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    Home » Recipes » Appetizers

    Easy Green Olive Tapenade

    Published: Mar 11, 2020 · Modified: Jan 1, 2021 by Adrianne

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    Green Olive Tapenade with text overlay

    Easy Green Olive Tapenade will be the life of your party!  Green olives are the star of the show in this easy appetizer. For a no fuss olive spread recipe that you will use with everything, whip up a batch today! 

    Spoon holding green olive tapenade over a white bowl

    Entertaining is made simple with recipes like our Grazing Platter, Baked Brie with garlic and our Spinach Cob Loaf. 

    Make this recipe in advance and simply pop on the table when guests arrive! 

    Recipes like our Coconut Prawns, vegetarian spinach dip and cranberry brie are ideas that you may like to explore!  

    Looking for appetizer recipes for entertaining? Click here!  

    This olive tapenade is sophisticated and stylish, but ridiculously easy to make. You can literally throw the ingredients together! Try serving it with our easy crostini for a fuss free appetizer! 

    Serve with toast points or crackers both are easy and delicious ideas

    BROWSE BY:

    Appetizer recipes  Popular recipes Quick and Easy recipes

    What is Green Olive Tapenade?

    Green Olive Tapenade is an easy recipe made from a combination of olives and other ingredients. Traditionally this recipe uses 'green olives' not black or kalamata. 

    Commonly found as an appetizer or spread, it often has anchovies, capers, garlic and parsley in it. 

    With different recipes and ingredient combinations, olive recipes like this tapenade are a popular choice when entertaining guests. 

    Other variations include recipes such as Sun-dried tomato tapenade, Artichoke olive tapenade or simple Olive tapenade with kalamata olives. 

    Green Olive Tapenade Uses

    The best thing about this recipe is how versatile it is! 

    You can literally use it with almost anything. How about:

    • on fish
    • stirring through pasta
    • as an appetizer
    • part of a grazing platter
    • as a dip
    • spread for toast 
    • dressing for a salad

    Here is an Easy Crostini recipe using this recipe and some simple little toasts! 

    Green Olive Tapenade ingredients

    The photo below shows you exactly what we need for this recipe. 

    Ingredients for green olive tapenade set out with text overlay

    As you can see, we have:

    • pitted green olives
    • stuffed green olives
    • garlic cloves
    • capers
    • anchovies 
    • parsley 
    • lemon juice 
    • olive oil 

    The olives will be easy to find at Woolies or Coles in a jar or fresh! 

    Looking for the latest recipes for on the blog? Click here!  

    Easy method to make Green Olive Tapenade

    The photos below show you the steps we take to make this recipe, it is all done in the food processor. 

    You can put the ingredients in 1 by 1 and then we blitz in a single end step. 

    Process shots for green olive tapenade with text overlay

    1. Add green olives, stuffed green olives, capers and anchovies to the food processor bowl (Photos 1-4)

    To make an olive tapenade without anchovies, follow the steps above but omit no. 4

    Process shots for olive spread recipe with text overlay

     

    • Add garlic, parsley, olive oil and lemon juice (shown in photos 5-8)

    To get the tapenade to be chunky and textured as seen in the photos, the trick is to blitz only for seconds! I use the pulse button, but only for about 5 seconds, then turn it off. 

    Food processor showing blitz ingredients for tapenade

    Easy Green Olive Tapenade quick info:

    About the recipe:

    • we use 2 types of green olives
    • don't check each for a pit, throw them in 
    • drain the capers before adding (discard liquid)
    • bottled lemon juice works well! 
    • the garlic is essential for depth of flavour

    FAQs about Easy Olive Tapenade

    1. the pimento stuffed olives brings the red flecks of colour 
    2. Remove the skin and end of each garlic clove
    3. This can be prepared ahead of time and kept refrigerated
    4. For serving suggestions think crackers and toast points

    Your quick questions answered:

    1. This recipe is quick and very easy! 
    2. The olive tapenade is served cold 
    3. We don't want mushy over blitzed tapenade
    4. This  recipe is FREEZER FRIENDLY
    5. This is an EASY recipe

    Expert tips:

    This is what I have learnt:

    • have all of your ingredients on hand and ready to go
    • omit the anchovies for a vegan option
    • only blitz till olives are diced but you can still work out individual ingredients (about 5 secs)
    • make and freeze this recipe for easy entertaining! 

    Appetizer recipes (it's party started!)  

    These ideas are to inspire you and give you options that work and are not overly complex. 

    1. Chicken Liver Pate
    2. Coconut Prawns (with 2 different dipping sauces)
    3. Grazing Platter (to feed a crowd)
    4. Mini Quiches (12 different ways)
    5. Baked Brie with garlic

    Tapenade in a white bowl with toaste points above and to the right on seperate plates

    Toast points are crunchy and delicious! They are made by removing the 4 crusts from a regular loaf of bread, cutting each slice diagonally in ½  and spraying with cooking oil before baking for approx 5 mins. 

