Green Olive and Seaweed Tapanade

Gutweed/Sea Greens (Ulva intestinalis) ready to be used in a Green Olive and Seaweed Tapanade

I still remember the first olive tapanade I ever had. Rich olive puree, decadently lathered onto toast. Years later I created my own seaweed tapanade for my book: Seaweed Foraging in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly in which I matched the seaweed Egg wrack (Ascophyllum nodosum) into a delicious blend of black olives, garlic and oil.

Since then I've discovered I can use smaller amounts of seaweeds and combine the ones I use. No longer do you need to get hold of one specific seaweed. You can be using a variety of seaweeds such as the three I use and mention below.

This is so easy and quick to make and you can tweak the recipe to suit, or just combine small amount of the seaweeds you have dried and ground. Give it a go, and let me know how you get on!

Green Olive and Seaweed Tapanade Recipe

An easy tapanade recipe with a few seaweed twists, adding depth of flavour, that umami hit and a nutrition boost.

Ingredients

125 g green olives (drained)
1 tbsp capers
1 garlic clove
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp ground bladder wrack (Fucus vesiculosus)
1 tsp ground gutweed (Ulva intestinalis)
1 tsp wireweed (Sargassum muticum)

Place all the ingredients in a food processor or blender and whizz until pulped. Put aside for at least a couple of hours for the flavours to infuse. Serve with fresh bread, on pizzas, mix into rice or spread on toast. Keeps well.