I have always loved seafood, even as a little girl, but we never ate octopus at home. It wasn’t even part of my diet until I started eating out a lot and trying it out. Therefore, it is surprising that my dad was the one who explained to me how to prepare octopus and who made me some at home. It’s a bit of a long process, but super easy to make. Basically, all you need to do is boil the octopus and then throw it on the BBQ until it’s got those black marks on it. Afterwards, I like to cut mine up, pour some extra virgin olive oil and a bit of fresh lemon juice on it and toss in some chopped flat parsley and sliced onion. Delicious! I also like to serve it with a traditional Greek salad (no lettuce) and garlic butter rice (okay, and sometimes with lobster too – see below).

Recipe for: 2 people
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 1 hour (boil), about 5 mins (bbq)

• What you’ll need:
• 2-4 octopus tentacles* (depending on how hungry you are and on what your side dishes are)
• 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Fresh lemon juice
• Half a cup of flat parsley, thinly chopped
• One small onion**, thinly sliced
• Salt

How to make grilled octopus:

1. I like to start by rinsing my octopus, but this is optional
2. Set a pot of water big enough to hold the octopus tentacles to boil, while adding a tablespoon of red wine vinegar (if you don’t have any, any vinegar will do just fine). You can add in the octopus right away
3. Once the water is boiling, bring it down to about medium heat and leave the pot uncovered. Cook for about an hour
4. In the meantime, chop your parsley and onion
5. Once an hour has passed, remove the tentacles, set on a dish and spray with olive oil
6. BBQ the tentacles for about 5 mins, or until they become a bit charred. At this point, the octopus is ready to be eaten. You can skip steps 7 and 8, add some extra virgin olive oil and enjoy right away
7. To obtain your Greek style octopus, put the tentacles on a cutting board and slice into about a half inch thick rondelles
8. Pour enough extra virgin olive oil to cover all the pieces, add a good squeeze of lemon juice and some salt. Then, add in the parsley and onion. Mix everything together et voilà, you’ve got yourself some Greek style octopus***

*Depending on where you buy your octopus, some grocery stores in Montréal (like Provigo) allow you to only get the tentacles. My father purchases his whole from Adonis – up to you. I calculate about two tentacles per person, for a meal, with side dishes of course (one per person if you’re on a budget lol)

**I try to use sweet white onions or red onions when I consume them raw

***I like to serve my Greek style octopus with a Greek salad and some garlic butter rice

UP NEXT: My Montreal pho hunt!

*All photos are my own