Paleo patatas a la pobre (poor man’s potatoes)

In these last seven years in Spain, I really came to appreciate Spanish cuisine. Its stews, chickpea and lentil soups, simple fish dishes with vegetables—I love them.

Only problem? Spaniards loove frying food—I’m thinking about calamares fritos (fried squid rings), merluza adobada (marinated fried hake) orcroquetas de pollo (chicken croquettes). And in any average Spanish restaurant, most dishes will most likely come with chips.

While the frying part is easily solved—don’t fry food at home—many recipes call for potatoes, that we don’t eat. We recently solved this problem, too, by using sweet potatoes (which are called “batatas” in Spanish). Here in Spain, you can find them all year round in El Corte Inglés.

So here’s a very simple Spanish garnish I’m making now at least once a week. It goes with anything—meatballs, salmon, chicken, pork, you decide.

It’s called patatas a la pobre (poor man’s potatoes, for its easy and cheap ingredients) and it’s easy, fast and delicious.

What you need (for 2, with leftovers)

1 red pepper1 onion1 big sweet potatoOil, salt, pepper

How you make it

I’m not a cook—I don’t even enjoy cooking—and that’s why all the recipes you’ll find on my blog are super easy and very fast to make. If you’re looking for fancy gourmet stuff, you won’t most definitely find it here.

For this recipe, I simply have to cut the onion and the red pepper in stripes, like if I’m prepping them for fajita. I preheat enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan, put onion and pepper to cook and cover with a lid.

Then I peal and cut the sweet potato, first in half and then in slices (medium thickness).

When pepper and onion are soft, I put in the sweet potato, add some salt and pepper and let it cook until it’s soft enough to pinch with a fork without crumbling.

Serve with any meat (in the picture above—scroll up up up—with pesto meatballs with sun dried tomato sauce) and enjoy. Yes, it’s that easy!