Olive Tampenade and Kidney Bean Dip

This week in quarantine cuisine… I seem to be scouring my fridge and cupboards trying to use up old stuff I never tend to eat. This time I came up with dried kidney beans and olives. I have a lot of olives in the fridge for some reason and no one in the house except me eats them. With these seemingly random items I decided to make dip/spread – No, not with them both in the same one – two different spreads – Olive tampenade and Kidney bean dip. They were both super yummy and I have been eating them on (stale) pita that I toast (and had in the freezer for some reason. Don’t worry, the pita is actually good when it is toasted!

What you do need for both of these is a food processor or really good blender.

Olive Tampenade ingredients and directions

around a cup of olives (pitted) green or black or mixed

one clove of garlic

around 3-4 tablespoons of Olive oil

salt to taste

Parlsey (I used dried) about a tablespoon – but cilantro would work too

If you have some – capers (I didn’t have these) if you do add them omit other salt

All you do is throw it all into the food processor and process until smooth- ish. It is super yummy on toasted (stale) pita (and would work on non stale items too).

Kidney Bean Dip Ingredients and Directions

1 can kidney beans drained (I had dried so had soaked overnight and boiled for ages until soft… let cool)

olive oil – 1.5 tsp

1 clove garlic (or two if you live alone – I mean who are you going to go see right now anyways?)

around a tsp ground cumin (if you like it – you can omit this too if you like)

lime juice or lemon juice (around 1 tbsp)

salt to taste

1-2 tsp water depending on desired thickness

Same directions as the Olive tampenade above – through it all in a food processor and blend until smooth – serve on toast or pita (stale toasted pita is my go to)

Kidney bean dip
it actually tastes better than it looks in this picture!

So that is my edition of this week’s quarantine cuisine – clean out your cupboards and fridge and give olive tampenade and kidney bean dip a try!

(I actually made both of these twice before I ran out of ingredients… )