Chorizo, mushrooms and onions are an easy to make side dish any night of the year. When I recreated this recipe, I added sliced bell pepper. If you don’t tolerate them, feel free to leave them out.
Call them tapas or pinchos; the little plates served with your drink are an essential part of Spanish life
You’ll notice the tapas as soon as you walk into a Spanish bar.
Tapas can range from a simple slice of bread with a piece of cheese or a bit of tortilla to an elaborate sampling of jamón, pickled onions and vegetables served on a skewer.
In the summer many places serve gazpacho or a refreshing white bean salad.
During the cool months the choices may change to a small bowl of lentils or sopa de ajo.
Tapas are intended to be consumed with the purchase of beer, wine or cider.
Whether you pay for the tapas depends on the location.
In some places the more you drink the more elaborate the tapas become. In others you’ll have to pay for anything more complex than a bowl of potato chips.
Outside of the tourist areas, the vast majority of tapas are prepared simply from readily available ingredients and will at least satisfy your hunger.
Vamos a tapear!
The consumption of tapas is an important part of the culture of Spain. There’s even a verb for going out to eat tapas: tapear.
If you’re really hungry you can order a surtido or selection of tapas to share but usually you have a drink and a tapa, talk with your friends for a half hour or so, and move on to the next place.
Bars and restaurants are open until very late, so there’s no hurry to get out of the house before your favorite place closes.
It’s not unusual to see young children out with their parent until the wee hours of the morning, especially on the weekends.
Everyone dresses up to tapear. No going out to drink in sweatpants (or worse, without makeup!)
Bars develop a reputation for the wine and tapas they serve
After spending some time in a city, you’ll quickly learn the best places to buy the fancy tapas, or the best seafood tapas or the best meat tapas.
More and more, there are tapas for vegetarians. It depends on the location.
A note for gluten free visitors. It can be difficult to find gluten free tapas. Flour and bread crumbs thicken sauces and coat fried meats and vegetables in many establishments.
Fortunately, most places in Spain are accustomed to dealing with food allergies and will help you make selections to suit your needs.
Tips for making Chorizo, Mushrooms and Onions
It’s best to add the chorizo near the end of cooking, just to warm it through. It can become unpleasantly hard otherwise.
As mentioned above, the original recipe didn’t have bell peppers but I added them during the rewrite. If you don’t like them, don’t use them.
You can easily prepare a wide variety of tapas at home, see the suggestions below. It can be fun to make several for an informal meal. Serve them with olives, cheese and your favorite beverage.
Ingredients
- 1 medium onion cut into petals
- 1 cup mushrooms sliced or quartered
- 1 – 2 cloves of garlic chopped
- 1 red or green bell pepper, sliced (optional)
- 1 oz Spanish style chorizo sliced thin (feel free to add more)
- paprika salt and pepper to taste
- olive oil for sauteeing
Instructions
- Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over high heat.
- Add peppers, onions and garlic and sauté until the onions start to turn translucent.
- Reduce the heat and add the mushrooms.
- Add the chorizo and stir to mix.
- Season with paprika, salt and pepper to taste.
- You want the oil and any water released from the vegetables to form a bit of sauce. If you want more sauce, add some more olive oil.
- Transfer to a serving dish when heated through. Serve with bread. Try dipping the bread into the sauce.
Notes
We regularly serve the tapas pictured below. Pick a few to serve with your chorizo, mushrooms and onions. A buffet style spread is great for entertaining:
The fun part of eating tapas is choosing which ones to serve or try if you’re out on the town. Eating is the easy part.
Share your experience with tapas in the comments, I’d love to hear about your favorites.
I originally wrote this post in 2013 and took this photo with my phone. I was quite proud of the drop shadow on the title. I’m leaving it here for archival reasons 🙂
One of our favorite Mexican restaurants closed a while back and I’ve been wanting to recreate our favorite appetizer. This recipe is an almost perfect match! I added some tomato paste, veg broth, a jar of pimentos and some Trader Joe’s Umami Seasoning. Hubby LOVED it!
