Savoury Muffins are cheesy muffins studded with Mediterranean flavours – olives, sun dried tomatoes, roasted peppers and feta! Because these stay fresh for several days, they’re ideal as a food gift, a school fete, lunchbox idea, and making ahead for afternoon tea with friends or to serve in place of bread rolls at dinner.
Brilliant base recipe to make your own – just add 2 1/2 cups of whatever you want into the batter!
Savoury Muffins
When I need to make something quickly, whether it be friends dropping by on short notice, to take somewhere or a last minute food gift, I turn to these muffins more than any other sweet treat recipe I’ve shared. Ever.
And why it’s taken this long for me to share this remains a mystery – to both you and me. 😂
The beauty of these muffins are that:
- Super quick and easy to make – you probably have everything you need to make them right now;
- They stay moist and fresh for 3 to 4 days (which you can’t say about most muffins which tend to be quite dry the next day, unless warmed up);
- Highly versatile – put in any bits and bobs in your fridge, or things you find in cans and jars in your pantry. Think: ham, bacon, fresh and canned vegetables, pickles, olives, canned corn, roasted peppers, capers, sun dried tomatoes, pickled onions;
- Everyone loves them. I’ve had friends give my Choc Chip Muffins a miss. Nobody passes on these savoury muffins!
That moment when you break open the warm cheesy muffin and bite into an olive mixed in with some feta…. SO GOOD!
What you need for savoury muffins
Here’s what you need to make savoury muffins.
A few notes on some of the items:
- Baking soda (aka bi-carb) can be substituted with more baking powder (baking soda is basically baking powder on steroids);
- Flour can be white or wholemeal;
- Add ins – use 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 cups of whatever you want. I’ve used feta, olives, sun dried tomatoes and roasted peppers because I have all those in my fridge, always! Think: diced vegetables (mmmm, garlic mushroom muffins anyone??), canned and jarred vegetables, antipasto type foods, and anything from the deli!
- Yogurt / sour cream – the sour element in these helps to activate the baking soda to give it a kick start so the muffins are lovely and soft with a tender crumb.
- No butter – butter adds flavour but oil makes baked goods moist. With all the flavour from the Add ins plus cheese, just using oil in the batter is fine!
How to make savoury muffins
No different to your favourite Blueberry and Chocolate Chip Muffins!
- Whisk dry ingredients
- Whisk wet ingredients
- Add wet into dry ingredients
- Mix 8 times or less (excess mixing = tough cannonballs instead of soft fluffy muffins)
- Fold through 2 1/2 cups Add Ins of choice – I’ve used olives, sun dried tomatoes, roasted peppers (capsicum), feta and green onions.
- Plonk into muffin tin then bake!
More ideas for add ins
The beauty of this recipe is that you can literally add almost anything (savoury!) into the muffins. Here’s a few ideas:
- diced, sautéed vegetables – zucchini, corn, carrot, onion, potato. Cook them in a little butter, garlic, salt and pepper until softened;
- roasted vegetables – pumpkin, sweet potato!
- grilled vegetables – leftover homemade Marinated Grilled Vegetables would be 100% amazing!
- cauliflower or broccoli, cooked then roughly diced;
- ham or cooked bacon, diced;
- other deli and cooked meats (diced or shredded);
- canned corn, asparagus, mushrooms or other vegetables;
- any antipasto type deli goods – canned, jarred, in oil or brine;
- flaked salmon, trout, tuna (fresh cooked or canned drained); and
- leftover cooked meats.
I’m sure I’m missing some other obvious suggestions – if I am, leave them in the comments section below and I’ll update the recipe!
When to make these savoury muffins
Thinking back over the past 3 months, here are all the occasions for which I have made these muffins – and it’s a fair few times because they’re really handy being they are quick to make and stay fresh!
- Impromptu gathering with friends – whether at mine, at a friends’ place, in a park, anywhere!
