Traditional Lanzarote Dishes: 10 You Have to Try

Q: What's the traditional dish of Lanzarote?

Papas arrugadas with mojo, no question. Small potatoes boiled in very salty water, skin on, served with red or green mojo.

Q: What is gofio?

Maize, wheat or barley flour, toasted before grinding. It's the oldest food in the Canaries, eaten by the islands' original inhabitants. It's served scalded with stock, kneaded into a pella, sprinkled over dishes, or even used in desserts.

Q: Is mojo spicy?

The red one can be (especially the picón version); the green one isn't. If you're worried, just ask first — every household makes it slightly differently.

Q: What fish should I order in Lanzarote?

Vieja, cherne, sama or bocinegro. And always ask for the catch of the day.

Q: What should I bring home?

Malvasía volcánica wine, bottled mojo, Janubio salt, cured cheese, and gofio. The first four will sail through airport checks fine if packed in your checked luggage.In Lanzarote, you don't cook with fresh water, you cook with seawater. You don't eat bread, you eat toasted grain. You don't raise cattle, you raise goats. Every dish on this list is someone's answer to an island that gave them nothing to work with.And three hundred years later, it turns out that all of it — the wrinkled potato, the volcanic salt, the wine from the ash pit — is exactly what you came here to try.

An island with no water, barely any rain, and a third of its land buried under lava. And somehow, people still have to eat.

That's the key to understanding the food here: Canarian cooking was born out of having nothing. You cook with seawater because fresh water was gold. You eat toasted grain flour because it kept for months. You raise goats because that's the only thing that survives on the picón (volcanic gravel). And out of that scarcity came a cuisine that today makes you come back for more.

These are the 10 traditional Lanzarote dishes you have to try, what they're actually made of, and where you'll find them.

Wrinkled potatoes with red and green mojo sauces on a seaside terrace

1. Papas arrugadas with mojo

The dish. The one in all the photos, the one on the t-shirts, the one you try on day one.

But there's more to it than meets the eye: they're boiled in extremely salty water — traditionally seawater — until the water evaporates and the skins go wrinkly with a white salt crust. No peeling: you eat them skin and all. And if the salt comes from the Salinas de Janubio, the whole island's story comes full circle right there on your plate.

They're served with mojo, which comes in two varieties:

Mojo rojo (or picón): paprika, garlic, cumin, chilli. As hot as you like… or not.
Mojo verde: coriander or parsley. Mild and fresh, usually served with fish.

Tip

the good local potato is small with dark skin. If you're served a big pale potato, it's not the real deal.

2. Gofio

The oldest dish in the Canaries: the majos (Lanzarote's original inhabitants) were eating it long before anyone else arrived. It's maize, wheat or barley flour, toasted before grinding — that's what gives it its flavour and what made it keep for months without spoiling.

It was the poor man's bread for centuries, and today it's everywhere:

Gofio escaldado: kneaded with hot fish stock. Eaten scooped up with raw onion. Sounds odd, tastes brilliant.
Pella de gofio: kneaded into a log shape, sometimes with almonds or honey mixed in.
Sprinkled over stews, mixed into ice cream, used in desserts, and even in craft beer.

The majos: Lanzarote before the conquest

3. Sancocho canario

The Sunday dish, the one for fiestas and Easter Week. Salted fish — usually cherne (wreckfish) — desalted over several hours, boiled with potatoes and sweet potato, and served with mojo and a pella de gofio on the side.

It sums up this whole cuisine: born from salting fish to preserve it, it ends up being the dish the island eats when everyone gets together.

4. Grilled goat's cheese

Goats rule here: they're the only animal that can cope with a landscape where nothing grows. And the island's goat's cheese, fresh or semi-cured, is eaten in a way that changes everything: grilled on a griddle until golden and soft in the middle, topped with mojo or a drizzle of honey.

Tip

order it as a starter to share. It's the ultimate Canarian appetiser.

Grilled cheese toast with tomato jam served on a Lanzarote terrace

5. Uga smoked salmon

The most unexpected one on this list. In Uga, an inland village in the middle of a volcanic desert, there's a salmon smokehouse that's been running for decades and has a reputation well beyond the island. It's smoked slowly, over local wood.

Yes: a village with no sea, no rivers and no salmon, and yet one of the best smoked salmons you'll ever try. Very Lanzarote, that.

