Peixinhos da Horta or ‘Little Fish from the Garden’ are a delicious Portuguese snack made with blanched green beans, covered in a light batter and deep fried. They are a hit in petisqueiras across the country and although they indeed resemble little fried fish, they are one of the few Portuguese snacks that are naturally vegetarian. Keep on reading to learn how to make these authentic Portuguese deep fried green beans.
The Connection Between Peixinhos da Horta and Tempura
If you’ve tried peixinhos before you probably noticed the similarity to Japanese tempura – bite size pieces of veg or seafood battered and deep fried. What many people don’t know is that this Portuguese snack is in fact its predecessor. When the Portuguese Jesuits reached Japan, they brought with them this cooking technique that helped preserving the vegetables. Peixinhos were also very popular during Lent where Catholics abstain from red meats. That’s one of the possible origins for the word tempura, a derivation from the Latin word tempora used by the missionaries to refer to the Lent period.
Classic Peixinhos da Horta
This recipe has two main components, the green beans, and the batter that coats them. Any type of green beans can be used, in Portugal the most common are the flat green beans and the string green beans, both of them work well in this recipe! As for the batter, you will find there are several different recipes out there. One of my favourite ways is to mix flour with sparkling water and beer to achieve a very light batter. The consistency you are looking for is that of a slightly runnier pancake batter. You will also need the juice and zests of half a lemon, and salt and pepper.
Similar to the tempura, the batter is super simple to let the green beans shine. To pack more flavour, we then season the peixinhos after they are fried with more salt, pepper, and smoked paprika. You can serve them with a garlic mayonnaise if you want too, or simply with a squeeze of lemon!

Peixinhos da Horta – The Recipe
We start by cutting the ends of the green beans, if you are using the flat ones, you can cut them in half.
The next step is to blanch them in hot water with a pinch of salt for 2 minutes. You then transfer them to an ice bath. Drain them, pat them dry with kitchen paper, then set aside.
Meanwhile, place a pan suitable for deep frying over low to medium heat, then fill it with your vegetable oil. Let it heat up slowly while you prepare the batter.
In a bowl mix the flour with the beer, sparkling water, lemon juice and zest, salt, and pepper. If the mixture is too thick you can add a little more sparkling water, if it’s too thin you can add a little more flour. The secret is not to overmix it so you don’t develop the gluten too much.
Check your oil, the ideal temperature is 190 °C. If you don’t have a thermometer, you can stick a wooden spoon handle tip into the hot oil. If lots of gentle bubbles form around it, the oil is good to go.
Use a pair of chopsticks or tongs to dip your green beans into the batter to coat them, shake it a little to remove any excess.
Place it into the hot oil straight away, fry until golden. Repeat the process until you run out of green beans. Rest them on top of absorbent paper.
Season with some smoked paprika, and more salt and pepper to taste before serving. Enjoy!

How to Make Portuguese Tempura Green Beans
Have you tried this recipe? Let me know in the comments!