Artichoke Olive Tapenade is a delicious vegan recipe that is perfect as an appetizer! With green olives, garlic, lemon juice and parsley this easy artichoke recipe is as versatile as it is delicious.
Our Olive Tapenade kick starts our party planning with the Grazing Platter perfect to feed a crowd. The Spinach Cob Loaf let's you dive in!
Recipes that bring texture and sophistication are our Coconut Prawns, Vegetarian Spinach Dip and Cranberry Brie. Entree can be served and you don't have to spend hrs in the kitchen.
This Artichoke Tapenade is made in the food processor. We simply need to put all of the ingredients in and pulse for mere seconds to combine. It is one of the fastest appetizer recipes you will come across but it doesn't skimp on flavour and tastes delicious! Serve it with our Easy Crostini for a delicious room temperature appetizer.
No cook appetizers are a great way to stay organised and ready to mingle with your guests!
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How to make the perfect tapenade?
To make the perfect tapenade, you combine a variety of olives with anchovies and capers. Additional ingredients such as garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and parsley are often added to this mix.
This works for a number of guests, however, you may find yourself with vegan friends who can't eat the capers and anchovies.
To cater to them, you can use a recipe like this easy artichoke tapenade as it takes the basics of a tasty olive tapenade, removes the capers and anchovies, resulting in ticking the box of a vegan appetizer. There is no skimping on flavour either, the artichokes are smooth and melt deliciously in your mouth.
What is Artichoke Olive tapenade made of?
The photo below shows you the ingredients we need for this recipe. They are all easy to find! My artichokes are from a glass jar, but you can use tinned artichokes too. They are generally marinated and found with the olives and antipasto products at your local store.
You can use this photo as a guide to sourcing your ingredients:
We have 6 simple Tapenade ingredients, they are:
- artichokes
- green olives
- garlic cloves
- parsley
- lemon juice
- reserved oil from artichokes (or olive oil)
Our jar or tin of marinated artichoke hearts will have an olive oil component Instead of throwing that away, we are going to drain it from our artichokes and use it in place of olive oil for the tapenade.
How to make Artichoke Olive Tapenade?
Tapenade is made from combining the ingredients in a food processor and blitzing to combine. I use the pulse button and only turn it on for about 10 seconds. This ensures the texture of the tapenade stays chunky and not mushy!
To make this recipe, you take some simple steps which are outlined in the photo below.
- Add artichokes, green olives, lemon juice and peeled garlic cloves to your food processor (shown in photos 1-4)
Once you start making tapenades at home, you will realise that as they are so easy, you will never need to buy them again!
You can see, the process is as straight forward as adding the ingredients to the food processor one by one!
- Add parsley so that all of your ingredients are in your food processor then lightly combine (shown in photos 5-8)
I always go for a chunky texture for my tapenades. I don't think you really do the ingredients justice if you over blitz them as they become mushy. So keep the blitz time SHORT!
Embrace a few not fully diced up finely bits and ravish the texture of the olives and artichokes when they are mixed together like this.
The time it takes to take our recipe from the photo on the left below to the right is literally seconds.
Frequently asked questions
- we use pitted green olives
- the artichokes will be in a jar or tin, we drain but keep the oil
- drain and discard the brine (liquid) from the olives
- bottled lemon juice is absolutely fine (and EASY!!)
- go for 3 big cloves of garlic (this MAKES the recipe!)
- The artichokes will be in the antipasto section of the store
- The liquid in the jar (of artichokes) is a combination of oil and spices
- You can make the tapenade ahead of time and store in the fridge in a sealed container
- Serve with toast points, crackers, flatbread, pizza or on a grazing platter as 'dip'
Your quick questions answered
- This tapenade is FAST and EASY
- The tapenade is served COLD
- Blitz only to combine, not for long
- This is a freezer friendly recipe
- This is a VEGAN recipe (it contains no anchovies or capers)
Expert tips
This is how to make this recipe the 1st time you try it and get it right:
- buy olives that have already had the pits removed
- have all of your ingredients prepped and ready
- place all of them into the food processor and blitz at the same time
- be mindful to blitz the olives until just diced (not mushy)
- hot toast points are easy to make and also vegan
- to make the toast points, simply cut the crusts off, cut the bread in half, spray with oil and toast in the oven!
