Spanish Olive Tapenade with Garlic and Fresh Herbs
This Spanish olive tapenade recipe blends black and green olives with garlic, parsley, and thyme. It’s rustic, briny, and perfect for tapas boards, picnics, or as a versatile spread for bread, vegetables, or meats.
Ingredients
- 150 g Black olives pitted
- 100 g Green olives pitted
- 2 cloves Garlic
- 1 tbsp Fresh Parsley chopped
- 1 tsp Fresh thyme leaves
- 3 tbsp Olive oil extra virgin, get a high quality one
- 1 tsp Lemon zest
- 1 tsp Sherry vinegar
- Sea salt to taste
- Black pepper to taste, freshly ground
Instructions
- The olives, garlic, herbs, lemon zest, and vinegar are placed in a food processor and pulsed until roughly chopped. The olive oil should be drizzled in slowly while pulsing, creating a coarse paste that still has some texture. Season with sea salt and black pepper, but taste carefully – olives already carry a fair amount of salt.
- If a mortar and pestle is used instead of a food processor, the flavour deepens and the consistency becomes chunkier, which many consider more authentic. It’s a slower process but one that rewards patience with an almost creamy texture created from pounding the olives against the garlic.
Notes
Using a mix of black and green olives makes the flavour more layered, with the black giving depth and the green adding brightness. Spanish hojiblanca or arbequina olives are particularly good here, but any plump, firm olives will do. Avoid those in brine that taste overly metallic – they’ll throw the balance off.
Fresh garlic adds a sharper bite than roasted, which works perfectly in this style of tapenade. If you’re sensitive to raw garlic, you can soften the edge by blanching the cloves in boiling water for 30 seconds before blending. The parsley and thyme keep things fragrant without overwhelming the olives, though rosemary could be swapped in if that’s what you have.
Nutrition
Calories: 140kcalCarbohydrates: 2gProtein: 1gFat: 15gSaturated Fat: 2gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 11gSodium: 390mgPotassium: 50mgFiber: 2gVitamin A: 160IUCalcium: 20mgIron: 1mg
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