Air Fryer Feta Psiti Greek Baked Feta Hors d’oeuvre

Air Fryer Feta Psiti, Greek Baked Feta Cheese w/a Kalamata olives peppers onions oregano tapenade and cherry tomatoes is a perfect Keto Low Carb hors d’œuvrer, appetizer or side dish.

How do I love Greek food?

Let me count the ways! So much flavor and yum in Greek cuisine.

For a very long while, when I was working as a legal secretary, Ed packed me a Greek salad for lunch.

Every.single.day! I have had a love affair with feta for as long as I can remember.

 

There is a local grocery store in Reseda, California, which sells 10 more varieties of feta. I have tried them all and love some of them more than others. The Bulgarian feta turned out to be my favorite, as it was the strongest flavor and I loved the consistency.

My Air Fryer Feta Psiti, also known as “Greek Baked Feta,” is kind of like a warm Greek salad a top a warm chunk of Feta.

What Ingredients are in Feta Psiti?

• Feta – My favorite is Bulgarian Feta
• Cherry Tomatoes – make sure they are nice and firm
• Kalamata Olives – best to purchase them already pitted
• Fresh Garlic and Red Onion – the purple makes it so pretty
• Jalapeno Pepper or Green Pepper (depending on your personal spice profile preference) and Red Pepper
• Dried Oregano
• Sambal Oelek Ground Chili Paste – better than red pepper flakes!!!
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil

 

What is Tapenade?

• It is a finely chopped or crushed blend of olives and capers. Olive oil is added slowly, until the mixture becomes a paste.
• Tapenade comes from the Provencal word for capers and is enjoyed in the South of France.
• Tapenade is often eaten as an hors d’oeuvre on top of bread or crackers.
• In New Orleans, one of the components of the muffaletta sandwich is a tapenade. By the way, if you’ve never had a muffaletta, you don’t know what you are missing. The giardiniera (olive salad) is stuffed into a yummy round bread, similar to a  focaccia, but denser.
• A tapenade can also be enjoyed as an appetizer and my Air Fryer Feta Psiti is generally served as an appetizer. Since starting a low carb diet, we enjoy the Feta Psiti as an hors d’oeuvre or snack.

While the base ingredients for tapenade are capers and olives, I added other ingredients and omitted the capers. One might say this is not a proper tapenade, which it isn’t, but for purposes of this recipe, I’m adopting the word.

 

You must use a very good Extra Virgin Olive Oil. So many olive oils on the market now aren’t really authentic olive oil. Kassandrinos Olive Oil is a great olive oil and reasonably priced. Papa Vince Olive Oil Extra Virgin is really terrific, but a bit pricey, but, imo, worth the investment.

 

You can even stop at this point and eat the mixture as is. The aroma might make you grab a fork and dive right in. Seriously, make the tapenade for the Air Fryer Feta Psiti and toss it on a salad.

This is delicious in my Pressure Cooker Bruschetta Chicken with Zoodles recipe. The tapenade would easily replace the tomato mixture in the recipe.

 

Feta comes in square and rectangle shapes. It can be thick or thin. For this recipe, I use 8 ounces of feta.

You can use a thick 8 ounce piece or a thinner 8 ounce piece. You can even cut a thick 8 ounce piece in half (like you would butterfly a chicken breast) to make two 4 ounce thinner blocks.

Because I wanted to save half for the next day, I “butterflied” my 8 ounce piece of cheese and used a smaller loaf pan in my Ultrean 8.5 Quart Air Fryer..

 

My Air Fryer Feta Psiti can also be made into a dip, by first crumpling the feta and mixing in the veggies. During baking, the feta will become softer and creamy. That is perfect if you plan to serve crackers, pita chips or a dipping agent like celery, I guess.

Ed and I prefer to leave the feta in a block and then cut it into little cubes after it is cooled a bit.

Actually, I think I got into the habit of cutting feta into small bite sized cubes because one of my close friends, Spiro does that. When I lived in Tarzana (yes, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ California Ranch), I spent a lot of time with him, (Spiro, not Tarzan) and he always had a block of feta with a meal, which was cut into cubes. It’s very customary in Greece to have a block on the table at most meals.

This size pan is perfect for a rectangle feta. You can even use a larger pan and put two blocks, side by side.

 

Tips and Tricks.

1. Mince the Kalamata Olives well.
2. The peppers and jalapeno should be minced about the same size and a bit bigger than the minced olives.
3. Slice the onion thin and then rough chop. There is lots of water in onion, so when it cooks, it will shrink down and match the size of the other veggies.
4. Use a high quality extra virgin olive oil like Kassandrinos Olive Oil is a great olive oil and reasonably priced. Papa Vince Olive Oil Extra Virgin.
5. Use very firm cherry tomatoes and slice them in half.

Now, I must say that this recipe is loved by Ed. If you have been following my blog and/or my This Old Gal Private Facebook Group, you will know that Ed is very, very picky.

He often won’t taste my creations. In fact, if he doesn’t like a particular food, he won’t taste a recipe containing that food, even is said recipe changes the taste of that food into something yummy. I’m thinking about my Pressure Cooker Cheesy Cauliflower Soup. He does not like cauliflower. I don’t like it steamed. But, in soups and in mashes, to me, it is a whole other animal and I love it.

He is not a fan of cherry tomatoes or Kalamata Olives. For some reason, which shocked the heck out of me, he tasted my Air Fryer Feta Psiti recipe. Then he continued to eat and eat. It made me so happy, you have no idea. So, the moral of the story is, that even if you don’t love Kalamata Olives, try them in this recipe. I cannot imagine this recipe using green or black olives. I just can’t.

 

I use the Ultrean 8.5 Quart Air Fryer. If you want one like mine, click this link Ultrean 8.5 Quart Air Fryer to buy one for yourself.

The Air Fryer Feta Psiti cooks up quickly. Feel free to leave the Psiti in the Air Fryer after it turns off to keep it warm until ready to serve.

 

At this point, you can smash the cheese. Or simple place it on a plate.

Make sure to pour the oil over the veggies too.

 

This recipe can be served for company for hors d’oeuvre. It’s also great, placed right on the table to pass around during dinner. As an appetizer, enjoy it before dinner.

More Yummy Hors d’oeuvres and Appetizers.

• Low Carb Pasta de Bocaditos Jamón {Cuban Ham Spread}
• Homemade Pressure Cooker Gefilte Fish {Jewish Fish Balls}
• This Old Gal’s Simple Guacamole Recipe
• Air Fryer Bacon Wrapped Chicken Jalapeño Poppers
• Air Fryer Hamburger Hamlet’s Zucchini Zircles

Kitchen Equipment and Essentials

• Ultrean 8.5 Quart Air Fryer
• J.A. Henckels Classic 8 inch Chef’s Knife
• Amco Advanced Performance 18/10 Stainless Steel Measuring Spoons
• Simply Gourmet (Dry) Stainless Steel Measuring Cups
• Cilio Olivewood Spatula
• di Oro Living Silicone Spatulas Set
• Sambal Oelek Ground Chili Paste
• Kassandrinos Olive Oil
• Small Loaf Pan

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