Black Olive Tapenade

Alright, on the theme of entertaining, I’ve got another appetizer for you. If you want to impress people with a dip, this is the one to go with. It’s a deep, dark, black olive tapenade.

(Photo courtesy of the talented Dominic Tremblay: @d_tremblay on Twitter)

And the secret is to use sundried black olives — they look a little wrinkly and are so flavourful! That being said, I’ve made the same recipe with any kind of olives, and I often get whatever olive in the deli section is already pitted. The small black kalamatas, or the big green olives work well here too. If your grocery store doesn’t have a lovely olive selection in their deli department, I find that cheese shops usually have good options.

When I created this tapenade as an add-on for my gluten-free (and vegan!) bread baking class, I realised that my usual recipe uses mustard.  And none of the mustards in my fridge are guaranteed gluten-free as they all have malt vinegar or an undisclosed vinegar in them.  So I left it out, and you know what?  I didn’t notice a difference.

It is great on toasted & crusty French bread, or on gluten-free multigrain pita, or as the spread in a sandwich with lots of fresh veggies!

This tapenade got the most raves of any dip or spread at my class, so now you need it too.  Enjoy!

Black Olive Tapenade

• 1.5 c. pitted black sundried olives
• The juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 2 tsp. red wine vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced

Place all ingredients in a food processor, and blitz until you have still have small pieces of olive (about 20 seconds).

Serve at room temperature or store in the fridge for up to a week.