Mediterranean Olive Salad
This easy Mediterranean olive salad comes straight from the grocery olive bar! Just chop, assemble and serve.
People fall into two camps: Those who like olives and those who do not. If you are like me, you may fill up a tub of olives and eat them before you even get home. Yes, I can’t get enough olives. But, one thing I am always in need of is time. It dawned on me one evening that I could quickly prepare a very easy, very tasty Mediterranean olive salad based on this love of olives. BTW, as both olive camps exist in my family, this salad only works for some of us. But, the others just get a peanut butter sandwich when this is served (not made by me).
This Mediterranean olive salad is seriously good enough for any casual dinner party. Serve on its own, add to a grouping of two or three salads to choose from or grill some lemon pepper chicken to serve along side. It’s also easy to adjust to have it be vegan or paleo. Just typing this up, I promise I’m making this again this week. It’s so good!
Simply go to your favorite market with an olive bar. I prefer one that has those bright green Castelvetrano olives, as I’m completely head over heels for these buttery balls of olive bounty. I could do this entire salad with just this one type of olive, but a variation of color and flavors is nice, as well. Fill four 8 oz containers, each with a separate ingredient: Kalamata olives, Castelvetrano olives and big black olives. All olives should be pitted. Also, fill one container with artichoke hearts.
From here, decide what you want to add: banana peppers, roasted red peppers, feta cheese, salami, chicken, tomatoes … whatever you want! Spinach makes a good bed for this salad and, as I’m always in such a rush these days, I either use T Lish Sweet Garlic Dressing or a quick mixture of non-measured olive oil, lemon juice, dash of white wine vinegar and a tad of Dijon mustard.
To recreate this exact salad, here is my recipe:
Olive Bar Salad
Ingredients
- 8 oz of three types of pitted olives I prefer large black, Kalamata and Castelvetrano olives.
- 8 oz artichokes hearts
- 1/2 red onion thinly sliced
- Boar's Head Bianco D' Oro Salame
- Yellow and red grape tomatoes
- Feta cheese if you prefer
- Baby spoon spinach
- Sea salt and black pepper
- Dressing: T Lish Sweet Garlic Dressing or make a simple olive oil/lemon juice dressing.
Instructions
- Spread spinach across a large tray
- Halve olives, artichokes and tomatoes
- Thinly slice salame and red onion
- Place everything sliced up on top of the spinach
- Add feta
- Drizzle with dressing and sprinkle some sea salt and pepper on top
Nutrition
Liza Graves
As CEO of StyleBlueprint, Liza also regularly writes for SB. Most of her writing is now found in the recipe archives as cooking is her stress relief!