Olive Tapenade

Appetizers are my kind of meal and yes, I did say meal. I can easily make a dinner out of an assortment of them and be a happy camper for the evening. The only thing better is having appetizers that require little to no cooking. It almost feels like you’re cheating.

Olive Tapenade is easily one of my favorite appetizers to prepare, likely because I love olives. Tapenade is basically a spread that is made from an assortment of olives, capers and anchovies. You can put it on bread, in pasta or even over a protein, like chicken. Now, I’m not the biggest fan of anchovies, so for our version of a tapenade we omitted the anchovies and replaced them with some sun-dried tomatoes.

This version also requires two kinds of olives, which is important to give it an elevated flavor profile. You’ll notice as well that we do not add any seasoning because there is enough salt in the ingredients naturally. Finally, we recommend serving this tapenade over toasted bread that has a layer of mixed cream cheese and Greek yogurt. The creaminess of the spread balances the saltiness of the tapenade and makes for one delicious bite.

Prepping the Ingredients

For this recipe, it’s important to make sure your olives are completely minced. You want tiny bites of olive throughout. Start by slicing them with a 5″ Petite Santoku and then mincing the slices into very small pieces.

Using the same knife, you can chop the sun-dried tomatoes into small pieces. You want the tomatoes to blend nicely with the olives.

With a 7-5/8″ Petite Chef knife, finely chop both the red onion and garlic clove, making sure it’s similar in size to your olives.

Zest a lemon and if you don’t have a zester, we have a great tutorial that shows you how to make lemon zest without a zester, using a Vegetable Peeler and 5″ Petite Santoku. You want to zest the lemon before you cut it in half to juice it.

Chop some flat leaf parsley with the 7-5/8" Petite Chef and thinly slice your bread on the bias using a 7-3/4″ Petite Slicer and then you’re ready to start putting this appetizer together.

Making the Appetizer

Grab a medium bowl that is deep enough to allow you to thoroughly mix the ingredients. Add the olives, sun-dried tomatoes, capers, red onion and garlic to the bowl and stir to combine. Stir in the olive oil, lemon juice and zest, parsley and red pepper flakes. Set the bowl aside to allow the flavors to combine.

In a separate small bowl, mix together the cream cheese and Greek yogurt. If your cream cheese is not softened or you forgot to take it out of the refrigerator take it out of the foil, place it on a plate and microwave it for 20 seconds at a time until soft. The cream cheese needs to be soft to mix well with the yogurt.

Brush the bread slices with some olive oil and broil on both sides until lightly browned. Once cooled, use a Stainless Butter Knife to spread the cream cheese and Greek yogurt mixture over the bread slice.

Top each bread slice with a generous portion of the olive mixture and place on a decorative plate for serving.

Olive Tapenade is an easy-to-make appetizer that is perfect any time of year and is oh-so tasty. Each bite combines salty flavors with a creamy spread over toasted bread and when we invited the team to try this deliciousness, there were no leftovers.