Marinated Olives

Marinated olives are perfect as an appetizer, on a buffet table or simply a delicious snack.

I have 4 recipes for marinating olives here, all of them amazing. Choose your favorite or make them all for your next party.

Each of the recipes suggests marinating the olives for a few days to maximize the flavors, so that makes these olive recipes a perfect make ahead appetizer or snack. You can leave them to marinate for up to a week.

Do make sure to turn the marinating jar daily, or at least once in a while, to make sure all the olives get coated with the delicious marinade flavors.

If you are an olive lover, you’ll be in olive heaven here.

Marinated Olives with Garlic and Herbs

I’ll start off with my favorite – a mix of green and black olives with dried herbs, garlic and olive oil. You can use dried herbs in these recipes because marinating them in the oil will bring the herbs back to life and add lots of flavor to the olives.

The nutritional count you see is for the whole batch of these olives, but they will all be similar.

Greek Style Olives

These lovely Kalamata olives get bathed in lemon, dill, thyme and fennel, classic Greek herbs. And of course a wonderful fruity olive oil.

• 1/2 large lemon


• 10 1/2 ounces Kalamata olives


• 4 sprigs fresh thyme


• 1 shallot, very finely chopped


• 1 tablespoon fennel seeds, lightly crushed


• 1 teaspoon dried dill


• fruity extra virgin olive oil

Cut the lemon into 4 slices, then cut each slice into wedges. Drain and rinse the olives, then pat dry with paper towels.

Put all the ingredients into a 2 1/4 cup preserving jar, pouring olive oil over to cover. Seal and marinate for several days before serving, turning the jar over and back again daily.

To serve these olives, spoon them into a bowl and garnish with chopped fresh herbs.

Provencal Style Olives

These olives are a bit spicier with the addition of chilies.

• 3 dried red chilies (or adjust to your taste)


• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns


• 10 1/2 ounces black Nicoise olives in brine


• 2 lemon slices


• 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds


• 1 teaspoon garlic flavored olive oil


• fruity extra virgin olive oil

Place the dried red chilies and black peppercorns in a mortar and crush lightly. Drain and rinse the olives, then pat dry with paper towels. Put all the ingredients in a 2 1/4 cup preserving jar, pouring over enough olive oil to cover.

Seal the jar and leave for at least 10 days before serving, shaking the jar daily.

Catalan Style Olives

The grilled pepper adds wonderful color to these marinated olives, plus you get a bit of spice from the dried chili flakes. I love the fresh cilantro in this recipe for Spanish style olives. It adds a nice bright note to the olives.

• 1/2 grilled red or orange bell pepper


• 5 1/2 ounces black olives


• 5 1/2 ounces green olives


• 1 tablespoon capers, rinsed


• pinch of dried chili flakes or to taste


• 4 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro


• 1 bay leaf


• fruity extra virgin olive oil

Finely chop the bell pepper. Drain and rinse both types of olives, then pat dry with paper towels. Put all the ingredients into a 2 1/4 cup preserving jar, pouring over enough olive oil to cover.

Seal and marinate for at least 10 days before serving. Turn the jars over or shake daily to keep everything mixed.

There you are – Four great recipes for marinated olives. If you love olives, your life just got better! I love olives as a snack, appetizer or on a buffet or tasting table.

Use as good quality olive oil as you can afford. Don’t just trust the label. There is a lot of fake extra virgin olive oil around, extra virgin olive oil that has been secretly mixed with lesser grade oils.

The best test to make sure your extra virgin olive oil really is what it claims to be is to put the bottle into the refrigerator. A good olive oil actually gets cloudy and thick when refrigerated. It will still work, it just won’t look as pretty until the oil is brought back to room temperature. Once you have a brand that you know you can trust, just keep buying that one.

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If you like these marinated olives, you may also like our marinated goat cheese with olives.

Find the rest of our delicious appetizer ideas here.

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