Olive Tapenade {Vegan + Paleo}

Enjoy this vegan and paleo Olive Tapenade appetizer recipe with seafood, burgers, and vegetables. It’s gluten-free, soy-free, and dairy-free, and takes just 10 minutes to make!

Greetings and how are you? Currently everyone in my family is sleeping as I while away the morning, the only audible sound being the clicking of my fingers on the keyboard. Do you know how much I am getting done? All. The. Things.

My wish for you is that you also experience a quiet morning in which everyone in the household sleeps and you have a few quiet moments to think you thoughts because you haven’t seen or heard from them in a while. Isn’t it delightful to run into old friends?

Fittingly, today’s recipe is the perfect appetizer for when hanging out with old friends, physically real or internally real. It doesn’t matter which. Discovering Olive Tapenade a year or so ago was also proof to K-Hubs and me that eating healthy didn’t have to mean eating boring. Because this appetizer is anything but boring. Think tangy, Mediterranean flavor, which is to say absolutely so delicious!

The first few times I made it, I imagined it would be difficult. But rest assured, it is neither boring nor complicated. Do you have a high-speed blender or food processor? If yes, then you’ve got what it takes to make this.

Some recipes call for a fraction of a cup of black olives, but who has time to store three little leftover olives? Not me, so I just dump the whole can in the blender, and I have never been sad about that.

What about the garlic? Well, in my family, we are ready for vampires just about any day of the week, what with our incessant need to add garlic, and lots of it, to every meal we eat. I will say with this Olive Tapenade recipe, add them one at a time. Depending on the size and freshness of your garlic, a little may end up going a long way. In the recipe below, you’ll notice I have said 1-2 garlic cloves, and I’ll stand by that. Add each one at a time, taste-testing as you go, and see what you prefer.

If you don’t happen to have apple cider vinegar in the cupboard, no worries. When I run out, I make this anyway. To be completely transparent, I have not used white vinegar, so I cannot attest to using an alternative, but you can certainly go for it if that’s what you have on hand.

One alternative I can write about is using fresh and prepackaged herbs. Midwest winters mean I don’t always keep fresh herbs in the house. So, yes, I use prepackaged if that is all I have on hand. I typically go with herbs that have been finely ground merely because they blend well in this recipe. I have also used fresh, which brings out the flavor. One catch to using fresh is the need to make sure the herbs are chopped or sliced finely enough that they will blend evenly in the food processor. Fresh is best, but it does require a little extra work.

As for how you might enjoy this gem of a party food, I think just about anything goes. While we haven’t tried them ourselves, bread and crackers are obvious choices, in which case, I would suggest reducing the amount of olive oil to about 1/8 cup so the Olive Tapenade doesn’t make your grains soggy.

Olive Tapenade also pairs well with seafood, burgers, and vegetables, especially cauliflower. We haven’t tried it as a pizza sauce yet, but that is on my culinary bucket list. And once I try it, I’ll let you know how it went.

If you are making this for a party, one nice benefit is being able to make it long before you need it. So often, it seems, fresh recipes have to be made right before they are consumed, making it hard to plan in advance. But this recipe can be made the night before you need it. I store mine in a glass jar or dish and cover it. Voila! You have an appetizer.

It’s time to get blending! The party is waiting!

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