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    Home » Recipes » Olive tapenade recipes

    Black Olive Tapenade

    Published: Jun 29, 2022 by Adrianne

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    Easy Black Olive Tapenade recipe with text overlay
    Easy Black Olive Tapenade recipe with text overlay

    Black Olive Tapenade is an easy recipe with garlicky deliciousness!  Serve with toast points for a fuss free appetizer, stir through pasta, use for bruschetta or as a dip or spread.  Quick and simple to make, it is fuss free and effortless.

    Black Olive Tapenade in a white bowl with spoon to the right

    Olive recipes make entertaining a breeze! Try either the Black Olive Dip or Green Olive Dip if you can't get enough olives!

    Recipes like my Grazing Platter, Artichoke Olive Tapenade and Coconut Prawns, can be prepared in advance and then you can party with your guests! My Rocket and Cashew Pesto has similar texture to tapenade and they share common serving suggestions.

    Jump to:
    • Recipe Highlights
    • Ingredients
    • Instructions
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Expert tips
    • 😍 Related Recipes
    • 📖 Recipe

    Recipe Highlights

    Black Olive Tapenade has many uses! It is versatile and brings great flavour to many recipes. You will likely find many more than one reason to love it!

    My Chicken Liver Pate, Sun-Dried Tomato Tapenade and Easy Green Olive Tapenade are ideas for serving as toppings on the Easy Crostini which takes barely anytime at all to prepare! 

    Olive tapenade recipes are sophisticated and stylish, but seriously easy to make. We literally throw all of the ingredients into our food processor, blitz and serve! Serve with homemade pita chips to get your party started! 

    Jump to:
    • Recipe Highlights
    • Ingredients
    • Instructions
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Expert tips
    • 😍 Related Recipes
    • 📖 Recipe

    Ingredients

    The photo below shows you exactly what we need for this recipe. They are all simple, easy to find ingredients. Scroll to the printable recipe card for exact measurements.

    Ingredients for black olive tapenade on marble background with text over lay

    As you can see, we have:

    • Sliced black olives: perfect for topping pizzas with or making tapenade with! These are pitted and sliced for easy use. You can also use whole pitted black olives.
    • Pitted Kalamata olives: read the label carefully for these as often pitted and whole olives are right next to each other in the shop! The whole ones are ideal for snacking and grazing platters, the pitted ones for making tapenade.
    • Olive oil: this ingredient helps to combine all of the other ingredients for the tapenade, as well as adding a depth of flavour.
    • Capers: we drain these (they will come in brine) but there is no need to rinse them.
    • Parsley: curly or flat leaf is fine. You can use your favourite type.
    • Lemon juice: bottled or fresh lemon juice will work well. Use whichever is the most convenient for you.
    • Garlic: I prefer to use whole fresh garlic cloves. You can do the same or use jarred minced garlic.
    • Anchovies: we only need a few of these. They add a great depth of flavour to the recipe.

    Top Tip: You can easily find the olives at your local grocery store, in a jar with the antipasto ingredients! 

    Instructions

    Here are the step by step photos to make the recipe. You will need the food processor and we simply add the ingredients and then blitz them together!

    Process shots for black olive tapenade with text over lay
    1. Add sliced black olives to food processor bowl (Photo 1)
    2. Add Kalamata olives (Photo 2)
    3. Capers (Photo 3)
    4. Garlic (Photo 4)

    Top Tip: For a vegan tapenade, omit the anchovies as an ingredient in the recipe! 

    Process shots for black olive tapenade with text over lay
    • Add anchovies (Photo 5)
    • Next add the lemon juice (Photo 6)
    • Followed by the parsley (Photo 7)
    • Lastly add olive oil (Photo 8)
    Black olive tapenade before and after blitzing with text over lay

    Once the tapenade ingredients are all in the food processor, we blitz it for a few seconds to chop everything up and combine! 

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What is Black Olive Tapenade?

    Black Olive Tapenade is a recipe that used black olives, garlic, capers, anchovies, parsley and lemon juice to make an olive spread. 

    It is most popular as an appetizer idea as you can serve it as finger food or a dip. 

    Often referred to as black olive paste, it is a versatile recipe that works with so many serving ideas. 

    How do you eat black olive tapenade?

    There are many options and ways in which you can eat black olive tapenade. Try some of the ideas listed below:

    • On crostini
    • Stirred through pasta
    • As part of a canapé
    • As part of a dip platter
    • Paired with various tapas 
    • Drizzles on fish
    • As an appetizer
    • Part of a grazing platter
    • Spread for toast 
    • As a salad dressing

    There is no limit to the ways to use this tapenade! 

