Recipe Difficulty: Easy

Recipe Keywords: Patatas Bravas, Spanish Food, Tapas, Vegan

Patatas Bravas Recipe Notes
Patatas Bravas is a widely popular tapas item in Spain. It translates to "Fierce Potato". Crispy potatoes in a spicy tomato sauce and drizzled with garlicky mayo. I can say hands down it is one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten. Do yourself a favour, make this, eat this...you need patatas bravas in your life, I promise. 

You can either roast the potatoes or deep fry them. I have tried both ways, and OK for sure the deep fried are extra good, but if that doesn't work for you, roasting them gives you pretty great results too. 

TIPS for Cooking Potatoes

• A good trick is to cook the potatoes in salted boiling water first with baking soda. When you dump them into the strainer, shake the strainer around so the potatoes get "roughed up". This creates a surface area conducive to getting nice and crispy. Cool potatoes, then roast or fry to crispy spud perfection. 
• If you are roasting your potatoes, make sure to get the oven nice and hot. I find placing my potatoes on the bottom rack helps get them super crispy. 

Variations in Spain

• When I was in Spain, I definitely noticed Patatas Bravas on a ton of menus. Some vegan, some not. One I tried and really liked had a few pieces of roasted sweet potato amongst the white roasted potato. After trying it myself at home, I can say with certainty I love adding a few pieces in. I don't boil the sweet potatoes first, and I cook them separately from the white potatoes. On a sheet pan in a 375F oven until a bit brown on each side. 

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Recipe Difficulty: Easy

Recipe Tags:

• Vegan Banana Bread
• Banana Loaf
• Banana Bread with Walnuts and Dried Cranberries
• Whole Wheat Flour Banana Loaf

​This recipe is exactly what you'd hope for in a classic banana bread. Banana-y and super moist. You can add in nuts, dried fruit or chocolate chips if you'd like. My fav combo is walnut and dried cranberry. This recipe uses 100% whole wheat flour, and it's delicious. I use whole grains in baking when it works, and in this recipe it really does. 

History of Banana Bread
I learned that there are two theories about how the introduction of banana bread happened in the 1930's. Wiki says it is probably a combination of both, and I would probably agree with that sentiment. Banana bread was potentially a byproduct of the great depression. Home makers not wanting to waste anything, would turn too ripe bananas into a quick bread. Seems logical to me. The other idea points towards the corporate world developing the concept of this bread to promote their products, as baking powder and baking soda became popularized around this time. Either way it's interesting to consider the origins of this ubiquitous staple loved by so many of us. I certainly can conjure up childhood memories of my mothers banana bread. I'd like to point out that this recipe really tastes just like I remember banana bread always tasting (it wasn't vegan). So that is a win in my books.