This 3-ingredient garlic olive butter adds a rustic, Mediterranean-inspired punch of flavor to your favorite savory dishes. It's light and creamy, with the perfect amount of briny flavor from kalamata olives.
My Go-To Compound Butter for Leveling Up Dinner
Growing up in Germany, we often visited Italy just a few hours away, and one thing that always stuck with me was the way Italian cafés would set down a little dish of something bold and savory before the meal even started. I fell in love with the briny olive tapenades that we'd drag crusty loaves and breadsticks through.
Since then I've been trying to recreate that experience at home, but most olive spreads I found either called for a food processor, a long ingredient list, or tasted nothing like what I remembered. So I stripped it back to just three pantry-staple ingredients, two quick steps, one bowl, and a spoon. Seriously, that's it!
The result is somewhere between an olive tapenade and a savory compound butter with a bold, briny, garlicky, flavor & just enough salt from the olives that you don't need to add any more. And because it's butter-based, it's not just a spread, because you can cook with it too! I love swapping this for the cooking fat in pasta, melting it over mashed potatoes, and spreading it on my crusty potato bread before dinner. It's the kind of side dish that makes a weeknight feel a little more intentional, but nobody needs to know it took you five minutes.
Let's Gather Our Ingredients!
- Butter: In testing, I found that unsalted butter works best. Kalamata olives add plenty of salty flavor on their own, and you can always sprinkle in more salt if needed.
- Olives: I've also tested this savory compound butter with green olives and black olives, which both tasted great. But I personally love the tangy + salty flavor from kalamata olives best.
- Garlic: If you aren't a big fan of garlic, you can swap in garlic powder for a milder flavor.
Let's Make Olive Butter in 2 Easy Steps!
1. Combine all the ingredients.
2. Mix until it's smooth & creamy.
Carissa's Butter Tip
Be sure to leave your butter at room temperature so it can soften and mix easily. If you forget, watch my YouTube video on how you can quickly soften butter in 10 minutes.
5-Minute Garlic Kalamata Olive Butter
developed & tested by:
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- ½ cup kalamata olives, drained and finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, grated
Instructions
- Mix: In a bowl, mix the softened butter with chopped olives and minced garlic until it's well-combined.
- Store: To store, spread the mixed butter in an airtight container. Or scrape the butter onto parchment paper and shape it into a log, then wrap it in the parchment paper. Store in the fridge.
Notes
- Butter: If you have the option, splurging on a high-fat European butter will enhance your olive butter's rich flavor & creamy texture.
- Olives: Chop them as small as you can to avoid large chunks in one bite and hardly and olives in another bite.
- Garlic: In recipe testing, I found that chopped & minced garlic weren't small enough to distribute its flavor. I recommend grating your garlic on a box grater or microplane, or swap in store bought garlic paste.
- Drain Your Olives: Be careful not to add the olive brine to your butter. I learned the hard way that adding too much moisture can cause compound butter to split. I use a fork to pick out the olives and gently tap them on the side of the jar to remove excess brine. You can also pat them dry with a paper towel if they're really wet.
Nutrition
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