Marinated green olives with almonds: simply delicious

This time, waiting for friends – pickled green olives. It’s true that both olives and raisins are full-fledged ingredients here, so calling the dish just pickled olives would be completely inaccurate!

There is so much here: crunchy almonds colored bright yellow with turmeric, spicy sweet soaked in spices and honey sultana raisins and pleasantly salty green olives. Orange and lemon peels add a nice aroma, fennel seeds add spiciness, and a light acidity balances everything perfectly.

Similar snacks are provided by Spain tapas in bars – they are especially suitable for an aperitif with a glass of Spanish vermouth. But you combine as you like!

Practical tips for preparation

• Almonds: Choose skinless, already blanched – these are easily found in stores
• Raisins: All kinds are suitable, but large Sultana it also looks very impressive on a plate.
• Olives: It is even tastier with a few different varieties of olives. Use pitted or unpitted olives, as you prefer. Pitted olives absorb the flavours more readily, while unpitted olives hold their shape and retain their natural saltiness, which pairs beautifully with the almonds and raisins.
• Citrus: Add the orange slices only if you know the snack will be eaten within a few days. If you plan to store it longer, use only the peels (without the white bitter layer).

Ingredients (in order of use):

• Extra virgin olive oil (Extra Virgin): 100 ml
• Almonds (skinless): 100 g (a little more is possible)
• Raisins (Sultana): 1 good handful or more
• Spices: fennel seeds, cayenne pepper, pinch of turmeric, fresh thyme, freshly ground black pepper
• Green olives: 1 jar (about 500 g, drain the liquid; you can mix several types)
• Citrus: 1 small orange (sliced), 1 orange peel, 1 lemon peel (coarsely chopped or grated)
• Honey: 1 tbsp
• Wine vinegar: 2 tbsp

Step-by-step cooking process:

1. Oil heating: Pour olive oil into a deep frying pan or frying pan and heat lightly over medium heat. Do not overheat – the oil must not smoke.
2. Almonds and spices: Add the almonds to the heated oil, sultana raisins, fennel seeds, cayenne pepper, turmeric, black pepper and thyme. Fry for a few minutes until the spices are fragrant and the turmeric turns the almonds a nice golden color.
3. Olives and citrus: Add drained green olives to the pan, add orange slices and lemon and orange peels. Coarse peels will look better, but grated ones are also suitable.
4. Balancing the taste: At the end, put a spoonful of honey and add a couple of spoons of wine vinegar.
5. Heating: Lightly heat everything over a low heat for about 10 minutes so that all the flavors combine and the olives are heated through.
6. Aging: Remove from heat and allow to cool completely. And the best thing is to leave it to stand overnight so that the flavors are perfectly combined!

Serve with fresh crusty bread or crackers.

And if you prefer black olives, here are my pickled ones recipe !

Delicious! 😋