Easy Salsa Brava Recipe - The Fiery Vegetarian (2024)

After living in Spain for nearly fifteen years, I’ve perfected this salsa brava recipe, the perfect spicy sauce for patatas bravas.

Smoky, rich, spicy, and thick, a good bravas sauce is worth its weight in gold. And it’s super easy and quick to make.

This sauce is based on several traditional and authentic sauces I’ve had with patatas bravas in some truly excellent restaurants in Madrid and Valencia.

Even in Spain, terrible bottled bravas sauce, which is basically spicy ketchup, is used at a lot of restaurants and cafeterias. A true authentic brava sauce does not contain tomato.

Serve at room temperature over crisp fried potato chunks, and some good fresh bread for an authentic Spanish tapas dining experience. Add a glass of good wine, and some tasty Spanish fava beans and you’ll have a feast!

Patatas bravas are incidentally vegan, although many places also serve them with alioli which I highly recommend. Fried potatoes served with bravas sauce and alioli are technically patatas mixtas though, not patatas bravas.

If, like me, you’re into spice, then for more spicy sauce goodness I also highly recommend you try my homemade easy peri peri sauce recipe.

Paprika – Types and Substitutions

So, as paprika is the main ingredient in salsa brava, using the right type is pretty crucial. I know not everyone has access to Spanish-style smoked paprika so I’ve given my recommendations and substitutions below.

In an ideal world, you would use sweet (dulce) Pimentón de la Vera and hot (picante) Pimentón de la Vera. Pimentón de la Vera is a type of smoked paprika widely available in Spain in mainly hot and sweet versions. It is only made in the Vera valley in Cáceres in Spain and is very high-quality paprika.

If you can’t get a hold of any Pimentón de la Vera (the paprika of choice for making bravas sauce), then you can substitute it in this recipe with 4 tablespoons of smoked paprika and 1 tablespoon of sweet paprika, and increase the cayenne by a quarter teaspoon to half.

The reason for changing the quantities of smoked versus sweet paprika if not using Pimentón de la Vera is that all Vera paprika is smoked, so you need extra smoked paprika if not using it.

How to Make it

Okay the paprika explanation above may have scared you off but I promise that in just fifteen minutes your salsa brava will be ready.

First, assemble your ingredients. You can check the labeled photo below to make sure you’re more or less on track.

Add the olive oil to a medium-sized non-stick frying pan and heat on medium-high. Peel and finely chop the onion and add to the pan. Fry for five minutes, often stirring, until soft and lightly browned (image one below). In the meantime, peel and mince the garlic.

Don’t substitute a different oil for olive oil, it adds a lot of traditional flavor – of course for frying use the cheaper kinds, no need to break out the extra virgin olive oil!

Reduce the heat to medium and add the paprika, garlic, and ground cayenne pepper (image two above). Mix well and toast for one minute, stirring often to prevent burning. Burnt paprika is extremely bitter and unappetizing.

Add the all-purpose flour and mix well again until incorporated. Let cook for another two minutes, stirring to prevent burning (image three above).

Add a quarter cup (60ml) of vegetable stock and whisk well until it’s incorporated. Continue to quickly add the rest of the stock, a quarter of a cup at a time, and whisk until incorporated before adding more (image four above).

Add in the vinegar and turn the heat up to high until the sauce comes to a boil, then reduce slightly to medium-high and let the sauce bubble away for five minutes. It should thicken up nicely (image five below)

Next either transfer to a bowl and blend with a stick blender, or blitz in a regular blender or food processor until smooth (image six above) (be careful not to burn yourself with the hot sauce).

Adjust the texture as needed with up to an additional 1/4 cup of water – the consistency of the sauce should be slightly looser than ketchup, although you can just adjust it to your personal preference or keep it nice and thick.

Taste and adjust salt as needed. This will depend on the vegetable stock you used. I usually add around half a teaspoon.

Done! Serve over fried potatoes for some delicious homemade patatas bravas!

Storing it

This sauce makes quite a bit, enough for around eight portions of bravas. Not to worry though if you have leftovers.

Store in a tightly covered container in the fridge for up to four days or in the freezer for up to three months.

Defrost overnight in the fridge. The sauce normally thickens the longer it sits so to reheat, add a little water to thin it and heat in short bursts in the microwave, whisking with a fork in between to incorporate the water, or on the stovetop in a pan on a medium heat, adding water and whisking as needed.

The Potatoes

I’m fairly sure that everyone knows how to fry potatoes but I’ll include this section anyway. About two large potatoes per person is a good rule of thumb for patatas bravas if it’s going to be main dish or largest part of the meal.

For smaller Spanish “tapa” style meals where there is bread and other tapas such as a cheese plate, olives, Spanish potato omelet, etc., one large potato per person should suffice.

Potatoes should be cut into large dice, cubes of roughly 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch. Normally they are peeled, parboiled, and then fried until golden.

However, in our house we usually roast them in the oven or in the air fryer.

In the oven, toss the peeled cubed potatoes with two tablespoons of olive oil and roughly 1/4 tsp salt per potato and roast on a baking paper-lined tray in the middle of the oven at 400ºF (200ºC) for around 40-45 minutes, tossing every fifteen minutes so they brown evenly.

In the air fryer, I toss the potatoes with between 1 tsp to half a tablespoon of olive oil (depending on how many potatoes I used), salt, and cook at 400ºF (200ºC) for 20 minutes, tossing every five.

Did you make this salsa brava recipe? Let me know how much you loved it with a star rating in the recipe box, review, or comment below.

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