Thank you so much for sharing 😀
Sounds delicious! Glad you were able to recreate your favorite appetizer 🙂
I eating it now . It does taste good. I used more Chorizo. added a little green pepper, less onion, and mushrooms.
Sorry I didn’t see your earlier question, Chris. I’m glad you were able to figure everything out and that you like the end result. More chorizo is fine! I increased the veggies because of flexitarian emphasis of the blog.
Only 1 oz of Chorizo, is that correct?
I am going to try this recipe but I am going t use more Chorizo.
I think I will put in a tortilla.
YES PLEASE! Chorizo Sausage is a HUGE favourite of mine, and this looks like an awesome dish itself, or to serve over rice, or along side a salad… or by itself! lol What a great lunch as well!
Yes to all of those 🙂
Great combination of ingredients! Sounds delish! Love your new pic! 🙂
This is one of our favorites, thanks!
This looks really good! I love all the colors in it! I am a huge fan of mushrooms and onions! YUM!
We like them, too. It’s a rare meal where we don’t have one or the other.
I do love tapas but sometimes it can get pricey! Love this option to make it at home 🙂
Especially when you factor in the adult beverages!
Oh yum!!! Love chorizo so this is definitely a must try 🙂
You’ll love it 🙂
Tapas is such a fun, trendy way to eat here in America … but as someone who’s never been to Spain, I really enjoyed your discussion of how tapas is authentically enjoyed there. This recipe is lovely – so pretty and full of great flavors! Plus it’s quick and simple enough to whip up frequently, at a moment’s notice – perfect! 😀
Quick and easy is definitely a bonus! 🙂
What a lovely dish and I adore eating tapas style!
It’s a lot of fun. We like to make this plus some cheeses, breads and olives for guests to nosh on while we grill something more substantial.
This looks great! I love tapas, and this will be a wonderful addition to our next tapas night at home. I’ll make it with soyrizo at home. Thanks for the story on tapas in Spain too. I liked reading about it, as I’ve never been there.
Great idea to use soyrizo. I haven’t had a chance to try it. Does it crumble when you remove the casing like Mexican style chorizo?
It isn’t quite the same, but it is a decent sub. When I cook with it I often smash it a little with the back of a wooden spoon.
Good to know. Thanks!
Looks so wonderful and much smell amazing!
They do smell good, that’s for sure! One of my Girl Scout leaders had a poor sense of smell and as a consequence, wasn’t able to taste much. Amazing how much smell enhances our enjoyment of a meal. She liked to eat Snickers bars because of the texture.
This is such a colorful dish! Just from its looks I feel so happy! Delicious!
How kind of you to say, Katerina 🙂 Thank you!
I LOVE tapas, I can’t wait to try this recipe!
They’re fun to make and eat, especially with a gathering of friends.
Um YUM. I love Chorizo
It’s so cool to walk into a store to see them hanging all over the place.
I love Spanish chorizo, just recently cooked with it myself. Lovely dish.
It’s a totally different product from Mexican style chorizo. And the Portuguese versions are seasoned differently. It’s a fun ingredient, for sure! 🙂
I love this idea! Chorizo is a personal favorite. I seriously can’t wait to try this.
Let me know how you like it, Heidy. Glad you could drop by 🙂
I love eating snacky/picky food like this – it’s perfect for a fall day!
It’s great for eating in front of the TV, isn’t it?
Vibrant colors abound. Love this combo. Tasty!
It’s pretty brown without the parsley and peppers. They make it look festive 🙂
We love tapas and your combination of chorizo, mushrooms and onions sounds delicious!
Thanks, Linda. It’s so easy to season the dish to suit your personal taste, something for everyone 🙂
Wow! I can easily devour these tapas!!! lol. Seriously, it looks deliciously good!
Thanks! We enjoyed them. A spread of a little bit of this and a little bit of that is one of our favorite meals.
Yum!!!
Stopping by from SITS!
Ashley
http://www.simplydesigning.net
Thanks for stopping by! Glad I found SITs…so many great blogs out there. 🙂