🍳 Bacalhau à Brás

Name: Bacalhau à Brás
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Portugal · Lisbon
Ingredients: 400 g salt cod, desalted for 24–36 hours; 500 g potatoes, cut into very thin matchsticks; 2 onions, thinly sliced; 2 garlic cloves, sliced; 6 eggs, lightly beaten; A handful of black olives and chopped parsley; Olive oil for frying, black pepper

Origin: Portugal · Lisbon

465kcal

per serving · 300 g

155kcal

per 100 g

33 gProtein11 g / 100 g

24 gFat8 g / 100 g

30 gCarbs10 g / 100 g

Bacalhau à Brás is a Portuguese favourite of shredded salt cod sautéed with onions and very thin matchstick potatoes, all bound together with softly scrambled eggs. It is finished with black olives and chopped parsley. The texture is creamy from the eggs with crisp bits of potato, and the taste is savoury and gently salty. It is served hot as an everyday main course.

Diets

✓

No pork

✓

Gluten-freeno wheat, barley or rye in a typical recipe

✓

Dairy-freeno milk, cheese, butter or yogurt in a typical recipe

✓

Low-carb10 g carbs per 100 g

✓

High protein11 g protein per 100 g — 28% of the calories

Not vegetarianbecause of: salt cod

Not veganbecause of: salt cod, egg

Allergens

Contains (in a typical recipe):

⚠ Eggs ⚠ Fish

What it is made of

salt codpotatoeggonionparsleyolives

Recipe

4 servings45 min

Ingredients

400 g salt cod, desalted for 24–36 hours
500 g potatoes, cut into very thin matchsticks
2 onions, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, sliced
6 eggs, lightly beaten
A handful of black olives and chopped parsley
Olive oil for frying, black pepper

Method

Desalt the cod in cold water in the fridge, changing the water several times. Remove skin and bones and shred the flesh finely.
Fry the matchstick potatoes in hot oil until golden and crisp, then drain on paper.
Cook the onions and garlic in 3 tbsp olive oil until soft and golden. Add the cod and stir for 5 minutes.
Add the potatoes, then pour in the eggs and stir over low heat just until they set into soft, creamy curds.
Season with pepper, scatter over olives and parsley, and serve at once.

How to make it lighter

Bake the potato sticks with a light spray of oil instead of deep-frying them — this saves a lot of fat.
Use 4 eggs instead of 6 and add extra onion for volume.
Serve a smaller portion with a large tomato and green salad.

History

The dish is usually credited to a tavern keeper named Brás (or Braz) in Lisbon’s Bairro Alto district, though little is known about him for certain. It belongs to the long Portuguese tradition of salt cod, said to have a different recipe for every day of the year. Today it is cooked in homes and served in tascas all over Portugal.

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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →