Thinly sliced octopus drizzled with a refreshing lemon-olive oil vinaigrette, Octopus Carpaccio is a popular Italian-inspired food in Japan. Over here, tender octopus are topped with chopped cucumber, tomato, and sweet onion, making it a fabulous appetizer. Any seafood lovers will fall for this dish!
This Octopus Carpaccio (tako carpaccio) is a delicious appetizer with thinly sliced octopus. If you never had octopus and want to try it for the first time, I highly recommend this dish. With a light lemon dressing, this octopus carpaccio is very flavorful yet delicate on the palate.
Preparing Octopus Carpaccio with the Easiest Method
I have prepared my octopus carpaccio in the Japanese method. Instead of cleaning and boiling the octopus, I used octopus sashimi (it is already pre-cooked and ready to eat) from a local Japanese supermarket. All you need to do is to thinly slice the boiled octopus and place them on your serving dish, and then top the seafood with chopped veggies before you drizzle in the lemon and olive oil sauce.
The dish requires less than 15 minutes to put together, which makes it a perfect appetizer for a big party.
Octopus dishes are commonly enjoyed in the Mediterranean, South American and East Asian countries. Beside this Japanese style octopus carpaccio, there is also an Italian version of octopus carpaccio that is very popular. The preparation for the Italian version is slightly different and requires a bit more work.
If you plan to buy a whole octopus, and don’t know what to do with the rest, these are some of the delicious octopus dishes that I’ve shared:
Japanese Octopus Salad (Tako no Sunomono)
And check out these links from other sites for more octopus dishes!
- Octopus Salad (Ensalada de Pulpo) from Simply Recipes
- Italian-Style Grilled Octopus from Serious Eats
- Grilled Octopus with Gigante Beans and Oregano from Bon Appetit
- Grilled Sous-Vide Octopus w/ Corona Beans, Chorizo & Sherry-Smoked Paprika Vinaigrette from Zen Can Cook
Thank you so much for reading, and I’ll see you next time!
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Octopus Carpaccio
Ingredients
- 7 oz octopus sashimi (boiled octopus) (If you want to know how the Italian prepares the octopus, you can learn it here.)
- ⅓ English cucumber
- 1 tomato
- ¼ onion
Sauce:
- 4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- ½ lemon (1 ½ Tbsp lemon juice)
- ¼ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 Tbsp parsley (chopped)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
- Cut octopus into thin slices.
- Keeping the core intact, slice the onion widthwise. Then slice lengthwise and cut crosswise.
- Mince the onion to even size. Soak in water for 10 minutes to get rid of bitter taste.
- Cut the cucumber in half lengthwise and remove the seeds. Cut the cucumber into thin strips and chop finely.
- Cut the tomato in half and remove the seeds. Cut into thin strips and chop finely.
- Combine all ingredients in a bowl and add all the seasonings and mix all together. Place sliced octopus on a serving tray and place the vegetables on top. Serve chilled.
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 2-3 days.
Notes
Nutrition
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This is looking so good! I fell in love with octopus at the first time. I found some recipes for grilled octopuses and I thought that would be the best way to prepare it. But this raw looks even better!
My love story with the octopus started at the amazing restaurant named Bar Isabel where my husband took me for our anniversary. I was like “this is not the best place because I don’t like seafood”, but after one bite it changed! 🙂 This carpaccio looks like something I could make easily and with this great photo recipe it will be easily done, I’m sure! Thanks a lot for this recipe, my husband will be happy. 🙂
Hi Lana! Thank you for your kind comment. I’m happy to hear you now enjoy octopus. Octopus carpaccio is so delicious and this marinade/sauce is very easy to make! I hope you and your husband enjoy this recipe. 🙂
What a beautiful and simple recipe! Thanks for sharing. =) It’s a bit frigid here in Boston (we have our first snow today), but even though it’s cold, the carpaccio still is tempting!
Thanks Kimmi! It’s a great starter! I can definitely eat this all year around. It’s more like salad or light appetizer for me. 🙂 Snow already! Going to NYC this December… I think I will never be ready for cold weather!