What to Eat in Gran Canaria – The Most Delicious Food in Gran Canaria - The World in My Pocket (2024)

I have always believed that food is an important part of travelling. You can learn so much from a destination just by taking a stroll around the local market and learning about which are the most common products sold there. Gran Canaria surprised me with delicious dishes cooked with the freshest local produce grown on the island. The best food in Gran Canaria is based on simple ingredients that highlight flavour instead of a complex cooking process.

When I think about what to eat in Gran Canaria, I remember the tastiest fish dishes I have ever had, the incredible mojo sauces and the sweet taste of the ripe tomatoes grown under the constant sunshine and low humidity of the island.

About the Cuisine in Gran Canaria

The Gran Canaria cuisine is simple. The traditional recipes use very few ingredients that are of such high quality, they don’t need any other flavour enhancements. The food in Gran Canaria is similar to that of the other Canary Islands, but it does put its own touches on the recipes. There are many restaurants on the island where you can try the typical Canarian food. I highly recommend stepping away from your all-inclusive resort and going to a local restaurant, a food market, a tapas bar, a bodega, or a small farm.

One of the goals of my trip to Gran Canaria was to taste the local food. As I always do after coming back from a trip, I wanted to create a food guide for Gran Canaria, to help you understand the cuisine of the island better and let you know what to expect in terms of local dishes. Whether you are a vegetarian, vegan, or meat eater, you will find plenty of things to eat in Gran Canaria. I travelled with three vegans and two vegetarians, and they always had plenty of options for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The biggest crops in Gran Canaria are tomatoes and bananas. However, the island also produces delicious oranges, avocado, papaya, olives, cucumbers, and aubergines. Sugar cane is still grown on the island, and is used to produce the local rum at the Arehucas Distillery in Arucas. The goat and sheep cheese produced in the North of Gran Canaria, in Guia, often receive international awards.

What to Eat in Gran Canaria

Staple Food in Gran Canaria

Mojo

Mojo is a staple of the cuisine in Gran Canaria. There are so many foods in Gran Canaria that are served alongside mojo. It is interesting that mojo refers to a range of sauces and not just a single one. There is Mojo Picon, Mojo Rojo, Mojo Verde – depending on the ingredients used to make the sauce. Traditionally, mojo is made by hand, with the use of a pestle and mortar.

Mojo picon is a spicy sauce made with olive oil, vinegar, garlic, pepper and cumin. Mojo Rojo has the local picona pepper as the main ingredient, which is spicy. The Mojo Verde is based on coriander. As someone who doesn’t like coriander, I was surprised that I liked Mojo Verde. I think that the lemon/lime add-on takes the edge offthe coriander, giving the sauce a much fresher and better taste.

Almogrote

Almogrote is a sauce based on the red mojo, with hard cheese as the main ingredient. I only tried it once, with papas arrugadas, and decided it was absolutely delicious. Almogrote can also be used as a spread, on toast.

Tapas

Papas Arrugadas – Canarian Potatoes

The Canarian potatoes, Papas Arrugadas, is the most popular food in Gran Canaria. You will find this dish on pretty much every restaurant or tapas bar’s menu, always served with mojo. It also often accompanies fish dishes.

The Canarian potatoes, also known as “papa bonita” are small and they wrinkle when they are boiled in water with sea salt. They are always cooked with the skin on. The traditional method of cooking Canarian potatoes is in seawater.

They taste so good, especially when you cover them in mojo. They are usually served with both mojo rojo and mojo verde, and they are delicious. I ate papas arrugadas so many times during my trip to Gran Canaria and I never got bored of them.

Tomates Alinados

Gran Canaria grows delicious tomatoes, and this dish highlights the sweet, flavoursome taste of a ripe tomato, making it the star of the plate. This recipe is extremely easy and only requires good quality olive oil, garlic, balsamic vinegar, and sometimes fresh cheese. It is a simple but full of flavour dish that I highly recommend ordering from the tapas menu.

