Serves: n/a
Cost: ~€4 per litre
Preparation time: ~20 minutes
Calories: ~
Hi again everyone, I hope you’re all well. Today’s post is inspired by the wonderful Sissi from With A Glass. She showed me a while ago in this inspiring post something I’d just never considered before. For those of you who like olives your mouth probably starts watering as soon as you walk past the delicatessen counter in stores and see those giant buckets full of shiny, glossy olives, loaded up with herbs, spices and the like. They make a fantastic accompaniment to drinks or as part of an hors d’oeuvre, but what does one do when you don’t have any in the home? Well, you make your own of course (and incidentally I haven’t bought any of the deli version since discovering that such a replacement can be made so simply at home. I didn’t want to rip off Sissi’s wonderful recipe wholesale, so I made a few adjustments but it would be remiss of me not to write about it here as I did want my blog to be a record of things I’ve made – something I can look at many years from now (hopefully) and see what sort of things I was making!
The olives are absolutely fantastic – they’re a big favourite with my wife and myself now and they’re so easy to make. Modify the ingredients to your personal preferences and you’ve got yourself a fantastic little snack to go with your pre-dinner drinks!
Enjoy the post everyone – I hope you don’t all miss me too much! I’ll be popping my head in to your blogs every now and again to say hi! I’ll be back in a few days with the first of my guest posts, and this person really went all out and even wrote about an adventure they took with photos and everything! Stay tuned for that, and have a great day!
“Instant” Deli Olives
Ingredients
- 1 good bowl of Olives
- 1 red Chilli
- 1 large pinch of dried Thyme
- 1 large pinch of dried Rosemary
- 1 clove of Garlic
- Salt and Pepper
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil
Instructions
- Place the thyme, rosemary and olive oil into the bowl with the olives. Peel and crush the garlic and de-seed and finely chop the chilli. Add these in too and then add in some freshly ground salt and pepper. Mix well and allow the flavours to infuse for 15-30 minutes or so in the refrigerator. Alternatively, you can leave them overnight or more, by which time the flavours will be even better! Enjoy :).
Great idea Charles, and so simple. The bowl is really cute too. I enjoy Sissi’s blog too.
Thanks Eva – it’s a fantastically simple and delicious idea, I can’t believe it had never crossed my mind until I saw it on Sissi’s site once! I love the bowls – they’re actually just cheapo ones from IKEA!
What a great simple dish. I love olives. They’re so great with a pre-dinner drink. xx
Hi Charlie – totally agree. It’s very hard not to just stand next to the bowl and hog them all 😀
While this idea is simple to do, the result is amazing. “WHERE did you get these??” is always the question when I serve them.
Hehe, it’s like a well-kept secret which I just became privy to! So much cheaper and fun to make compared to the expensive ones from deli counters!
Awww … and I thought you’re back from your break.
I doubt I’ll get to the point of adding any ingredients to the olives. They’d all be finished before they reach the bowl!
Must resist! Must make these! And FYI, I am salivating.
Hi Ping – alas not, I’ll be gone for a while, but I’ll be around… just not as active as before for a few weeks more 🙂
I hope you have a chance to try these, they’re so good 🙂
Since I don’t drink….my olives go with some feta cheese, pickled turnips, cucumbers and warm pita bread. These look really good!
Nazneen
What are pickled turnips? How do you make them? GG
Middle Eastern pickles, you may have seen them, they are bright pink because of the addition of some beets along with the turnips. Easy to make, just pour hot vinegar, garlic and chilli pepper on top of par boiled turnips and beets. Keep a few days for the beet colour to transfer to the turnips, delicious and easy. Great inside shawarmas.
Thanks Nazneen, I’ll give them a go. They sound delicious, presumably lithely take on some of the earthy beet flavour too? GG
Hi Nazneen – your way sounds awesome too… thanks for describing pickled turnips too, they sound lovely!
Starting with a great recipe and making adjustments to suit your personal tastes is the basis of good cooking. 🙂 You and Eva never let me down in giving me great ideas to riff off of.
Hehe, always happy to oblige 😉
So simple and so good. It’d never occurred to me to make my own flavoured olives. I’m off to the spice cupboard to experiment. GG
Hi GG – I know, right? I can’t believe this never cross my mind either. So fun, simple and cheap to make!
I am definitely in on these olives. I always pick some up at the deli, but I will try making these. Goes so well with a nice glass of wine, some crusty bread and and good cheese.
Hi Suzi – I wish I could find the really large, fat olives to make these with. I can buy them, but only from the deli counter, which kind of defeats the purpose of this kind of dish, if they’ve already been “deli-fied”.
I love my little-bits (the name I gave olives in my youth – yes, apparently at the age of 4, I was asking my caregiver for ‘little-bits’ – she had NO idea what I was talking about ;-)) – I am particularly guilty of going after the garlic stuffed jumbos at the deli counter (you know the ones that are stuffed with a clove of garlic in the cavity – oh, heaven!!!) – but when I see these simple & delicious instructions it makes me think I really should take a moment and cook up a batch for fun – a little infused oil action over the olives. Yum!
