Warm Olives with Fennel and Citrus

Today has been a whirlwind at our house. I started cooking at 11 am and just finished cleaning up at 8:30 this evening. Every holiday I say I am not going to make so many dishes, and each holiday I do it again. Hopefully I will maintain my sanity this Christmas and make fewer dishes. Needless to say I am exhausted now and there is no way I am going to get everything from today posted this evening. I hope to get a few recipes posted tonight before I crash.

One of our appetizers tonight was warm olives with fennel and citrus. This dish was inspired by a Sicilian salad that contains olives, oranges and red pepper. Everyone serves olives cold, so I decided to heat them for a change. I like how the heat helped the olives to absorb the citrus juice. Here is what I did.

Warm Olives with Fennel and Citrus
Makes 6 appetizer servings

Ingredients:

1 cup olives
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 clementine, zested and juiced
1 pinch red pepper flakes

Directions:

Take the zest off the clementine in strips. Juice the clementine into a baking dish. Combine all the ingredients and stir. Bake at 325 degrees until heated through (20 minutes is more than enough). Serve warm.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 39.3
Calories From Fat (69%) - 27.14

Total Fat - 3.16g
Saturated Fat - 0.41g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 195.43mg
Potassium - 29.26mg
Total Carbohydrates - 3.03g
Fiber - 1.05g
Sugar - 1.13g
Protein - 0.31g

Comment:

The family is evenly split on olives. I happen to be one of members that love olives. They are something I could eat everyday, were it not for the sodium content. This flavor combination is a nice change. If you are looking for an olive recipe with more heat try this recipe, which includes lemon and harissa.

Unrelated note:

Everything at dinner tonight was well received in spite of the fact that it was healthy and vegan. A few dishes seemed to stand out as favorites. As I post those recipes I be certain to add family member reactions. And yes, I do take notes after dinner so I don't forget. I wouldn't want to misquote someone.

There may be a few less posts this weekend as I get our Christmas decorations up. Christmas is my favorite holiday and I like to go all out and decorate all three levels of our house. I like to get the decorating started right after Thanksgiving so tomorrow I will getting all decorations out to get the party started. I will get all the Thanksgiving recipes posted as soon as I can.