Christmas in Portugal: 5 Portuguese recipes you’ll love

December 9, 2022

Christmas in Portugal is sacred! It’s a very important holiday for the Portuguese. And as you know from my blog posts, food is also very important to the Portuguese. So it was inevitable to tell you about traditional Christmas recipes in Portugal. I decided to choose 5 that are often present on Portuguese tables at this important time of year.

Christmas dishes in Portugal

1: Bacalhau (cod)

While in France, turkey takes pride of place on the Christmas table, in Portugal the queen of Christmas festivities is cod (bacalhau in Portuguese). Bacalhau is a staple of Portuguese cuisine. Although there are more than 365 recipes for cod in Portugal, the simplest way for the Portuguese to enjoy it this Christmas is “bacalhau cozido”. This is boiled cod served with potatoes, cabbage and drizzled with olive oil.

The tradition of eating cod at Christmas in Portugal is said to be linked to the fact that in the Catholic region, the day before Christmas was a time when believers had to abstain from eating meat, so they opted for fish. At the time, dried cod was cheap and didn’t require refrigeration, making it easy to transport.

Cod is also eaten as an appetizer at lunchtime on December 25, in the form of leftovers from the previous day. The Portuguese call this “Roupa velha” (old clothes), echoing the use of the previous day’s leftovers.

Bacalhau cozido

Ingredients (serves 4)

1kg dried cod
2large onions
3 garliccloves
1kgpotatoes
12black olives
10clolive oil
Salt and pepper

Recipe

The day before, brush the cod under water, cut into pieces and soak in a pan of cold water for 24 hours, changing the water 4 or 5 times.
On the day of the recipe, wash the potatoes and cook, without peeling, in salted water for around 20 min.
Peel the onions and garlic cloves, mince the onions and chop the garlic.
Drain the cod, place in a pan of cold water and bring to the boil. Remove the pan when it begins to simmer and leave the cod to poach for 15 min.
Drain, peel and slice the potatoes.
Preheat oven to 210°C.
Drain cod. Remove skin and bones, then flake.
Heat the oil in a frying pan and sweat the onions and garlic.
Add the cod and potatoes, season with pepper and pour into an earthenware dish.
Place in oven for 15 min.
5 min before the end of cooking time, add the black olives.
Serve piping hot.

2 : Polvo (octopus)

Octopus is another dish you’re likely to see on tables during a Christmas in Portugal. More expensive than bacalhau (cod), it’s still often eaten during the festive season. Olive oil is the key ingredient in “polvo à lagareiro”. A recipe invented by Portuguese olive grove workers (the “lagareiros” who inspired the recipe’s name). They first imagined this cod-based dish, “bacalhau à lagareiro”, which they then adapted with octopus: “polvo à lagareiro”.

Polvo à lagareiro

Ingredients (6 people)

1.5kg octopus
1.2kg small potatoes
6 garlic cloves
1 bay leaf
1 onion
Olive oil
Coriander
Salt and pepper

Recipe:

Remove the beak from the octopus and cook for 25 min, covered with water, with the onion unpeeled.
Meanwhile, wash the potatoes and place in a dish with salt and olive oil. Bake for 30 min at 200°C.
When the octopus is cooked, drain and cut into pieces
Arrange the octopus in an ovenproof dish with the crushed garlic cloves, bay leaf and coarsely chopped coriander.
Drizzle with olive oil until the octopus is covered.
When the potatoes are cooked, remove the excess coarse salt, mash them slightly just to open them up, then place them around the octopus and sprinkle generously with oil and a little pepper.

3 : Sapateira (crab)

Less common but still present on Christmas tables in Portugal, crab is cooked stuffed and eaten as an appetizer with some toast or broa (corn bread).

Sapateira recheada (stuffed crab)

Ingredients (serves 4)

1 crab
Salt, pepper, parsley
4 tbsp. mayonnaise
2 tbsp. pickles
1 tablespoon port wine
2 boiled eggs
Cocktail sauce
1 tsp. mustard
Toast or corn bread (to accompany)

Recipe:

Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and add the crab. Cook for 15 to 20 min and set aside.
Once cold, shell the crab.
Chop the gherkins, boiled eggs, three slices of toast and parsley. Add to crab stuffing and mix.
Add mayonnaise, mustard, cocktail sauce and a spoonful of port wine. Garnish crab shell with stuffing.

Christmas desserts in Portugal

4 – Aletria

Christmas meals in Portugal often feature the mythical “arroz doce”(Portuguese rice pudding), but also its cousin: Aletria.

Instead of rice, vermicelli pasta is used. This dessert has strong influences from the Moors of North Africa, who were long present in Portugal. Its name comes from iṭriyah, the Arabic word for “angel hair pasta”. Depending on the region, it can be creamier or more liquid. For Christmas dinner, cinnamon powder is used to decorate it with Christmas motifs. Creamy and sweet, you’re sure to enjoy aletria.

Aletria

Ingredients (serves 4)

200gr vermicelli or angel hair
7.5dl milk
300gr sugar
Lemon zest
5 eggs
150gr butter

Preparation

Place the vermicelli in a saucepan with the milk, sugar, butter and lemon zest.
Boil until the vermicelli has absorbed all the milk.
Beat egg yolks and add to vermicelli, stirring until eggs are cooked.
Remove lemon zest and sprinkle with cinnamon.
Serve cold or warm.

5 – Rabanadas

Rabanadas, also known as “Fatias Douradas” (golden slices) , are the Portuguese version of French toast. In December and early January, bakeries sell “cacete”, a specific bread used for this preparation and hard to find the rest of the year. It looks a little like a French baguette. This drier bread is ideal for absorbing the milk and egg mixture. Unlike French toast, toast is prepared in advance and eaten at room temperature. In some regions of Portugal, there are variations on the classic Rabanadas, such as :

Rabanadas com Doce de Ovo : an egg yolk cream is added to the bread.
Rabanadas com Vinho do Porto : instead of soaking the bread in milk, it is soaked in port wine.

Rabanadas

Ingredients (6 people):

Bread
3 eggs
1/2l milk
50g sugar
1 cinnamon stick
Lemon or orange zest
Oil for frying

Recipe :

Cut bread into slices about 1 cm thick.
Heat milk, cinnamon stick and lemon or orange.
Beat the eggs and place in a separate bowl. Dip the bread slices in the milk to soak them lightly in the beaten eggs.
Fry in oil for a few seconds on each side, drain and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon

Instructions for adding Port syrup : prepare syrup by boiling 150ml water, 150g sugar and 100ml Port for 5 minutes. Leave to cool and drizzle the Port syrup over the bread slices