Vegan MoFo: Mixed olive & walnut spread (O is for Olive)

Back when I thought I was going to make something fancy on Friday (ravioli, which turned into tapioca... it's... it's a long story, detailed in the previous post), I had planned to have today be a really simple and lazy day. And you know what? I decided to stay with that even though yesterday was a pretty lazy day too.

So for O? Well, it's Obvious! O is for Olives!



Are you an olive hater? I was for a long time. I think mostly because the olives I most frequently ran into were black olives on pizza. Black olives on pizza are a true curse if you don't like them... because after you pull them off, the pizza STILL TASTES LIKE OLIVES. Ugh ugh ugh. Hate. Still can't stand that kind of olive.

I had a boyfriend when I was younger who convinced me to try kalamata olives on pizza, and for that, I am thankful. Turns out I have really absolutely adored kalamatas from day one. From kalamatas, I moved on to trying green olives-- which I mostly love, though not canned-- and now I'm extremely fond of both. Hard to remember that I ever didn't like them... or, I guess, that I ever hadn't given them a real try.

Anyway, I made a very very simple olive-walnut spread with them. 1.75c mixed olives (I mixed kalamatas and my favorite, Castelvetranos) + 1/2c toasted walnuts + 1 tbsp dijon mustard + some fresh thyme + 1/4c olive oil. Puree. Sprinkle some walnuts on top. Eat!



Not the most beautiful thing in the world, but tasty. Something about it kept telling my brain that there was cheese in it. Really weird. Combination of the saltiness of the kalamatas and the butteriness of the Castelvetranos? I dunno. I liked it, though, and boy, was it filling.

We ate it with some sourdough baguette and celery for dipping, and some sliced asian pear for palate-cleansing.



The Emperor commandeered the plate of pear slices and ate almost all of them, which is too bad because they were great alongside this spread. Really nice contrast. He refused to try anything else. I was a little surprised by this-- I had set some whole kalamatas aside for him because I figured he wouldn't try the spread but then he wouldn't eat those either. Weird, but whatever.

Here he is climbing a tree: