Diane Kochilas’ Grilled Greek olives recipe is a great way to dress up a bowl of olives with ingredients you probably already have on hand. The addition of orange wedges, garlic and herbs make the dish special, while taking only minutes to prepare.
Diane Kochilas is the author of over 10 cookbooks, cooking school owner, a celebrity chef, and TV cooking show host. She specializes in cuisine from her own heritage; wonderful, fresh Greek and Mediterranean cuisine. Her new travel-cooking TV series, My Greek Table, debuted in October 2017, and has thus far filmed 13 episodes. Each beautifully filmed segment takes you to new locations and shows you how to prepare a myriad of new recipes.
Find out when her new show airs in your area here.
Kalí órexi!
Grilled Greek Olives Recipe with Orange Wedges, Garlic and Herbs
Makes 4 to 6 meze servings.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 small orange, preferably organic
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin Greek olive oil
- 2 cups Kalamata or wrinkled black Greek olives, preferably either Thassos or Halkidiki
- 1 large garlic clove, peeled and cut into very thin slivers
- 1 scant teaspoon dried Greek oregano or 2 teaspoons fresh chopped oregano leaves
Instructions:
- Keep the peel on the orange and cut into 3 wedges. Cut each wedge into small triangular slices, about 1/8-inch thick.
- In a heavy flat skillet or stovetop grill pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the olives and orange wedges to the pan and shake back and forth to combine.
- Stir in the garlic. Continue to shake the pan back and forth or to gently stir the contents for about 5 minutes, until the olives are warmed through, the garlic soft and shiny, and the orange slices slightly wilted. Stir in the oregano and transfer to a bowl. Serve.
Diane Kochilas shares this about her recipe:
Olives and oranges are a natural combination in Greece. Indeed, many olive groves grow in close proximity to orange groves, and that’s certainly the case in the Peloponnese, where both “fruits” are important agricultural products.
I am always looking for ways to make simple dishes that can be used in a variety of ways, and this easy meze is a great example. It’s perfect on its own as a snack, or spooned over toasted or grilled bread, as for bruschetta. But I also like to use it as a topping for grilled or pan-seared chicken breast and for certain types of fish, from salmon to cod.
I like to use either Kalamata olives, which are very easy to find in the U.S. or the slightly more “leathery” but delicious in texture wrinkled black olives, which have a higher oil content and work great with the acidity of the oranges.
Perhaps more than anything else, though, what I love most about this recipe is its innate elegance and utter simplicity. You don’t need a high skill level in the kitchen to make it, yet it will make you look good to a table full of dinner guests!
Diane Kochilas. Photo by Christopher Bierlein
For More:
- Diane Kochilas’ site, www.dianekochilas.com, shares more about her work, her books, and her new cooking program, which debuted October 2017.
- Diane Kochilas’ cookbook, St. Martin’s Press, The Food and Wine of Greece
