Hello and welcome to Feisty Tapas
I'm Maria, a food blogger passionate about kitchen gadgets and their power to make life easier and tastier.
I am a single mum to a 13 year old. I started Feisty Tapas in early 2011 when I was just starting to cook from scratch regularly as I had a baby to wean.

I live in Cambridgeshire, England, and grew up in Spain, in Galicia, the Northwest corner of Spain just above Portugal, where we have Celtic heritage (bagpipes included), wonderful beaches quickly followed by mountains so that you can get the best of both worlds, and where the food and wine are absolutely amazing.
I have a chronic pain condition which I have great fun kicking into shape on a regular basis. It likes to keep me on my toes, I am on a mission to kick it to oblivion. I like to think I'm winning.
WHY KITCHEN GADGETS?
In the summer of 2012 I bought my first major kitchen gadget: a Thermomix TM31.
Overnight the Thermomix changed the way I cooked.
It is a bit like outsourcing the chopping, no more standing at the kitchen counter for half an hour chopping away, which is dangerous when you are as clumsy as I am.
Then other kitchen gadgets like the Instant Pot came along, so did my fibromyalgia and the realisation that kitchen gadgets were allowing me to keep cooking, somewhere along the line I had learned to love cooking (and not just eating) and I wasn't going to give it up.
I am one to want to do everything and I’m huge on productivity so to have helping hands in the kitchen during that time and being able to keep cooking from scratch (something I had become passionate about), was a game changer at that point.
Kitchen gadgets allow me to keep cooking delicious food with minimum effort and make my life so much easier.
WHAT IS FEISTY TAPAS ALL ABOUT?
My aim through Feisty Tapas is to make your life easier at every step with uncomplicated recipes that you can cook with your pressure cooker (eg. Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi, etc.), air fryer, Thermomix, etc. and sometimes even without kitchen gadgets.
I want to prove to you that there is no shame in surrounding yourself by the things that make that happen, freeing your time for other things, like putting your feet up, your loved ones, reading a book or whatever it is that you fancy doing.
THE FEISTY TAPAS COMMUNITY
Feisty Tapas is a thriving community taking the shape of a few very chatty, interactive and supportive Facebook groups.
Some readers find the blog first and subsequently join the Feisty Tapas groups and others find (or are recommended) one or all four of my Facebook groups first and then discover the blog.
Feisty Tapas is me, Feisty Tapas is this blog and Feisty Tapas is four Facebook groups full of amazing people where you will find daily inspiration:
- Kitchen Gadgetry with Feisty Tapas, the place to unleash your inner kitchen gadget geek. This is the Feisty Tapas group that the members are less likely to tell you about because they LOVE it and they don't want to let the secret out. Shhh don't tell them I told you.
- Pressure Cooking UK with Feisty Tapas, for those of you with pressure cookers of any type, whether the stove-top variety or the new electric devices that also have other features. I personally have the Instant Pot but it's not restricted to that.
- Thermo Cooking UK with Feisty Tapas, for owners of the Thermomix, KitchenAid Cook Processor, Kenwood K Cook and Tefal Cuisine Companion, Lakeland Multichef or the Aldi and Lidl counter parts. This was my first group.
- Feisty Tapas' Health Warriors, a support group for the good and the bad
days. Reading suggestions, research, putting things into practice... Whatever type of health kick you're in, you can kick it into shape here.
- Crafting with Feisty Tapas, where we chat all things Cricut, sewing, crafting, etc.
All groups are full of like-minded people and, through them, I (with their help) try to offer support and make sure that no kitchen gadget worth its salt is relegated to a kitchen cupboard.
It's not all food though, I like to call my groups lifestyle communities for kitchen gadget lovers. We chat and we care.
DISCLOSURE
Feisty Tapas is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk.
COPYRIGHT
The content and photos published in my blog, Feisty Tapas,
are written and taken by me, unless otherwise stated, and shall remain
my copyright, should you steal it I will have no doubt getting the long
arm of the law to stretch over to you. Plagiarism shall not be accepted,
I shall not commit it, neither should you.
Lisca says
I just stumbled upon your blog ( looking for zero minute cooking) , looked through a few recipes and read your story. Now I’m ‘hooked’!
I live near Granada (Spain) and have always cooked from scratch. I love my gadgets though and use an Instant Pot and an air fryer regularly, as well as a Remoska and other gadgets. I would join the IP Facebook group so I’m going to visit there now.
Keep up the good work and keep kicking those health problems into oblivion!
Lisca
Maria says
Thank you so much for your lovely comment Lisca, and for joining my groups. I've been to Granada, I did my first year at uni there, very different to the Northwest of Spain where I grew up, Maria
Al says
Hello Maria
What a lovely presentation. I found you because I am trying to decide whether to buy an Instant Pot or Ninja Foodi.
I could tell immediately that you are Spanish but, from the sockets in the studio, you were in the UK. I see from your About section that you’re in Cambridgeshire. Well we left Cambridgeshire in May 2021 to mo e to Spain. In our case Andalucía but we have driven around every part of Spain for months and months, including Galicia.
Thank you for the excellent site and your wonderful presentation style.
Love from Spain 🇪🇸
Nik Dauncey says
Good morning, Just getting reacquainted with your gammon timings which I’d forgotten. After delving a little deeper into your site and your background it was with a dismay I see you have fibromyalgia. My wife has had this for the past twenty years. I do all the cooking and love our instant pot. I will be experimenting more and Savouring those wonderful tastes.
Thank you
Regards Nik