread looks totally unlike any American cornbread you have ever eaten!
It is a large, round loaf with intricate cracking all over the top.
The loaf is a little crispier on the outside than we are used to, and the inside is tightly packed and dense with a subtly sweet taste that pairs nicely with almost anything.
4. Portuguese Tomato Rice
Portuguese tomato rice, or arroz de tomate, is exactly what it sounds like: rice cooked and flavored with tomatoes.
Tomatoes and rice are the stars of the show here, but there are a few other ingredients in the mix like garlic, onions, oil, broth, and bacon fat.
It is a delicious, tomato-y dish that tastes great just as it is, even though plenty of people add meat to it.
If you have ever had a soup made of bacon grease, elbow macaroni, and canned tomato juice—what my grandmother called “macaroni and tomato juice”—you have an idea of the taste.
If you haven’t had that soup, it is hard to describe, but I would sum it up in one word: scrumptious.
5. Milho Frito
Milho fritos might look and even taste a bit like oversized croutons, but the texture and consistency are slightly different.
Croutons are made from fried bread, but milho frito is made from fried cornmeal/polenta.
They are tasty and herby, but less crunchy than croutons, retaining a bit of that corn flavor.
6. Caldo Verde
This soup mainly contains healthy foods like onions, potatoes, kale, and garlic, though it does have some sausage in it.
It takes about 45 minutes to make and is a flavorful, hearty soup that is ideal for the colder months.
7. Portuguese Roasted Potatoes
No one does roasted potatoes quite like the Portuguese.
If you like yours a little spicy, exceptionally crispy, and with a lot of flavor, you will love these.
I enjoy just the potatoes and seasonings, so I usually leave the sausage out.
But if you leave the sausage in, this side dish becomes the definition of “meat and potatoes.”
The 90-minute cook time sounds excessive, but trust me, stick to it.
That is what makes them full of flavor and so crispy—no other roasted potatoes can compare.
8. Acorda (Portuguese Bread Soup)
This gorgeous green soup probably looks unlike anything you have seen before, and not just because of the color.
Every bowl contains a poached egg and a large chunk of bread!
The ingredients are fairly simple other than that: olive oil, garlic, cilantro, water, pepper, and salt.
It has a lot of flavor despite the limited ingredients, and it fills you up thanks to the bread and egg.
9. Garlic Bread
I love garlic bread just about any way you cook it, and while this isn’t my all-time favorite, it is definitely in the top five.
The unique thing here is that the garlic is inside the bread, not sitting on top of it.
You literally bake garlic into the dough itself, unlike other recipes that instruct you to cover the bread in a herb-garlic butter mixture.
That means every single bite is infused with garlic and it isn’t messy or greasy.
You can always add additional powder to the top if you want.
Now that I think about it, this one might actually have to move into my top three.
10. Portuguese Salad
The total time on this recipe is 45 minutes.
But 30 minutes of that is just chilling the ingredients in the fridge, so it really isn’t difficult to make.
If you can chop and mix, you can whip this up with no problem.
It is a refreshing, cold salad with lots of fresh veggies that tastes best in the summer when everything is straight from the garden.
You just need red pepper, tomatoes, onions, olives, cucumbers, olive oil, salt, pepper, red wine vinegar, mint, and coriander.
