Olive & Fig Tapenade

It’s a Saturday and with nothing pressing on the agenda I decided to test out my salty homegrown olives to see how they fared as a tapenade. The following recipe is a variation from In Praise of Leftovers by way of Foodgawker (thanks for the tip Nikki). I was drawn to this recipe not only because it looked delicious but because I wanted something sweet to balance out the salty olives. Besides, who doesn’t love a sweet and salty combination. As a bonus, I had all ingredients in the house with the exception of an orange. Rather appropriate seeing that the recipe comes from a blog that’s all about cooking with what’s lying around the kitchen. It calls for a food processor which I don’t own (sad) so I used a blender. I’m sure if I had a
Thermomix I’d be whipping it up no sweat in seconds. Oh yeah, and it’s gluten-free, naturally.

¾ cup kalamata olives
¾ cup dried figs (no sugar added), chopped
1 small garlic clove
1 Tbsp lemon zest
1 Tbsp orange zest
1 Tbsp orange juice
2 Tbsp olive oil

Blend or process the olives, figs, garlic and zests till chunky.
Add orange juice and olive oil and blend till you are happy with what you see.
You may wish to add water or additional oil if needed.
Serve with crackers. Gluten-free rice crackers for us.

The original recipe called for walnuts and a pinch of salt but I opted out of both.

A dash of dark cacoa sounds like it would be a nice addition but maybe I’m just craving chocolate right now.