I love butter and I don’t think I will ever eliminate it from my diet but being Greek, olive oil is in our daily cooking, used when children are baptized and used in Greek-Orthodox funerals. It’s big thing for Greeks.
We used it in our daily cooking and when I saw my friend, Chef Manolis Papoutsakis make this olive oil spread, I knew this would be a hit!
There’s zero butter in this recipe, the name refers to the look. Allow me some leeway in calling this whipped olive oil butter: this is much better than the margarines out there purporting to be olive oil spreads.
What we are doing is freezing olive oil (absolutely safe), whipping in a food processor with a little water and placing in serving bowls to smear right away on crusty bread.
This is delicious, a truly healthy alternative to butter and if you haven’t already – dump those tubs of margarine.
Whipped Olive Oil Butter
(makes 1 cup)
250 ml. extra virgin Greek olive oil
3-4 Tbsp. water
For serving
slices of warm grilled bread
sea salt
fresh ground pepper
dried Greek oregano
- Pour your olive oil into a 9″ x 9″ pan (1/4 inch thin layer) and place in the freezer for 2-3 hours just frozen.
- Use a metal spatula to scrape up the frozen olive oil and place in a food processor. Turn on high, add water one tablespoon at a time until olive oil is opaque and creamy.
- Transfer to serving bowl. If a little runny, place in the freezer for another 5-10 minutes.
- Grill slices of rustic bread, allow to cool to warm. Generously smear olive oil butter on bread, sprinkle with sea salt, ground pepper and dried Greek oregano and serve.
*Store in smaller serving bowls (say ramekins) as olive oil will warm up quickly in the warmer months).
**Store any unused olive oil butter in your freezer, take out 5 minutes before serving again.
***Make ahead, place in serving bowls and store in freezer until needed.
19 Responses
Peter, being a health-conscious health nut, I make this olive oil “butter” frequently. I sometimes add chopped kalamata olives and chopped/diced tomatoes on top with chiffonade of fresh basil or mint and a few crumbles of feta cheese…my “Greek” version of bruschetta. Tasty and satisfying, so you forget it’s healthy. Just finished my last batch for lunch with tuna, scrumptious
TIP: For summer heat in Tarpon Springs, Fl, I place frozen ice pack in zip lock bag, place it in bottom of bowl and place olive oil butter on top…stays perfect for awhile!!!
MAGNIFICANT recipe, as usual
Greattips, thank you!
Do you have to add the water? What does adding water do? I thought it might make the bread or toast soggy after spreading.
Dianne
It helps with freezing so yes.
How long does this keep for? And do you store it in the fridge?
Store in fridge, up to a 2 weeks.
Does it get runny in the fridge or does it stay solidified? Thanks
No.
can you put salt and/or garlic in while in the food processor to flavor it?
Sure, but I would rather toast/grill the bread, rub garlic on it then spread butter and sprinkle some salt.
Thank you sooo much!
Easy recipe.
Delicious!
Melted some on my green beans & sprinkled with almonds.
Spread it on half a toasyed whole grain sandwich thin for breakfast toast.
Just what my diet needed.
Thank you so much for this recipe! I have come to the realization that I can no longer eat butter without paying a price with my digestion. Getting older means adapting to bodily changes, sigh. Anyway, this recipe looks just right for my needs. I will be trying it in a few days. I can see many possibilities with this spread :)
Same! Can’t wait to try
I used waxed paper in an 8 x 8 pan which made it very easy to get the frozen oil out. I broke it in a few pieces to put on the food processor. I stored the extra butter in small, about 4 tbsp, containers in the freezer.
Can I mix with coconut oil, then whip it and use it a face cream? And if so, how long before it goes bad..should I store it in the fridge or as I would normal olive and coconut oil?
I have never tried. Why don’t you try and report back?
I looked everywhere to find out how to do this, thank you so much for this information!
Couple of questions and observations:
I don’t recall adding water to mine, I think I just did olive oil and salt (it was a couple of months ago). It froze up nicely and stayed firm in the fridge!
The salt was drifting to the bottom of the container so while it was freezing I would stir it every so often to try to mix it up. Seemed to work.
Both olive oil and salt can last forever, so the two mixed should be fine indefinitely in the fridge, I would think. If one adds other ingredients I would recommend using it sooner (unless it’s kept frozen).
Can anyone recommend a flavorful oil to substitute for EVOO? I love olive oil, but for my purposes of using it as a spread (to replace butter or margarine), I find the olive oil flavor is a bit too strong for many foods. Maybe “light” OO would help? In a perfect world I would have liked to have found something that sort of mimics butter flavor but I’ve searched often over the last couple of months and nothing seems to turn up.
Thanks!
I don’t think a light olive will work as there is usually another oil in there – causing issues with freezing. Find another olive oil more to your taste.
Hazelnut oil I often come across as an alternative flavoring in Italian cooking. Macadamia nut oil also has a slight buttery flavor as also sunflower oil. Awhile back, I glanced at a recipe for whipped almond butter which I’m going to try as a replacement for whipped cream. But no additional ingredients, which is why I’m glad I came across your post, so I know it’s possible.