Tip

it's a stone's throw from La Geria. Combine it with the wine route. Wineries and wines of La Geria

6. Fresh fish: vieja

You're on an island: fish is non-negotiable. The star is vieja (parrotfish), a rock fish with soft white flesh, served either sancochada (boiled, with potatoes and green mojo) or grilled "a la espalda". Alongside it you'll find cherne, sama (bream), bocinegro and octopus.

Where

in the fishing villages, with the sea crashing ten metres away. El Golfo, Arrieta, Órzola, Punta Mujeres, Playa Blanca, the Charco de San Ginés in Arrecife.

El Golfo and the Charco de los Clicos

7. Rabbit in salmorejo

Nothing to do with Cordoban salmorejo. Here, salmorejo is a marinade: wine, garlic, La Palma pepper, thyme, bay leaf, vinegar. The rabbit sits in it for a full day and is then stewed in that same sauce.

It's the island's classic inland stew, the one from the villages, the one that smells like Sunday. Served with papas arrugadas, of course.

8. Goat meat

Goat again, this time stewed — cabra compuesta, they call it. Dark meat, a long slow stew, thick sauce. It's hearty, it's proper local food, and it's one of the most-ordered dishes in the inland villages.

Haría and the Valley of a Thousand Palms Teguise and its market

9. Ropa vieja

Waste-not cooking turned into a dish: yesterday's chickpeas and stewed meat, fried together with potatoes and onion until golden. It was born from not throwing anything away, which is basically how everything here came to be.

10. Bienmesabe

The dessert. Ground almonds, egg, sugar and lemon, in a thick, very sweet cream served on its own or over ice cream. The name — "tastes-good-to-me" — says it all.

And if you come across them: frangollo (sweet gofio with milk), quesillo (Canarian-style flan), or truchas de batata (sweet potato pastries) at Christmas.

Chia pudding jar topped with nuts on a terrace overlooking mountains

To drink (this matters too)

Malvasía volcánica. The dry, mineral white wine from La Geria, grown in ash pits. You won't find it anywhere else.
Ron miel. Rum with cane honey, sweet and sneaky strong. Usually comes as a shot at the end of the meal.
Barraquito. Coffee layered with condensed milk, Licor 43, foam, cinnamon and lemon. It originated in Tenerife, but you'll find it all over the Canaries. Order one and see for yourself.

How to eat well and avoid the tourist trap

Stay away from the seafront strip. In Puerto del Carmen and Playa Blanca you'll find menus in five languages with photos: that's not Canarian food, that's "international" food.
Head inland, or to the small fishing villages. Uga, Yaiza, Teguise, Haría, El Golfo, Arrieta, Punta Mujeres.
If there's a chalkboard instead of a printed menu, that's a good sign.
Eat at local times: lunch at 2pm, dinner at 9pm. Anyone eating dinner at 6.30pm is a tourist.
Ask for the catch of the day. Don't order salmon (unless it's the one from Uga 😉).
On Sundays, the Teguise market has you covered for cheeses, mojos and salt to take home.

Guachinches and local food: where the locals eat Where to eat in Lanzarote: a guide by area

FAQs

What's the traditional dish of Lanzarote?

Papas arrugadas with mojo, no question. Small potatoes boiled in very salty water, skin on, served with red or green mojo.

What is gofio?

Maize, wheat or barley flour, toasted before grinding. It's the oldest food in the Canaries, eaten by the islands' original inhabitants. It's served scalded with stock, kneaded into a pella, sprinkled over dishes, or even used in desserts.

Do you eat the potato skins?

Yes. The wrinkly skin with its salt crust is half the point.

Is mojo spicy?

The red one can be (especially the picón version); the green one isn't. If you're worried, just ask first — every household makes it slightly differently.

What fish should I order in Lanzarote?

Vieja, cherne, sama or bocinegro. And always ask for the catch of the day.

Is it easy to eat well as a vegetarian?

It's doable: papas with mojo, grilled cheese, stews, gofio, salads. But traditional cooking here revolves around meat and fish, so in small villages it's worth checking ahead.

What should I bring home?

Malvasía volcánica wine, bottled mojo, Janubio salt, cured cheese, and gofio. The first four will sail through airport checks fine if packed in your checked luggage.

In Lanzarote, you don't cook with fresh water, you cook with seawater. You don't eat bread, you eat toasted grain. You don't raise cattle, you raise goats. Every dish on this list is someone's answer to an island that gave them nothing to work with.

And three hundred years later, it turns out that all of it — the wrinkled potato, the volcanic salt, the wine from the ash pit — is exactly what you came here to try.