Soup is back on my weekly menu, much to The Princess’s disgust. She remains a soup skeptic, yet can be pressed into eating it if something else is offered in addition to the bowl of soup. For chunkier style soups, a loaf of freshly baked bread will suffice. For simpler soups, such as carrot soup, a different approach is required. Which is where these Savoury Feta and Olive Muffins come in.
It pays to have at least one good savoury muffin recipe in your repertoire. Savoury muffins make a great grab-and-go breakfast, or an easy lunch. When The Princess was little, I would bake these as mini muffins and tuck a couple into her school lunchbox. Muffins bake much faster than bread, or even soda bread, and help turn a simple soup or salad into a meal.
I dislike the flavour of raw onion, and prefer to cook the onion before adding it to the muffin dough. If raw onion doesn’t bother you, or you want to save time, finely dice the onion and add it straight into the wet mix. You could also add a couple of tablespoons of caramelised onion in place of the cooked onion if you happen to have a jar in the fridge.
Feta and olive are a great classic combination, and work really well together in these muffins. You could substitute goat’s cheese for the feta if you prefer; they will be just as good.
Muffins freeze well, making it easy to defrost a few at a time to add to a meal. I prefer to reheat these muffins in the oven, as I find they become slightly tough if reheated in the microwave. However, they are still perfectly edible if time is not on your side and the microwave is your only option.
We are having soup again this week. Feta and olives are amongst The Princess’s favourite foods. Maybe if I stick an extra large muffin in front of her she won’t notice the soup. I can but try.
Savoury Feta and Olive Muffins
I like a little bite in theses muffins, but if you don't like the heat, use less cayenne pepper, or omit it completely and add more pepper.
Substitute caramelised onions for the chopped onion if you prefer.
Ingredients
Wet Mix
- 2 Tablespoons ghee
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- 150 g black Kalamata olives roughly chopped, 1 cup
- 250 g feta cheese crumbled
- 1 Tablespoon finely chopped parsley
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh thyme
- ¼ cup macadamia oil
- 2 eggs lightly beaten
- 1 ¼ cups full cream milk
Dry Mix
- 405 g spelt flour 3 cups
- 6 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ - 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Salt & pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200C (180C fan forced).
- Place muffin papers into a muffin tin and set aside.
- Melt the ghee in a small fry pan over a medium heat.
- Add the onion and cook for about 5 minutes, or until softened and starting to brown.
- Tip the onion into a large bowl.
- Reserve 1 Tablespoon of the chopped olives and the crumbled feta, and add the remainder of the ingredients for the wet mix to the onion.
- Stir to combine, then set aside.
- Measure the dry mix ingredients into a smaller bowl, and whisk to evenly distribute the baking powder and seasonings thorough the flour.
- Add the dry mix to the wet mix, and stir just until the ingredients combine. I find the best way to combine the ingredients is to gently cut the mixture with a large spatula.
- Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin tin.
- Sprinkle the reserved feta and olives over the top of the muffins.
- Bake for 25 -30 minutes, or until well risen and golden brown.
- Remove the muffins from the tin, and place on a cooling rack.
- Serve warm, or at room temperature.
How funny I posted something similar today too. Olives and feta are a great combo and savoury muffins are perfect to grab for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
I find that happens a lot Nancy. It’s like we are all on some sort of similar blogging wavelength 🙂 Feta and olives are so good together, aren’t they.
This would be great to have-they’d make an awesome standby lunch that you can keep in the freezer if needed. Love the sound of this flavour too! 😀
Thanks Lorraine. It is good to know I have a few stashed in the freezer when I am trying to find something for lunch. Can’t beat feta & olives (IMO) 🙂
These sound amazing. Perfect for serving with soup now the weather has cooled right down!
Yum, will be pinning these!!!
Thanks Claire. They are also pretty good on their own with perhaps a slab of butter 😉
Would it be disastrous to substitute olive oil for the ghee and nonfat mile for the full cream milk?
You can absolutely use olive oil instead of the ghee Melinda. I will amend the recipe to reflect that. Ghee is just my preferred cooking fat (although I use a lot of olive oil as well 😉 ) I also can’t see any problem subbing in low fat milk. Let me know if there was.