    Find us on Facebook by clicking this link 

    Toast points with green olive tapenade on top

    Spoon holding tapenade above a white bowl

    Easy Green Olive Tapenade

    Easy Green Olive Tapenade will be the life of your party!  Green olives are the star of the show in this easy appetizer. For a no fuss olive spread recipe that you will use with everything, whip up a batch today! 
    5 from 4 votes
    Print Rate
    Prep Time: 5 minutes
    Cook Time: 0 minutes
    Total Time: 5 minutes
    Servings: 10
    Calories:
    Author: Adrianne
    Prevent your screen from going dark

    Equipment

    • Food processor

    Ingredients

    Easy Green Olive Tapenade

    • 350 grams pitted green olives Note 1
    • 1 cup stuffed green olives Note 2
    • 3 garlic cloves skins peeled
    • ⅓ cup capers drained
    • 4 anchovies drained, oil blotted
    • 1 tablespoon lemon juice Note 3
    • ¼ cup olive oil
    • ½ cup flat leaf parsley
    • Toast points to serve

    Instructions

    Easy Green Olive Tapenade

    • Add whole green olives, stuffed olives, garlic, capers, anchovies, lemon juice, olive oil and parsley to the bowl of a food processor
    • Pulse to combine for less than 10 seconds Note 4
    • Transfer to a bowl and serve with toast points Note 5

    Video

    Notes

    • Note 1 These are whole green olives with the pits removed. They will come in a tall jar. We drain them and discard the liquid. 
    • Note 2 These are stuffed green olives that have the red centre. They will also come in jars of all sizes. We need slightly less of these than the whole green olives. We also drain these and discard the liquid. 
    • Note 3 An Australian tablespoon measures 20ml which is just a little bit bigger than an American one. Bottled lemon juice is fine! 
    • Note 4 We want the texture of our tapenade to be chunky. Pulsing for just seconds achieves this, using low or high will obliterate the ingredients and leave them a mushy mess. We WANT the texture which also allows us to still SEE what is in our food. 
    • Note 5 Toast points are super easy to make! Simply cut the 4 crusts off a slice of bread. Cut the bread in half and place on a lined baking tray. Spray with cooking oil. Cook in a moderate oven oven for 10 mins until the toast browns and becomes crunchy! 
    Course Appetizer
    Cuisine Australian, French, International
    Keyword green olives, homemade tapenade, tapenade
    Did you make this recipe? Share on Instagram!It makes my day when you make my recipes! Tag @sweetcaramelsunday

    Appetizer recipes

    It is party time and the entertaining has begun, you will love how easy this recipe is and the crispy bread and salty garlicky tapenade pair so well together!! 

    You have flavour, texture and a recipe that delivers with this one. Make it in advance and freeze if you like so you are well prepared. I've got you, its all good. 

    Let me know if you have any questions, I would love to hear your feedback in the comments below. 

    Adrianne xx

    RELATED RECIPES:

    Artichoke Olive Tapenade Olive Tapenade recipe Sun-dried Tomato Tapenade

    Appetizers Christmas recipes  Popular recipes  Quick and Easy recipes 

    Try these next...

    • Ciabatta Garlic Bread (Garlic Ciabatta)
    • Baked Brie with Honey
    • Honey Baked Camembert
    • Chicken Rice Paper Rolls (Chicken Summer Rolls)

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Aimee Mars says

      March 11, 2020 at 1:30 pm

      5 stars
      This green olive tapenade is perfect to have on hand! It sounds like a delicious addition to all kinds of recipes like you suggested, but I think my favorite would be to just enjoy it with some pita bread or chips.

      Reply
      • Adrianne says

        March 11, 2020 at 8:03 pm

        Thanks Aimee!! Yes, with pita bread or chips is perfect! Thanks for your feedback.

    2. Dannii says

      March 11, 2020 at 2:02 pm

      5 stars
      This is one of my favourite dips. So great with homemade flatbread.

      Reply
      • Adrianne says

        March 12, 2020 at 7:09 pm

        Thanks Dannii, yes the flatbreads are a perfect way to serve I agree!

    3. Mark Murphy says

      October 29, 2020 at 10:56 pm

      I can’t wait to try this recipe. It looks most like my favorite tapenade from a restaurant in California. It doesn’t seem over-done like so many other recipes I have seen. Thank you!

      Reply
      • Adrianne says

        November 24, 2020 at 3:24 pm

        You are welcome Mark! That is great to hear. I appreciate your feedback!

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