The best way to consume olives is either eat the ripe fruits alone as snacks, or make olive salad with herbs. Including them in your daily salad is not only good for health, but also makes a regular and boring salad very tasty.
Olives are nutritious fruits, appreciated for their rich monounsaturated fats, vitamin E, fiber, and some trace minerals. In fact, all the calories in this fruit come from healthy fats. A major benefit with olive consumption is the presence of negligible cholesterol. Including fresh, ripe olives in a salad is an easy way to achieve weight loss and/or just maintain optimal health.
Olive Salad for Muffaletta
Ingredients
Black olives, ½ cup (pitted and roughly chopped)
Green olives, ½ cup (pitted and roughly chopped)
Garlic, 2 cloves (minced)
Pickled cauliflower florets and carrots, ¼ cup
Capers, 2 tbsp. (drained and rinsed)
Peperoncini, ¼ cup (chopped)
Marinated cocktail onions, 2 tbsp. (chopped)
Celery seeds, ¼ tsp.
Dried basil, ½ tsp.
Dried oregano, ¼ tsp.
Olive oil, ½ cup
Red wine vinegar, ¼ cup
Raw sugar, ½ tsp.
Ground black pepper, ½ tsp.
Directions
Included in this recipe are lots of herbs, which impart a unique flavor to your mixed salad. If you like kalamata olives, you can use them instead of black olives. To start with, prepare the salad ingredients and keep them handy.
In a large mixing bowl (or a non-reactive container), mix all the recipe ingredients - olives, garlic, cauliflower florets, carrot, capers, onion, celery, basil, oregano, olive oil, red wine vinegar, raw sugar, and pepper.
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Cover and marinate for at least 4 hours before serving. This olive salad for Muffaletta tastes best when chilled in the refrigerator overnight.
Avocado and Olive Salad
Ingredients
Capers, 2 tbsp.
Garlic, 1 cloves (minced)
Parmesan cheese, ½ cup (freshly grated)
Balsamic vinegar, 1 tbsp.
Olive oil, 2 tbsp.
Small limes, 2 (juiced)
Salt and pepper as per taste
Black olives, 20 (thinly sliced)
Avocados, 4 (peeled, pitted, and diced)
Directions
Take a large bowl and combine together the ingredients - capers, garlic, cheese, vinegar, olive oil, lime juice, salt, and freshly ground pepper. To this, add olives and avocado. Toss the salad for even coating, and refrigerate for half an hour. Serve it chilled.
Eggs in Olive Salad
Ingredients
Eggs, 2
Black olives, 10 (pitted and chopped)
Tomato, 1 (seeded and quartered)
Cucumber, 1 (peeled and cut into pieces)
Lettuce, ½ cup (chopped)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper for taste
Directions for Preparation
First of all, boil eggs to your liking, either soft- or hard-boiled. Allow them to cool down a bit before peeling. In the meantime, prepare the vegetables. Make sure you cut them in bite size pieces. Also, quarter boil eggs and add in a bowl.
To this, add the cut veggies, olives, and a small amount of olive oil. Sprinkle salt and pepper. You can also add chopped culinary herbs of your choice. Toss well and serve immediately.
If available, use fresh olives in the salad recipes. Or else, you can add canned or preserved ones instead. For making the dressing, you will need cider vinegar, mayonnaise, garlic, red pepper powder and sugar. Decide the quantities of the ingredients such that the resulting salad dressing is thick and creamy. Then, blend in a food processor and add pitted, green olives. Mix for another 2 minutes and your salad is ready.