Hi Kelly – I used to HATE olives SO much. My God, they were the spawn of the devil in my opinion. Nowadays I love them. I think what changed me was when I was a poor student and the only “food” I had in my little apartment was a jar of olives. Scoffed the lot and never looked back 😀
he he he…
What a marvellous surprise! It changes completely my Monday morning (usually not my favourite time of the week 😉 ). Your olives look extraordinary. The photos are just perfect and so enticing I’m starting to crave this for my late breakfast! Thank you for so many kind words and compliments. I am flattered and thrilled to learn you have liked the idea and adapted it to your preferences. Such seasoned olives can have endless variations. Thank you for linking to my blog.
Hi Sissi – thank you again for the wonderful inspiration! I make these a *lot* – my wife and I adore them so much, and it’s also a great way to use up bad tasting olives. We bought some cheap ones which were really not tasty, but “not to worry”… :D. Chuck a bit of olive oil and spice on top, and there you go 😀
What a simple and superb idea! Love it.
Thanks Asmita 🙂
What a delicious appetizer! Lovely photos 🙂
Thanks Laura – they are really good. We eat them a lot now around here 🙂
I love olives and love the idea of this Charles.
My mum makes something similar but she adds walnuts, peeled chopped lemons and chopped red and yellow peppers. She leaves it in the fridge for a couple of days and it is amazing
Hi Sawsan – thanks for the idea. I love the sound of your mum’s version too… something to try for next time 🙂
Olives, did you say olives? Bobby and I both LOVE olives of any color, flavor or level of heat. We’ve made meals out of cheese, olives and crackers. I’ve got a huge jar of plain green olives in the fridge that are just waiting for a little oil, chilli, and herbs! Thanks for sharing this! I must have missed it over at Sissi’s.
Hi MJ – I love olives… can you believe I used to detest the little things? My favourites are the really big, fat ones with massive pits in the middle, but they’re not the most common things here so even little tiddlers like these are good 😀
Nothing better than a glass of white wine and a bowl of these gems Charles. If you feel like trying something different, I really recommend green olives with freshly chopped rosemary, finely grated lemon zest, fennel seeds, chopped garlic and a splash of olive oil. The fennel really adds a unique and lovely flavour to the olives! They are so much better than store-bought and you feel good knowing that you made them yourself! I’ll have to check out Sissi’s version. Hope you’ve been enjoying your summer Charles.
Hi Barb – that sounds like a wonderful combo. Sawsan mentioned olives with lemon above as well! Not sure if I’ve tried fennel and olives before… I’m curious as to what sort of flavour mix they’d produce!
Hi Charles, yes, we do miss you! Thanks for this lovely olive post. I will miss your book review this month…
Hi Marina – I’ll admit to having forgotten all about that this month! I shall be sure to write one for when I return properly 🙂
saw it on sissi’s too, and also on my list to do! I used to not like olives because I foudn them just too salty and sharp for me, then I realised after tasting them at a specialty shop, that they have such difference in flavours among different varieties and have since learnt to appreciate them.
Hi Shuhan – I used to hate olives too. It’s one of those “weird” foods that you always wonder how it came to exist. My wife thinks it’s funny because have you ever eaten a “raw” olive? They’re disgusting. Somehow, someone tried one and decided “hey, if we soak this in salt water, or rub it in salt and let it dry out a bit it will be delicious”, and so they just happened to start existing like this! 😀
I also wonder how olives came to exist, lol! 😛
Mike would be in heaven with these. I’m not much of an olive fan myself, but he could live off them I think. I remember on our honeymoon they were his bar snack of choice which is kind of fun because now when I see deli olives I think of our honeymoon. Looking forward to the guest posts. 🙂 Hugs to you!
Thanks Kristy – they’re a really wonderful appetizer. It’s really the kind of thing which I have a hard time stopping myself from eating so I can totally imagine Mike’s fervour when presented with some at a bar 😀
Easy and packed with flavor! I am all for it!
Thanks KB – hope you have a chance to give them a try!
I used to not like olives but I’m really starting to enjoy their deep flavours now. Love this recipe, would be great to make for a dinner party to go with some pre-dinner nibbles!
Hi Jenny – I used to hate them too… it’s definitely a taste you grow into! Definitely prefer green ones to black ones though still.
I eat jars and jars of olives like this constantly~ so much better to just make your own! Brilliant idea!
Knowing that it’s Sissi’s recipe, I know this is awesome! 😀 Am I biased? No! She makes very simple thing so delicious and I love her cooking style and can relate to her. 🙂 Great appetizer!
Awesome idea and recipe. We’re addicted to deli olives, but hate the price.
I do often overpay for such a treat! Now I can’t wait to make my own glistening bowl of olives:D
It is so easy to take olives and make them your own. I like that you have added a hot chili.
yummy! these look so good! I have a somewhat similar recipe for marinated olives…and I love marinated mushrooms too!
xo,
~M
Shhh. We should all keep this as top secret in the food blogging world. How can something so simple taste so good. We should tell everyone if take hours in the kitchen to prepare…maybe throw a little flour on your face before you leave the kitchen to help with the effect. Great recipe Charles. I hope you are doing well. Take care, BAM
Since ‘dressing up’ my loves, I can almost never eat them plain again. They’re just so YUMMY when they’re deli-ed up 😉 Love this mix 😀
Kalamata olives are my all time favorite with crunchy green ones in second place. I will try this.