I love olives and have bought olive tapenade many times, but never made it myself, until I made this recipe from a cookbook that I reviewed some years back called Clean Food by Terry Walters. Olive Tapenade is delicious and so easy to make. It makes a great snack that’s healthier than chips and dip, or just when you want something a little different.
If you’re curious about the title of the cookbook that this recipe is from, clean food, simply put, is naturally grown and minimally processed. Walters explains in the book that the more processed your food is, the more you lose out on natural nutrients. So it’s important to eat seasonal, unprocessed, organic, and locally-grown foods. It’s definitely something good to keep in mind when you’re making your weekly meal plans and shopping list! 🙂
So back to the Olive Tapenade—it’s really good stuff and good for you too! It has healthy ingredients like garlic, olives, olive oil, and some herbs. It makes a great appetizer, and this is how the author of Clean Food serves it: “I often prepare this tapenade for company and serve it with Garlic Crostini as an appetizer or as an accompaniment to a pasta dinner. But I enjoy it even more the next day spread on toasted sourdough bread in a roasted vegetable or portobello mushroom sandwich.”
Olive Tapenade
OLIVE TAPENADE from Clean Food
Makes 1 1/4 cups
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1 1/2 cups kalamata olives, pitted
1 cup oil-cured black Greek olives, pitted
2 generous Tablespoons capers
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 cup fresh parsley
1 Tablespoon lemon juice, plus more if desired
Freshly ground black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil, as needed
With food processor running, drop in garlic and mince. Turn processor off, add olives, capers, thyme, parsley, lemon juice, and pepper to taste. Process until smooth, scraping down sides as needed. Add olive oil a little at a time to achieve the desired consistency. Adjust flavor with more lemon juice and transfer to bowl. Store in airtight container in refrigerator or freezer.
NOTE from Nancy: For a thicker tapenade, don’t add any additional lemon juice besides the 1 Tablespoon, and just use about 1 Tablespoon of olive oil (that’s how I made mine).
Recipe used with permission | nancy-c.com
The great thing about this recipe is that you can make it as thick or thin as you like! My tapenade was on the thicker side and also a little on the chunky side, because the food processor setting on my blender wasn’t working that great…if you have a good food processor, your tapenade will be a lot smoother!
The tapenade tasted really good on my crusty loaf of bread and I want to try it on a roasted vegetable sandwich sometime like the cookbook author recommends! 🙂
So are you a fan of olives and olive tapenade too? Have you made it before?
NancyC 
2 responses to “Olive Tapenade”
One of our family favorites! We seldom have a gathering without a bowl of this on the table!
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It really is a great item to serve at a gathering! 🙂
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