Greek Olive Dip in 5 Minutes | Easy Mediterranean Olive Spread

Hey everyone, yia sas, ke kalas yisate to another episode of Dimitra's Dishes. I have such an easy appetizer for you today. It's vegan, comes together in like five minutes and it's full of flavor. You can use it as an appetizer. We're making pasta elias, which is basically a Greek olive dip or olive paste. So good and just ready in no time. Let me show you how I make it. Okay, so you want to make sure all of the ingredients are ready and this is all going to come together in a food processor. So we're going to need 300 grams of kalamata olives that are already pitted. And then since I didn't have enough, I'm using these garlic and jalapeno stuffed olives. They're so good and fresh. I get them from Costco and they're always really, really fresh. So those are going in the food processor and then a little bit of lemon zest, about the quarter of this large lemon, quarter of the peel zested. And you want to just do the bright yellow part, the white part is going to be bitter. So make sure not to zest that. Two tablespoons of lemon juice, half of a lemon is basically the right amount. This lemon is pretty juicy and big. And then I add a heaping tablespoon of sun-dried tomatoes. It really adds another layer of flavor in there and add some mildness to because olives do tend to have a bite and this kind of mellows it out a little bit. Two tablespoons of capers. I'm going to leave a few capers on the side for the topping. They're just going to go on top as a garnish. A teaspoon of dried oregano. You can use fresh rosemary if you have it just a little bit or dried thyme. Some freshly cracked black pepper, about three tablespoons of olive oil. We're just going to pulse this in the food processor until it gets to the desired consistency. I don't like it to be a smooth paste, but if you do, you can just let this go all the way. I still like for it to have some texture to it just like this. All you have to do now is transfer it to your serving platter or you can put it in little jars if you're giving it as gifts. Drizzle some more olive oil on top. Sprinkle some capers. If you want to add some freshness, some finely chopped parsley will be great and that's it. It's ready to serve. I've toasted some sourdough bread and I love to spread it on top. This is a great appetizer if you want to go with something really simple and delicious. It's ready to serve. And there you have it, the Greek olive paste. I don't like to call it a paste. The Greek olive dip is ready. Now this is so versatile because you can just put it in a charcuterie board. You can serve it as a main appetizer with vegetables, different things just to put it on like breads and even a puff pastry if you want to bake some up into little squares and put this in there. You can bake it into things like just bake it into puff pastry and make little appetizers that are filled with this and maybe some cheese. There are so many options to use this with and it keeps fresh for a really long time in the refrigerator. It's also a great gift idea so if you're going to someone's house and you want to whip something up together and bring it to them, this is perfect because just like you saw, it's ready in no time. Also great for brunches. I mean so many options to use this. I hope you guys give this recipe a try. Before we leave, let's do the taste test. I toasted up some sourdough bread and just slathered this on top, drizzled some olive oil and put some capers on top and that's it. It's ready to serve. So good. It has that bite to it because of course all those olives. I usually make it with kalamata olives but I didn't have enough and I wanted to use up the green olives that were stuffed with garlic and jalapenos I think in my fridge. This is just amazing. If you want to sweeten it up just a little bit, you can definitely saute some onion and scallion in a saucepan or a little frying pan and once they're soft and golden, you can mix it in the dip after you puree it. Don't puree it with the onions and it's just going to add a little hint of sweetness and another level of flavor that I think goes really well with the olive dip. I hope you guys give this one a try. You can print it out on the website Demetra's Dishes.com. Thank you so much for spending time with me today. I'll see you all next time. Yia sas.