Gran Canaria Cheeses

I was so impressed by the cheeses in Gran Canaria. You can order cheese platters as starters, alongside a wine tasting, or just as a tapa. The most popular local cheeses in Gran Canaria are cured and semi-cured, made from either sheep or goat milk, or a mixture of both. Cows are not very common on the island, so there is not much cheese made from cow’s milk.

During a wonderful wine tasting at Casa Romantica in Agaete, I discovered that some of the cheese in Gran Canaria is made with thistle flowers instead of rennet.

Crujiente de Morcilla

Morcilla is the Spanish equivalent of black pudding. However, whilst it is still a blood sausage made from pork, it tastes very different from the British black puddingbecausefor one, the morcilla has a creamy rather than firm texture. It is also extremely flavoursome as different herbs and spices such as cinnamon, star anise, and almonds are added to the recipe. The final product is quite sweet and full of flavour.

The crujiente de morcilla are small blood sausage balls deep fried until the exterior is crunchy. I tasted the crujiente de morcilla at the lovely Piscos y Buches tapas bar in the local market of Gran Canaria, and they served it alongside a sweet red cabbage slaw.

Pulpo a la Canaria

Even if I returned from Gran Canaria a few weeks ago, I am still thinking of how delicious the Pulpo a la Canaria was. This can be a tapa or a main meal in itself, as it’s quite a large portion.

Pulpo a la Canaria is a humble dish that makes use of the local ingredients of the island: octopus and potatoes. The octopus is cooked to perfection and served with wrinkled potatoes and peppers, in a spicy delicious sauce made with garlic, chillies, and Jerez vinegar, and tastes fantastic!

Watercress Croquettes

Croquettes are one of the most delicious tapas in Spain. The most common fillings include jamon, cheese, mushroom and even oxtail. In Gran Canaria though you will find the most delicious vegetarian croquettes, filled with a mixture of watercress and walnuts.

Main Meals

Cochino Negro Canario

The Canario Black Pig is a heritage breed of pork that was introduced to the islands in the 15^th century, after the Spanish Reconquista. At some point, the Canario Black Pig was almost extinct but with help from the government, the farmers managed to bring the population back to a healthy number.

There are many different foods in Gran Canaria that are using black pig, from burgers to croquettes, from meatballs to chorizo. If you find it on the menu, order it! Make sure it is Canario Black Pig, and not just Black Pork imported from mainland Spain.

Ropa Vieja

I was very surprised to learn that Ropa Vieja is one of the traditional foods in Gran Canaria. I tried Ropa Vieja when I visited Cuba, a few years ago. In fact, Ropa Vieja is the national dish of Cuba.

Learning about the history of Gran Canaria though, I connected the dots – many people left the Canary Islands after the discovery of the Americas. Years later, older generations returned to the Canaries and brought back part of the culture they lived through in Latin America. Even the accent in Gran Canaria leans more towards Cuba, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico rather than continental Spain.

Ropa Vieja is a humble but delicious dish. There are many different recipes for it, and the taste will differ depending on if you are eating it at a restaurant or home cooked. The best is, of course, homemade. I tried Ropa Vieja at the lovely farm of Felisa and Augustin Cabrera, a couple who bought this piece of land when they retired and transformed it into a small paradise: almost vertical vineyards, coffee bushes, orange trees, and a tiny bodega. Felisa cooked a feast for us!

Pescado del Dia

If you like fish, then Gran Canaria is going to spoil you. Almost every restaurant I ate at had a “pescado del dia” dish, especially for lunch. The fish can be sea bream, sea bass, red porgy, pink dentex, and the typical “vieja – parrot fish” which in the waters between the Canary Islands.

The fish of the day is a fresh dish, served with grilled seasonal vegetables and red or green mojo sauce.

Seafood Dishes

Besides fish, Gran Canaria also has plenty of delicious seafood, such as octopus, squid, prawns and lobsters. One of the popular seafood dishes, which is a typical food in Madeira as well, is the grilled limpets served with red mojo instead of garlic sauce.

I had a fantastic lobster dish at the 360 Restaurant from Bohemia Suites and Spa hotel. The chefs here are extremely skilled! The dish consisted of an avocado gazpacho topped with delicate cubes of cucumber and slices of radishes, and served with a perfectly grilled lobster claw.

