Creamy smooth and bursting with flavor, this healthy, protein-rich, plant-based Kalamata olive tapenade makes the perfect creamy olive dip for bread, crackers or pretzels. Plus, it would make a beautiful addition to your plant-based charcuterie board.
Once upon a time in my pre-vegan days, I frequented a cozy little bistro that served the most amazing creamy olive tapenade with a crusty loaf of bread. I seriously chose to eat there for the creamy olive dip almost more than I did the menu!
I found out later that that their creamy tapenade specialty was mostly mayo and Kalamata olives. So sad, I thought, that my bread dipping days with creamy purple olive bliss were over!
So of course I had to veganize it…
For other delicious plant-based dips and sauces try my:
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Ingredients needed to make the best creamy olive tapenade:
- A small jar of pitted Kalamata olives (divided)
- white beans (canned)
- lemon pepper (please don’t skimp on this one!)
- lemon juice
- clove garlic
- mayo (I used Best Foods Vegan Mayo)
- parsley for optional garnish
- You will also need a high-speed blender
How to make creamy olive dip with Kalamata olives
The white beans
I really wanted to make this basic olive and mayo concoction into a healthier dip. When I eat dip I don’t do it in dainty little nibbles; but dunk and spread, and spoon. I didn’t want all the oil and extra fat from the mayo.
I’ve been experimenting lately with white beans and found that blended up in a high-speed blender and seasoned well, they make an incredible rich tasty creamy base.
So drain your can of white beans and set aside. I typically don’t rinse my beans as the residual “bean juice” or aquafaba helps make the dish a little extra creamy.
The Kalamata olives
I suppose you could use another olive if you want. I really like the subtle nutty taste and smooth texture of the Kalamata olive.
Kalamata olives are a little special too! They are grown in only one part of southern Greece and are picked by hand to avoid damaging the delicate fruit.
They are known to be high in antioxidants, iron, and vitamin A. You can learn more about Kalamata olives in this article by Greek City Times.
Use a 5.75 jar, drain the olives and then take out about ten to chop up for garnish.
You will also be using some chopped parsley for an optional garnish as well. And I hope you use it because the green makes a lovely contrast against the purple olive dip!
Another trick I do is to use a fork or knife to jab around the olives to make sure there aren’t any random pits left inside. It did happen to me once and ruined the dip with little woody pit shards throughout!
In the high-speed blender they go!
Put the drained olives and white beans, along with the lemon pepper, lemon juice, vegan mayo, and garlic clove into a high-speed blender.
If you only have a regular blender, that will still work. You will just have to blend longer, scrape the sides, and push the ingredients down and around while blending.
Serving the creamy Kalamata olive tapenade
Blend till nice a smooth and creamy and that’s it!
If your blender is like mine, the creamy olive dip will heat up a bit with blending. I think it’s better served cool and so I put the blended dip in the refrigerator for about a hour. It will also thicken up some as it sits.
Top with the reserved chopped olives and parsley. I hope you have a nice hunk of crusty bread ready. Dip away!
Health it up!
You are already getting a healthier dip by using blended white beans instead of mayo. You will notice though, that there are two Tablespoons of mayo in this recipe. Considering this dip contains 16 2T servings, that really isn’t much per serving. But if it bothers you, simply leave it out if you’d rather. You will miss out on a little creaminess and a slight kick of flavor. It will still be pretty delicious though!
The printable recipe card
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Creamy Kalamata Olive Tapenade, Plant-Based
Equipment
- high-speed blender
Ingredients
- 5.75 ounces jar Kalamata olives,drained and pitted divided
- 15.75 ounces white beans, drained
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper
- 2 Tablespoons vegan mayo
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 clove garlic
- optional chopped parsely
Instructions
- Drain the olives and take out ten. Chop those ten and set aside. You will use the chopped olives for garnish.
- Using a fork or knife, poke the olives to check and see if there are any random pits. Remove any you find and discard.
- Drain the white beans.
- Peel one clove of garlic. If you are using a high-speed blender then there is no need to chop. You can add it in whole.
- To your high-speed blender, add the drained olives (expect for the 10 you set aside and chopped), drained white beans, lemon pepper, mayo, lemon juice and peeled garlic clove.
- Blend all of the ingredients unitil they are smooth and well blended.
- Put the creamy olive dip into a serving dish. Top with copped olives and parsley to garnish.
- If your olive dip has become warm in the blender, refrigerate up to an hour unitl it is cool enough to serve.
Super simple. Super fast. Super tasty. Also super salty but my olives and capers came in brine. Next time I will try rinsing that off before I start.
Great idea to rinse. But this recipe does not use capers so you might be getting a little extra salty taste if you used those.
A good tapenade. I used a Mediterranean olive mix, which worked fine. If you’re dumb like me and but olives with pits in them, just use a meat mallet to whack the olive and the pit comes right out!
Oh yes that sounds like a yummy switch! And the meat mallet…lol great idea.
Very tasty and easy! I subbed 1 T water and 1 T olive oil for the vegan mayo, because I didn’t have any on hand and I’m trying to cut down on added oils. I use this as a breakfast dip with roasted veggies and toast. Thanks a lot!
Oh yum that’s a great idea! I’m going to try that next time.