Green olive tapenade is a savory, flavorful paste or spread or dip that takes only five minutes to whip up. Delicious with a hint of umami, this recipe is made with fresh parsley and is without anchovies and without oil. A delicious paste, appetizer, dip, or spread.
Drain the olives whether you bought them in jars or cans.
Rinse the capers.
Peel and chop 2 garlic cloves.
Chop parsley roughly.
Make olive tapenade
Add all ingredients to a food processor or a blender that purees pastes. Process for about 1-2 minutes. The texture will be chunky.
2 cups green olives, 1 teaspoon capers, rinsed, 1 cup flat leaf parsley, 2 tablespoon lemon juice, 2 cloves garlic
If you don't want the paste to be oil-free, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil here and process briefly again.
2 tablespoon olive oil
Keep refrigerated in air-tight container; lasts about a week
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Notes
Ingredient detailGreen Olives. I recommend Castelvetrano olives because they are sweeter and without olive oil, a fat, the olive you choose must be buttery and sweet. A budget choice is Manzanilla, more bitter but easier to find at supermarkets. Buy pitted and unstuffed with red pimentos, or anything similar.Parsley. Use flat-leaf parsley, also called Italian parsley, because while the flavor is more pungent than curly parsley, the flat leaves are easier to clean, important since this dish is not cooked, and chops more smoothly allowing the tapenade to have a smoother texture.Capers. A very tiny amount is enough to provide the unami flavor that anchovies normally do. Rinse to soften the briny flavorVariationsOlive oil. Add a light virgin olive oil to the food processor for a richer, smoother flavor. Oil is a fat that leaves a smoother aftertaste. Add 2 tablespoons of oil to this recipe as you process the other ingredients.Miso paste. You can boost the umami flavor by adding 1 tablespoon of white miso paste to the recipe while processing. You can either add it with the capers or leave the capers off the recipe for a less salty, but more umami flavor.Lower salt tapenade. To make a lower salt version of green olive tapenade, rinse both the capers and green olives with fresh filtered water. Then soak them both for up to two hours, rinse again and use in the recipe.