    Black Olive Tapenade in a food processor bowl after blitzing for 5 seconds

    Expert tips

    These tips are to help you master this recipe from the 1st time you make it:

    • Have all of your ingredients on hand and ready to go
    • Omit the anchovies for a vegan option
    • Blitz only for about 5 seconds 
    • Make and freeze this recipe for easy entertaining! 

    If you love using olives when in the kitchen, making tapenade is an excellent use for them.

    Black Olive Tapenade on toast points with a bowl of tapenade to the right

    The bread you see in the photos is known as Toast points. They are are freshly toasted and easy to make! 

    To make, remove the crusts from a regular individual slices of bread, cutting each slice on the diagonal and  in ½  and spray with cooking oil. Bake for approx 5 mins until golden brown!  

    Black Olive Tapenade spread on toast points

    😍 Related Recipes

    Make entertaining fuss free and get the party started with these entertaining ideas:

    • Green Olive Dip
    • Spicy Olive Dip
    • Black Olive Dip
    • Sun-dried Tomato Tapenade
    • Gherkin Dip
    • Artichoke Olive Tapenade
    • Corn Relish Dip
    • Olive Tapenade

    If you need to feed a crowd, my Grazing Platter will suit your needs. You can also find all of my olive tapenade recipes in the one place!

    Adrianne xx

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    📖 Recipe

    Black Olive Tapenade in a white bowl with spoon to the right

    Easy Black Olive Tapenade

    Easy Black Olive Tapenade recipe that everyone will love!  Serve with toast points for an easy appetizer, stir through pasta, use for bruschetta or as a dip and spread. 
    5 from 5 votes
    Print Rate
    Prep Time: 5 minutes minutes
    Cook Time: 0 minutes minutes
    Total Time: 5 minutes minutes
    Servings: 10
    Calories: 102kcal
    Author: Adrianne
    Prevent your screen from going dark

    Equipment

    • Food processor

    Ingredients

    Easy Black Olive Tapenade recipe

    • 1 ½ cup sliced black olives Note 1
    • 1 cup kalamata olives Note 2
    • ¼ cup capers drained
    • 3 cloves garlic peeled and end cut off
    • 4 anchovies
    • 1 tablespoon lemon juice Note 3
    • ⅓ cup parsley
    • ¼ cup olive oil
    • Toast points to serve

    Instructions

    Black Olive Tapenade

    • Add sliced black olives, kalamata olives, capers, garlic, anchovies, lemon juice, parsley and olive olive to the bowl of a food processor
    • Blitz for 5 seconds to chop and combine
    • Transfer tapenade to a serving bowl
    • Serve with toast points

    Notes

    • Note 1 You can use sliced or pitted black olives. But don't get olives and try and remove the pits as that will take too much time! 
    • Note 2 Kalamata Olives are known as a black olive type. They are a deep reddy/purple in colour and have a very distinct salty flavour about them. 
    • Note 3 Bottled lemon juice is totally fine to use for this recipe. Don't give it a 2nd thought! x 
    • Note 4 I have used both curly parsley (shown in the photos) and flat leaf parsley at times for this recipe and both are perfect to use, either or, whichever you have or can get is fine! 

    Nutrition

    Calories: 102kcal | Carbohydrates: 2g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 1mg | Sodium: 649mg | Potassium: 35mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 307IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 26mg | Iron: 1mg
    Course Appetizer
    Cuisine Australian, International
    Keyword black olive tapenade
    Did you make this recipe? Share on Instagram!It makes my day when you make my recipes! Tag @sweetcaramelsunday
    Published May 9th 2020, updated 17th Jan 2021, with extra tips!

    Artichoke Olive Tapenade Olive Tapenade recipe Sun-dried Tomato Tapenade

    Appetizers Christmas recipes  Popular recipes  Quick and Easy recipes 

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      Artichoke Olive Tapenade

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Cathy says

      May 09, 2020 at 11:02 am

      5 stars
      Im so readyyyyy to make this recipe! OMG! Are you kidding me with this amazingness!! Cannot wait to make this recipe this weekend!

      Reply
    2. Jen says

      May 09, 2020 at 1:19 pm

      5 stars
      I'm a snacking addict and this is the perfect addition to satisfy my cravings! So delicious!

      Reply
      • Adrianne says

        May 31, 2021 at 1:53 am

        Great to hear your feedback, thanks Jen!

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