Tapenade

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Simple, savory, and perfectly salty, good tapenades should be the best thing to spread on a cracker. Why not learn how to make your own simple yet super delicious tapenade and serve it as an appetizer?

Make sure to pair your tapenade with some homemade bread using this White Bread Recipe! Or learn How to Make Homemade Pita Chips and use your tapenade as a dip!

Tapenade

Tapenade is another one of those eternally fancy-looking spreads that seems like it would take a culinary genius to be able to make.

However, far from being a complex haute cuisine recipe, it is actually nothing more than some blitzed-up olives, anchovies, and oil.

It is not only super easy but way better when you make it at home because you can then adjust everything to your flavor preferences and make it saltier, sweeter, or more acidic, whatever you prefer!                

What To Do If You Don’t Have A Food Processor?

The easiest way to get everything together for making some tapenade is to simply combine all of the ingredients together and then blitz it all in a food processor.

Not only does using the food processor make it so that you don’t need to dirty other dishes or utensils, but it is also super fast and even with how it cuts everything up, leading to a really uniform, chunky-like tapenade.

However, if you don’t have a food processor, you can easily just cut all the ingredients up by hand instead!

Just finely chop each individual ingredient, one by one, and then place them all together into a bowl.

This will obviously create a more uneven mix of ingredients, leading to a bit of a chunkier texture, so if you want something smooth, try mashing everything together in a mortar instead!

If you find you are struggling to get some of the ingredients smashed, like the olives or the garlic, try adding a sprinkle of your salt. The salt acts as an abrasive and helps everything break down, leading to a much smoother tapenade!

What To Use In Place Of Parsley?

Parsley is one of those incredibly useful herbs that seem to crop up again and again in all sorts of recipes.

Not only is it a vibrant green, but it also completes a lot of savory flavors really well and works perfectly to help balance the olives in this tapenade.

However, if you don’t have parsley or just don’t want to have to deal with the little green bits that get stuck in your teeth, you can always replace them with another herb.

Basil would work really well, and it doesn’t get stuck in your teeth so easily! You could also use something like coriander, so long as you keep in mind that it will make the whole thing taste like coriander!

Or, failing any of those other options, you can easily just skip it.

What Kinds Of Olives Are Best To Make Into Tapenade?

Tapenade is, first and foremost, an olive spread, so it stands to reason that this is the kind of dish that you should try and use high-quality olives for.

You can use any type of olive you like, but the use of both green and black olives in this recipe provides a flavor contrast, as well as giving a little bit of extra color variety.

Try to avoid using those dried, preserved olives with really wrinkly skin, though. Though they taste great, they are just far too salty to use to make tapenade – they will make the whole thing taste like salt and nothing else!

How Should You Use Your Tapenade?

Tapenade is an incredibly versatile spread – you can spread it on bread or crackers or even just eat it on its own.

Its easy spreadability makes it perfect for serving as an hors d’oeuvre at the start of a big meal or as part of an appetizer for a party.

It also makes for a great lunch option when served alongside some crusty bread. Just dip your bread in the tapenade, and you’ve got a healthy, salty, and nourishing meal with super little effort!

Looking for more delicious Appetizers and Snacks recipes? Try these out:

• Shrimp Surprise Spread – The Best Shrimp Dip Ever!

• Dill Dip

• French Onion Dip

Happy Cooking

Love,

Karlynn

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