Traditional tapenades are pureed until smooth, but I love the rustic chunkiness of this version. I’ve broken tradition again by taking out the anchovies & adding black beans, giving a satisfying savoury softness against the salty, oily goodness of olives. Pile this tapenade on crackers, sandwiches, pizza bases, or dip into it with crunchy vegetable sticks, or add it to any grazing platter.
This recipe was inspired by my clever friend who was trying to introduce more beans into her kids’ bellies. She added black beans to a tapenade – which were cleverly disguised as black olives – & they merrily wolfed it down, not realizing they were eating protein-rich legumes. I loved her creation so I set out to make my own, using only a handful of ingredients & some contrasting optional extras.
An olive note: please make sure you use lovely juicy salty black olives, not the pre-sliced variety with not much flavour. Tastes way better!
1 x 400g tin of black beans, rinsed & drained
½- 2/3 cup of pitted black olives, packed
½ cup fresh coriander/cilantro, packed
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp lemon juice
½ tsp salt or to taste
Optional extras: (but highly recommended!)
¼ cup celery, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
red chili, finely sliced, to your taste
Put all ingredients into a food processor, including your optional extras, and pulse a few times, until you reach your desired level of chunkiness. As you can see, I like it with a little smoothness but a lot of hearty dense chunks! For my (old) machine, this is about ten pulses.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge.
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