The Good for You Olive Tapenade

I wanted an olive tapenade that is not only tasty but also nutritious.  I also want the ingredients to be readily available or at least what I can use for other purposes.  I found a recipe online that fulfills this wish of mine.  I adapted it to suit the ingredients I already have and came up with this recipe which features other nutritious Mediterranean ingredients like nuts, tomatoes and red pepper. 

I also like this recipe since it cuts down on the salt that other recipes I found online have plenty of.  For example I saw one preparation which uses capers and/or anchovy fillets which add to the saltiness tendered by the olives themselves.

This recipe also does not use a lot of olive oil or hardly any.  For example, there is a simple recipe online which calls for only three ingredients but it uses a large amount of olive oil for its third ingredient aside from the olives and garlic. 

This Good for You Olive Tapenade  is also very easy to make.  You do everything in a food processor.  I used a mini processor in my case.  It just chopped everything together. 

Though simple and easy this tapenade is just as good as any of the decadent ones found online.  It is definitely also very nutritious.

The Good for You Olive Tapenade

Ingredients                       

Servings 4

• ¹⁄₂ cup assorted olives pitted and preferably oil-cured 
• 2 garlic cloves
• 6 grape tomatoes or 1 small tomato, cut into smaller pieces and preferably seeds removed
• 1/2 red pepper
• 1/8 cup almonds
• 1 small jalapeno pepper  (optional).
• olive oil from the bottle of olives for taste and presentation  (optional)
• dry parsley or basil for presentation and taste (optional)

1.  Add the olives, garlic, tomatoes, red pepper and almonds (and jalapeno pepper if using) in a food processor and pulsed till the ingredients are finely chopped. 

2. You can drizzle the finished tapenade with olive oil from the bottle of olives for taste and presentation if you like and if you do not mind the added calories. 

3. Spread on sliced French baguette.  You can garnish with dried parsley for color and taste.