Sun-dried Tomato Tapenade recipe that will blow your mind! Quick and easy, it is packed with flavour! With olives, capers, garlic and sun-dried tomatoes, this homemade tapenade is a fuss free easy appetizer!
Easy starters like my Artichoke Olive Tapenade, Olive Tapenade, Easy Green Olive Tapenade, and Baked Brie with garlic are simply delicious!
My Spinach Cob Loaf and Grazing Platter cater to a crowd. Use my Easy Crostini recipe as a serving suggestion!
Ingredients
This recipe uses basic ingredients, they are set out and labelled in the photo below so you can pop to the shops and grab exactly what you need! Scroll to the printable recipe card for exact measurements.
As you can see, the recipe calls for:
- Sun-dried tomatoes: readily available in the tinned foods section or from the deli. Try and purchase ones in oil as we use a little of that for flavour in the recipe also.
- Reserved Sun-dried tomato oil or Olive Oil: see note above, this is the oil that the tomatoes have been preserved in. It has delightful flavour and is a wonderful addition to many recipes. Or, you can use regular olive oil.
- Parsley: this adds a herby freshness to the recipe. I am using flat leaf parsley, but you can substitute in curly parsley if you wish.
- Lemon juice: a great addition in any tapenade. This adds a lovely zesty freshness to the recipe.
- Anchovies: we need a couple of these and they add a great depth of flavour. (Not only useful on pizzas!).
- Capers: these bright little balls have great texture and taste. We drain them, but don't worry about rinsing them.
- Garlic: I don't think one can ever have enough garlic in their lives! I prefer using whole cloves, but you can use jarred minced garlic if you wish.
- Stuffed green olives: another ingredient that adds a lovely depth of flavour and chunky texture to the tapenade!
Top tip: Grab the stuffed green olives with the red pimento inside! They are easy to find. And add the additional red flecks to the tapenade.
Instructions
The recipe can be broken down into easy steps which are shown in the photos below. There is instructions underneath so you can can follow easily.
- Add sun-dried tomatoes to the food processor (Photo 1)
- Followed by green olives (Photo 2)
- Next add garlic cloves (Photo 3)
- And the anchovies (Photo 4)
To make the tapenade, we need to add all of the ingredients to the bowl of a food processor.
- Next add the capers (Photo 5)
- Followed by the parsley (Photo 6)
- Add the lemon juice (Photo 7)
- And then the oil (Photo 8)
Once the ingredients are together in the food processor we are going to blitz them to make the tapenade. This part of the process takes less than 10 seconds.
We want chopped but textured tapenade where individual ingredients are still identifiable. You can see the before and after images above which show you what your tapenade texture will look like. If you blitz it for longer than 10 seconds, the texture will be more paste like (try to avoid doing this!).
Expert tips
This is what I have learnt that will help you succeed in mastering this recipe each and every time:
- Keep the blitz time short as we don't want mushy tapenade.
- Don't worry which parsley type ie flat or curly, they both work well!
- Make this recipe in advance, freeze and defrost a few hours or overnight ahead of time.
- A few slices of bread will allow you to make toast points very easily!
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Sun-dried tomatoes a healthy snack?
Sun-dried tomatoes can be considered a healthy snack as they are packed with vitamins. However, they are most often sold preserved in oil.
We do reserve the oil for this recipe and add it as an ingredient, although you can use olive oil if you purchase sun-dried tomatoes in a packet without the oil.
What is dried tomato tapenade used for?
Tomato tapenade can be used for a wide variety of recipes. Use it as a pizza sauce, stir it through pasta, as a salad dressing or for serving as a dip on crackers!
What's the meaning of tapenade?
Tapenade is the name for an olive recipe that incorporates chopped olives with an assortment of other ingredients such as garlic, lemon juice, capers and anchovies.
Related Recipes
Get the party started with these entertaining ideas:
- Green Olive Dip
- Sundried Tomato Pesto
- Spicy Olive Dip (these are my favourite olives!)
- Black Olive Tapenade
- Easy Homemade Pita Chips
- Sun-dried Tomato Tapenade
- Artichoke Olive Tapenade
- Olive Tapenade
Or you can find all of my olive recipes in the one spot!
To make Toast points like the ones seen in the photos here, simply remove the 4 crusts from a regular loaf of bread. Cut diagonally across it in ½, spray with cooking oil and bake for approx 5 mins. They are crispy and perfect for tapenade!
Serve this tapenade in a bowl on a Grazing Platter Board with Labneh Dip and Homemade Pita Chips for a complete feast!
Tap, tap, tapenade on my friends!
Adrianne xx
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📖 Recipe
Sun-dried Tomato Tapenade Recipe
Equipment
- Food processor
Ingredients
- 270 grams sun-dried tomatoes Note 1
- ⅓ cup oil Note 2
- ½ cup flat leaf parsley Note 3
- 3 cloves garlic skins removed
- ½ cup stuffed green olives Note 4
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice Note 5
- 4 anchovies drained
- ⅓ cup capers drained
- toast points to serve
Instructions
- Add sun-dried tomatoes, olives, anchovies, capers, garlic, parsley, lemon juice and oil to the bowl of a food processor.
- Pulse for less than 10 seconds to combine. Note 6
- Serve with toast points. Note 7
Notes
- Note 1 If you purchase your Sun-dried tomatoes in a jar, we are going to drain but keep the oil from the jar. The recipe uses ⅓ cup reserved oil from the jar. However, if you purchase your sun-dried tomatoes without the oil, you can use olive oil instead. You will find that you can get either Sun-dried or Semi dried tomatoes. The jars are very similar and it is only a keen eye that can see the difference especially if you grab it, throw it in your trolley and head to the check out. Never fear, both will be perfect for the recipe, so don't loose a minutes sleep over it!
- Note 2 This is reserved from the jar of sun-dried tomatoes talked about above. It has GREAT flavour and will enhance the tapenade delightfully.
- Note 3 You can use curly leaf parsley if you have/grow/prefer, both work well and bring great flavour.
- Note 4 The olives I am referred to here are the stuffed green olives that have the red colour in the middle. You can also use pitted green olives.
- Note 5 An Australian tablespoon measures 20ml, slightly more than an American one.
- Note 6 This keeps our texture chunky is much better for tapenade than mushy!
- Note 7 Toast points are super easy to make! Simply cut the 4 crusts off a slice of bread, put the bread in half on the diagonal, place on a lined baking tray and spray with cooking oil. Cook in a moderate oven for approximately 10 mins or till toast points are browned and crispy! 1 slice of bread will produce 2 toast points.
Nutrition
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Sarah says
Looks amazing! I was wondering how long this can be kept in the fridge?
Adrianne says
Thanks Sarah! You can keep it in the fridge for at least 3 days. My preference if it is going to be any longer than that is to freeze it. It freezes really well and defrosts well too. You can store it in a zip lock bag and take out when you need to use it. I find freezing it a handy way of having it taste as fresh as the day I make it even a month or so down the track. Lots of foods can be kept in the fridge for longer than that but I find they have a tendency to loose their freshness the longer they are in there. The garlic and oil in this recipe helps to preserve it in the fridge though also, so it won't go off suddenly, more so after 7 days it will get a little funky! Hope you love it, cheers!