Appetizer recipes (let's get the party started!)
When the guests are arriving you want to be ready to go and offer them a drink straight away and then nibbles to go with it.
Here are some ideas and recipes that you will find easy and fun to make:
- Olive Tapenade recipe (kalamata and black olives)
- Coconut Prawns (crispy, crunchy and delicious)
- Grazing Platter (can be made vegan)
- Mini Quiches (12 different ways with vegetarian options)
- Baked Brie with garlic (ooey gooey cheese!)
Toast points can be easily made by removing the 4 crusts from a regular loaf of bread, cutting it diagonally in ½ and spraying it with cooking oil before baking for approx 5 mins. They are crunchy and delicious!
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📖 Recipe
Artichoke Olive Tapenade
Equipment
- Food processor
Ingredients
Artichoke Olive Tapenade
- 280 grams marinated artichokes Note 1
- 350 grams pitted green olives Note 2
- 3 garlic cloves Note 3
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice Note 4 (20ml)
- reserved olive oil Note 5
- ¼ cup parsley Note 6
Instructions
Artichoke Olive Tapenade
- Drain the artichokes and keep the olive oil.
- Add olives, artichokes, lemon juice, garlic and parsley to the bowl of a food processor.
- Use the pulse button to blitz till roughly combined with the texture still being a bit chunky.
- Serve with toast points. Note 7
Video
Notes
- Note 1 These are small and in a jar or tin. Their texture is soft. They need to be drained as they are preserved in oil. Use a strainer and or paper towel to do this.
- Note 2 These olives will be fully green as they won't have the red stuffed part. You won't need to remove the pit as you can purchase them 'pitted' ie with the pit already removed.
- Note 3 The only prep work we have to do with the garlic is peel the skin off and cut the little end off too.
- Note 4 Use fresh lemon juice if you like, but it is not necessary. I use bottled as I always have it, yet I don't always have fresh lemons. Also don't loose sleep over it, bottled lemon juice is a-ok! Also An Aussie tablespoon is 20ml whereas an American one is 15ml.
- Note 5 if for whatever reason you don't use the reserved oil from the artichokes, you can use olive oil. Go for a light variety if you are buying it specifically for this recipe, although regular is fine too. You will need ¼ cup.
- Note 6 Use some of the parsley in the tapenade and a little for garnish on top.
- Note 7 If you want to serve your tapenade with toast points, they are super easy to make. You simply remove crusts from bread, cut it in half, spray with oil and bake for about 5 mins at a medium heat in the oven. Take them out when they are 'toasted'. You can use a toaster too if you want, an oven works well if you are doing a few slices of bread all at the same time.
Nutrition
Appetizers and entertaining
If you haven't tried artichokes yet, I encourage you to try them. They are SO soft, full of flavour and melt like butter in your mouth.
This tapenade has great taste and texture and works because it is easy!
I want you to have your appetizers organised so you can get in there and party with your friends, so I have you covered with this recipe. You only need to take the 15 or so mins to make it and you are FULLY SORTED!
Sing out or give me a shout in the comments below if you make this recipe or have any questions.
You, my friend, have got this!!
Adrianne xx
Lisa says
Capers are edible flower buds from the caper bush. Your recipe will still be vegan if you add capers.
Adrianne says
Ohhhh thanks! I appreciate you telling me that Lisa. I will update the post. Cheers
Anonymous says
When do you add the reserved oil?
Adrianne says
Sorry after step 2. Drizzle it in so you can see the texture and consistency as you go. Thanks I will update this.