Name: Grilled Octopus
Yield: Serves 4–6
Cuisine: Greek
Ingredients: 1.5 kg fresh octopus, cleaned; 1 heaped tsp. of Greek mountain oregano; ribbons of carrot and cucumber and lemon wedges, to serve; Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper; 350 ml extra virgin olive oil; A pinch of ground paprika; 2 cloves of garlic; 1 tbsp. freshly chopped green herbs; 100 ml olive oil; Juice of 3 lemons (approx, 90 ml); 75 g Dijon mustard

Preparation info

Serves
4–6

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Real Greek

By Tonia Buxton

Published 2016

About

The classic Greek dish of freshly caught chargrilled octopus is cooked with olive oil, garlic and our most-used culinary herb wild Greek oregano – arguably the best oregano in the world!. This wild herb grows abundantly on Mount Taygetos, the highest mountain in Lakonía, Greece and has a robust, pungent flavour, which is characteristic in Mediterranean cooking. Meaning ‘Joy of the mountain’, the Greek name ‘origanon’ refers to oros, meaning ‘mountain’, and the verb ganousthai, meaning ‘deli