It is true that Spaniards love to have their food with just a little bit of olive oil and salt, but Spanish sauces are still very important on their diet. For example, there are dishes that cannot be eaten without their sauce, as it happens with the bravas potatoes.
Next you will find our complete list of Spanish sauces, dips and spreads…Try them all!
1) Aioli
In this case, we are probably talking about one of the most popular Spanish dips for bread of the whole Iberian Peninsula. The aioli is a garlic sauce that comes from the Roman times and it´s popular not only in Spain but also in France and Italy. Actually, the name of this Spanish sauce has its origins in Catalonia, where “all” means garlic, and “oli” means oil.
It is true that you can find garlic aioli all over Spain, but for many people (including us), this traditional Spanish sauce reminds of the Valencian Community. In the White Coast they will always serve you bread with aioli as an appetizer, plus, some people really like to mix it with the paella.
The recipe is similar to mayonnaise, but not exactly the same. We explain you how to make it below.
2) Mojo
Let´s talk about one of our favorite Spanish dipping sauces! It is called mojo or mojo picón, and you can find two varieties of this sauce, the green and the red mojo. Although you can eat it in many areas of Spain, there is no place where it is cooked as well as in the Canary Islands.
While the green mojo is a softer sauce made with parsley and coriander, the “mojo rojo” is cooked with hot red peppers and sometimes cayenne…Don´t worry it´s still not considered one of those “Spicy Spanish sauces”.
Another thing we really like about this traditional Spanish dip is that it´s recipe is very easy to make. We tell you all about it below.
3) Bravas Sauce
As we said at the beginning, there are some dishes that cannot be done without their sauce. It´s the case of the bravas potatoes, which are basically fried potatoes with the brava sauce. What is more interesting, is that brava sauce is only used for this meal…and it´s a pity because it´s delicious.
Of all the ones we have mentioned for the moment, “La salsa brava” is the hottest Spanish sauce, but again, if you are cooking it at home, you can always add less cayenne or less hot paprika.
“Patatas bravas” is a national dish, there is no region that claims it as their own, but in the center of Spain (Madrid and the Castillas), is where it´s eaten the most.
4) Tumaca Sauce
One of the most famous Spanish dips and spreads is the “Pan tumaca”. It´s a typical food eaten during breakfast in the Catalonian region of Spain. Nowadays, you can find it all over Spain, and it is very common in restaurants. People normally eat it before having their morning coffee.
It´s probably the easiest Spanish sauce recipe, as it consists of cutting a slice of bread and spreading chopped tomato, oil and salt on top of it. We explain you the whole recipe below, but that´s basically how its done.
The tumaca sauce can be used for other recipes as it´s basically a sauce made of tomato (but is not something many people do).
5) Romesco
Another of the classic Spanish sauces is the Romesco. You won´t find it in most of the regions in Spain, just in Catalonia and some others, but making it is very easy so don´t worry because if you can´t eat it in a restaurant, you can just cook it at home.
The romesco sauce is a combination of five key ingredients in the Mediterranean cuisine, which are peppers, tomato, garlic, onions and paprika. Toasted almonds are also needed for this recipe.
If you are wondering what is this sauce used for? It is actually very flexible, you can use it for pasta, burgers, pizza, or in addition to meat, vegetables or fish.
Enjoy the authentic Spanish sauces recipes!
That´s the end of our Spanish sauces list, hope you get the chance of visiting Spain and trying them all, if not, don´t worry because as you have seen its recipes are very easy to make.
There are many more types of Spanish sauces, so if you think we missed an important one, please let us know! We would love to include it on the list!