Another great seafood dish that you must try in Gran Canaria is the gambas al ajillo – sizzling prawns with garlic and olive oil.

Conejo al Salmorejo

Whilst the rabbit al salmorejo is a traditional Canarian food, you will not find it very often on restaurant menus. It is a dish that is mostly eaten in the mountains and not really along the coast. I stumbled upon one restaurant that was making it, but you had to order it the day before.

This is a dish that was born in Tenerife but it is eaten on all of the Canary Islands. The rabbit meat is marinated for a day before it’s sauteedand then slow cooked in the marinade. There is a lot of flavour in this dish from all the herbs and spices used in the marinade, and the meat is extremely tender.Salmorero is the name of the marinade, not to be confused with the Andalucian cold soup with the same name.

Garbanzada a lo Canario

Stews are very popular in Gran Canaria, especially in the villages in the mountains. The recipes differ from household to household, depending on what vegetables are available. One of the most traditional stews from Gran Canaria is the Garbanzada a lo Canario. This hearty stew is based on chickpeas and can be either vegetarian or made with meat. The ingredients that will never be missingfrom the Canarian chickpeas stew are chickpeas, tomatoes, garlic and pimenton – Spanish paprika.

Chickpeas are in fact one of the most popular legumes used to make many Gran Canarian foods.

Desserts

Bienmesabe

Bienmesabe is an extremely sweet but delicious dessert. It is made from almonds, honey, and egg yolks. The translation of the name of this dessert is “it tastes good to me”, which is very accurate, as the taste of the dish is so good!

It has a thick and grainy texture, and it is often served alongside ice cream and fruits, to balance the sweetness.

Banana Desserts

One of the most popular exotic fruits that grows in Gran Canaria is the Dwarf Cavendish banana. This is a dwarf species of banana, which produces small fruits that have much more sugar than their South American sisters.

The Canarian bananas are extremely flavoursome and are often used in desserts. If you happen to visit a banana plantation, make sure to taste some of their homemade products as well. I visited Hacienda Rekompansa where I tried the yummiest banana bread, served alongside a sweet, banana milkshake.

Torrijas

Torrijas was one of the most delicious desserts I had in Gran Canaria. Torijja is like a French toast but much better. It is so soft that it melts in your mouth. In Gran Canaria they also cover it with local honey, which makes it even more indulgent.

Traditional Drinks in Gran Canaria

Coffee

There are quite a few coffee plantations in Gran Canaria, most of them concentrated around Agaete. I visited two fincas where I tasted the local coffee and learned about the process of picking, drying and roasting the beans: Casa Romantica in Agaete and Bodega Señorío de Cabrera.

Gran Canaria has the perfect climate to grow coffee beans, which require a dry and warm climate for most of the year.

The Gran Canarian coffee is very pleasant to drink, is aromatic, and doesn’t require any milk. It is a light coffee with a lovely mild flavour.

Canarian Wine

During the past few years, Gran Canaria has started to produce more and more high-quality wines. One of the best local red wines I have tried on the island was the Agala Altitud 1175, produced from grapes grown at an altitude of 1175.

I also had the chance to try the Señorío de Cabrera wine directly from the barrel, at their small bodega. Augustin, the owner, was so proud toshow ushis work, and he invited us to taste the 2021 white wine which is still aging in the cellar.

Arehucas Rum

You can’t come to Gran Canaria and not take a guided tour around Arehucas Distillery and taste some of their locally made honey rums and liquors. Arehucas opened their distillery in 1884 in Arucas, a picturesque small town half an hour away from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

They are using sugar cane and honey to make their rum. They produce a large range of drinks besides rum, including banana cream liquor and mango and guava gin.

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Please note that I was a guest of the Gran Canaria Tourism Board for this trip. We explored different parts of the island to discover what Gran Canaria offers to tourists, beyond the beaches. All of the opinions in this article are my own and have not been influenced at all, I went on the trip to observe and write about my own experience on the island.