Fried olives stuffed with vegan feta cheese

Stuffed and breaded olives with vegan dipping sauce.

5 from 5 votes

Fried olives stuffed with vegan feta cheese

Crispy on the outside, briny & cheese-filled on the inside... These fried olives will make you want to pop one into your mouth right after another.

They are hand-filled with vegan feta cheese. Or you can use store-bought stuffed olives to save time. Look for more ideas in the blog post or notes section of this recipe box!

Makes about 30 fried Castelvetrano olives (If you're using a smaller olive, like Spanish olives, you'll likely use more than 30)

Prep Time25

Cook Time5

Total Time30

Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: Mediterranean, Vegan

Keyword: finger food, party food

Servings: people

Calories: 194kcal

Author: Cadry Nelson

Ingredients

1 cup olives pitted or stuffed
¼ cup vegan feta cheese optional
6 Tablespoons all purpose flour divided
Pinch of salt
6 Tablespoons water
½ cup panko bread crumbs
½ teaspoon granulated onion
½ teaspoon dried oregano
Avocado oil or other neutral-flavored high heat oil

Instructions

For the breading to stick to the olives, you want to make sure they're completely dry. Remove the olives from the jar and put them onto a clean kitchen towel to dry them fully.
Now you can fill your pitted olives. (If you're using stuffed olives, skip this step.) Use your fingers to press vegan feta cheese into each pitted olive. Then smooth the top of the olive so that it's flush with the opening. Continue until all of the olives are filled.
Set up a breading station. On one plate, put two Tablespoons of flour. Set it aside.
Then in a bowl, combine the remaining 4 Tablespoons (¼ cup) of flour with ¼ cup of water. You want it to be the consistency of pancake batter. Put in the last two Tablespoons of water one at a time until the right consistency is reached. If it's still too thick, add a splash more.
On a third plate, put the panko bread crumbs, granulated onion, oregano, and a pinch of salt.
Now it's time to bread the olives. As you're breading them, it helps if you use one hand for wet ingredients and one hand for dry ingredients.
Put the stuffed olives onto the first plate with flour. Roll them around to cover all sides.
Then dip each olive into the batter, coating all sides. You don't want an excess of batter. So tap each olive on the side of the bowl to get rid of any extra.
(As you're dipping the olives into the wet batter, if it becomes too thick because of the flour from the olives, add a splash more of water. Then combine with a fork until smooth.)
Finally, roll each olive in the panko bread crumb mixture until each one is coated on all sides.
Bring a large non-stick skillet to a medium high heat with a shallow layer of oil. Drop a bread crumb into the oil. If the oil immediately sizzles around it, the oil is ready.
Put the breaded olives into the oil. Don't move the olives for a minute or two, so that they can fully brown on one side. Once they're brown, move them with a spatula to another side. Continue until the olives are pretty much evenly browned all over. In total, it will take about 5 minutes to fry the olives.
Move the olives to a towel lined plate to drain. (You can use a clean kitchen towel or paper towels.)
Serve the olives on their own as an appetizer, or serve them with a dipping sauce like lemon garlic aioli, cashew dressing, or vegan blue cheese dressing. (There are links to the aioli/dressing recipes in the notes section.)

Notes

My favorite olives for this recipe are Castelvetrano. They're nice and big, which makes them easy to stuff. However, feel free to use the olive of your choice.

You can fill the olives with vegan feta cheese. <-- Recipe here. Or you can use shredded non-dairy cheese. Cheddar, pepper jack, and mozzarella are all good options.

(If you're feeling lazy, just the cheese stuffed olives are terrific on their own without breading!)

Keep in mind that the shredded cheeses are melty when hot, unlike vegan feta. So the vegan feta stays in place even when hot, but the shredded cheese may ooze out of the olives a little.

If you'd rather use prepared stuffed olives instead, there are lots of vegan options including ones stuffed with pimentos, garlic, almonds, red peppers, and jalapeños. You can use any of those prepared options, or you can make this recipe with pitted olives and no filling. Obviously, you won't want to use olives with pits for this recipe.

You may have enough extra breading/batter for an additional ¼ to ½ cup of olives.

Dipping sauce ideas: The olives are great on their own and don't necessarily need a dipping sauce. But if you'd like, they go well with lemon garlic aioli, cashew salad dressing, or vegan blue cheese dressing.

Air fryer directions: If you'd prefer, these fried olives can be made in the air fryer. Bread the olives as written in in the instructions. Then instead of frying in oil in a skillet, move them to an air fryer basket.

Spritz the olives with oil. Air fry at 400 degrees for 6 minutes, stopping a couple of times to shake the basket & spritz them with oil again for better browning.

Keep in mind that the air fried olives will likely not be as brown as ones fried in oil. However, they're still delicious.

Reheating in the air fryer: If you have leftover fried olives (or if you prefer to make them ahead of time), they reheat beautifully in the air fryer. Reheat at 400 degrees for 3 minutes.

Nutrition