Delicious Cranberry Balsamic Marinated Olives

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These Cranberry Balsamic Marinated olives are a delicious Mediterranean diet-inspired treat for the holidays or anytime you want an indulgent snack!

Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner, but eating healthy for the holidays can be challenging.  Many traditional holiday recipes have lots of unhealthy fats and sugar.  While it is okay to indulge a little bit during the holidays, I don’t want my family to go overboard with the calories, so I am working on a few healthy holiday recipes that fit in with my Mediterranean Diet way of eating (WOE). 

These Cranberry Balsamic Marinated Olives are a healthy and delicious choice for holiday appetizers, snacking, or relish tray.  Serve on a charcuterie tray with some Mediterranean cheeses, fresh vegetables, and whole-grain bread for an elegant vegetarian treat!

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Why Olives?

The olives in this Cranberry Balsamic Marinated Olives are chock full of healthy oleic fat, Vitamin E, and antioxidants. Olives are heart-healthy, help improve circulation, and help maintain good cholesterol.  The marinade also includes healthy ingredients includes virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, and fresh spices.  I use a touch of honey, a natural sweetener, to add a sweet and tangy flavor to the olives, but you can leave out the honey if you choose. 

Key Ingredients

Olives:  Use fresh Spanish, Greek, French, and Italian olives if you can.  My local grocery has an olive bar, so I load up on several kinds of olives to add a nice variety to my mix.   My favorite olives to use in this dish are a mix of Kalamata (Greek), Cerignola (Italy), Picholine (French), Gordal (Spanish), Liguria (Italian), Amfissa (Greek), and Manzanilla (Spanish). 

Olive Oil:  Use extra virgin olive oil to get the best health benefits.  

Honey:  The honey balances the savory spices in the marinade but you can leave the honey out if you want a more tart taste. 

Balsamic Vinegar:  Go for aged and use the good stuff.  Balsamic vinegar is one of the key flavors in this dish, so you want it to taste excellent. 

Dried Cranberries:  Use dried cranberries.  A note about the dried cranberries:  Traditional packaged dried cranberries have a lot of added sugar in them, so if you are on a reduced sugar diet, dry your own cranberries, get dried cranberries with half the sweetener, or use unsweetened dried cherries, which are less tart and have more natural sugar in them.    

Garlic:  Olives and garlic go together like peas and carrots and garlic adds a nice zest to the marinating of these olives.  

Rosemary:  Try to use fresh if you can. 

Fennel Seed:  Fennel seed brightens up the marinade, blending well with the rosemary and orange zest.  

Orange Zest:  The orange zest adds a refreshingly pleasant hint of citrus to the olives without overwhelming the dish.  

Looking for another delicious holiday Mediterranean Diet recipe?  Try this Four Bean Salad or this Mediterranean Fruit Salad! 

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