Traditional Algarve Recipes

The sun-drenched Algarve has a sub-tropical climate which allows growth of a wide range of fruit and vegetables, many of which cannot be grown in Northern Europe. The Algarve is also renounded for its variety of fish dishes, many of which will be familiar to tourists, but there are also less known dishes based on the traditional home cooking of the interior Algarve regions.

There are many traditional Algarve dishes which are very easy to cook, and here you will find the recipes for some of these on this site. Algarve food is based on fresh ingredients, and because of the favourable climate there are many more varieties of fruits and vegetables than in Northern Europe.

The local markets which are prevalent throughout the Algarve region are an excellent place to obtain the fresh ingredients that characterise Algarve food.

Loulé Market a great place to go for fresh ingredients

Portuguese markets such as the one pictured above in th town of Loule tend contain fruit and vegetables which are different in appearance to their UK counterparts. For example, in the Algarve tomatos are generally sold green, whereas in the UK the consumer would expect bright red colouring. For this reason a lot of UK fruit and vegetables are selected for appearance rather than taste. The all year round sun and higher light intensity produces fruit and vegetables which look and taste different to those in the UK.

Click on the links at the side of the page to view some traditional Algarve recipes

Useful links

We offer a truly unique range of High Quality and specialised produce from various regions of Portugal, one such produce is pork in the form of Chorizo & Serrano Ham, which in Portugal is a tradition that has been around for hundreds of years for which Portugal is now famous.