Best Olives Recipes
Our sister company West Country Olives recently won 4 Golds at the Taste of the West Awards for their Lemon & Tarragon, Hand Stuffed Garlic, Classic Blend and Rosemary & Garlic varieties! To celebrate we’ve compiled some of the best olive recipes. Enjoy!
Olives are such a deliciously summery ingredient and eating them instantly gives us those holiday vibes even here in the rainy UK! The briny, salty flavour olives impart in almost any dish makes them an extremely versatile cooking ingredient and best of all you only need a small amount to add all that flavour so they’re easy on the purse strings too.
Greek Style Salad
Our first recipe is probably not actually a recipe but is what most people think of as a classic Greek style salad. This is simply four ingredients thrown together for maximum flavour and texture. We used ripe tomatoes, sliced red onion, cubed feta and halved West Country Green Pitted Olives. These combined with a drop of olive oil , lemon juice and oregano makes for a delicious side for any BBQ or alfresco lunch or dinner. We served this with lamb souvlaki and free styled some stir fried peppers and onion alongside a tub of Tzatziki from Delphi Foods. This is deliciously tasty summer food that is simple and easy to put together – what’s not to love?
Black Olive Tapenade
We know you can buy a jar of this is most supermarkets but as with many things, it does genuinely taste better when you make it yourself. It is great to have a pot in the fridge to add instant olive savouriness to pasta dishes, sandwiches and bruschetta but we think it is just as good as a snack spread thickly on some crusty bread. Once you have the ingredients together (we used the West Country Olives Kalamata olives) all the recipe requires is a quick blitz in a food processor and its ready. The tapenade keeps in the fridge for about 2 weeks but it never makes it that long in our house! Find the recipe here.
Vegan Moroccan Casserole
Continuing our best olives recipes, this one was made by our sister company West Country Olives for their first recipe blog post posted last year. It was adapted from a Delia Smith recipe to make it vegan friendly but retaining the traditional flavours of Morocco with cumin, coriander and saffron. This could also be made with chicken as in Delia’s version if you are a meat eater. For the recipe West Country Olives used their Classic Blend olives which are a combination of Halkidiki green pitted olives and pitted Kalamata olives. Click here for the recipe.
Cod & Tomato Traybake
This recipe is another quick and easy midweek dinner fix – are you sensing a theme!? But just because it is simple to prepare does not mean it is simple tasting. It is packed with flavour from the sweet and juicy tomatoes combined with the mellow and buttery olives and salty parma ham. We love the cod in this recipe but to keep things sustainable and to keep our costs down (we are in a cost of living crisis after all!) we went for hake which is just as succulent and meaty as its cousin with a great flavour. The Nocellara olives are one of West Country Olives lesser known varieties. They originate from Sicily and have a distinctive bright green colour due to being harvested early. Their flavour, in contrast to most olive varieties, is mild and slightly sweet with an almost buttery flavour. We served this with rich and buttery orzo pasta – yum! Click here for the recipe.
Puttanesca Pasta
Puttanesca is a traditional Italian pasta sauce thought to date back to the 19th century and made using capers, anchovies and olives. This is a great midweek recipe using store cupboard ingredients but bursting with flavour. If you’re a bit squeamish about the capers or anchovies trust us you won’t be once you taste it, they are both chopped quite small and simply add a great flavour. We used the West Country Olives Kalamata olives which have a rich and meaty flavour with a touch of fruitiness which works well with the savoury sauce. It is traditionally served with spaghetti but use whichever pasta you have to hand, we chose penne. Find the recipe here.
We hope you’ve enjoyed our compilation of best olives recipes, if you’d like to try any of them the West Country Olives are available in the following varieties in both 175g retail packs and 1kg bags:
Green Pitted
Kalamata
Classic Blend
Lemon & Tarragon
Orange & Coriander
Hand Stuffed Garlic
Garlic & Chilli
Hot Chilli
Picante Pimento
Stuffed Jalapeno
Moroccan Black
Nocellara del Belice
Rosemary & Garlic
Click here for more info.