- Gift for personal and work purposes – ideal because they are almost as good as freshly made 3 days later;
- For a fundraiser – everybody makes sweet things, but I swear, savoury ones are more popular;
- As an alternative to a basket of warm bread rolls at dinner;
- And the most frequent reason I make them? Speaking really frankly – when I’m trying to get or stay in someone’s good graces. 😂 I find these Savoury Muffins are highly effective for this purpose!
– Nagi x
PS Other things that I make for similar reasons (again, because they stay fresh for ages and are made in individual portions) include: caramel popcorn (bag them separately), brownies (wrap each one with paper and twine) or gluten free brownies, cornbread muffins and apple muffins. ❤️
Watch how to make it
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Mediterranean Savoury Muffins
Ingredients
- Butter or oil spray , for greasing
Add Ins:
- 2 cups (200g) cheddar cheese , shredded (or other cheese)
- 75g / 2.5oz feta , crumbled*
- 1/2 cup green olives slices *
- 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes strips *
- 1/2 cup roasted peppers *, drained and chopped (capsicum)
- 1/2 cup green onions *, sliced
Dry Ingredients:
- 2 cups (300g) flour (plain / all purpose flour)
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda / bi-carb soda (sub 1 1/2 tsp baking powder)
- 1/2 tsp salt
Wet ingredients:
- 1 egg (large, about 60g / 2 oz)
- 1 cup (250 ml) milk (full or low fat)
- 1/4 cup (60g) sour cream or plain yoghurt (Note 1)
- 1/4 cup (60ml) vegetable oil (or any plain flavoured oil)
- 1 garlic clove , minced
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F (160°C/320°F fan).
- Brush a 12 hole standard muffin tin generously with butter
- Whisk Dry ingredients in a bowl.
- Whisk Wet ingredients in a separate bowl.
- Pour Wet into the Dry ingredients bowl. Mix 8 times.
- Add cheese, feta, sun dried tomato, capsicum, olives and green onion. Mix as few times as possible just to incorporate remaining bits of flour - no more than 7 big stirs (secret to soft muffs).
- Divide between 12 holes in muffin in (I use an ice cream scooper). Batter should be thick and fill muffin tin slightly mounded (see video)
- Bake for 25 minutes or until the muffins are golden and crusty and spring back when touched in the centre.
- Cool for 10 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack. Serve warm for optimum experience!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Today – Yakitori Team Lunch.
Dozer – in position.
These are to die for. I ate them all myself in two days and now I have to go on a diet. I added the cheese, diced onion and kalamata olives – so delicious. Now I have to make them for my friend and my son and his wife and keep myself away until they have some.
Hi Nagi, thank you for sharing this AMAZING recipe! I was wondering can you make this in a loaf as well? And what temperature would you bake it at? Thank you so much!!
I never made any kind of muffins but sweet ones but I tried these last night. They are so good I could not wait for lunch today – I ate three for breakfast. I put in cheese, calamatta olives, chopped onion and two cloves of garlic. I could not taste the cheese but the overall flavor of these muffins was delicious and they rose nice and high, too, which I didn’t expect because I used wheat flour. Next time, though, I would put in slightly less olives and leave out the salt. Either the olives and/or the cheese was very salty so I didn’t need any extra.
Oh WOW! I love muffins and these are the first savoury ones I’ve made, and now they’re going to be my preferred muffin alongside your blueberry ones. Thanks for a great recipe as always Nagi!
Hi Nagi , I have Just tried your Mediterranean Muffins, I used Red and Yellow peppers , Ham, cheddar cheese , spring onions , Olives, Sundried tomatoes and Garlic . They were very nice but i found the peppers were a little over powering . I could hardly taste the cheese but was worried I i used to much the fat from the cheese may make the muffins to greasy . Maybe I should have used a different Cheese . Would would you suggest ?
Absolutely delicious! Added in some finely chopped dill and chives. Superb. thank you for sharing your recipes
Is there an alternate for egg?
Not one that I’ve tried for this recipe Deepa, sorry 🙂 N x
Is there any substitute for yoghurt and sourcream?
Recently discovered your site while looking for savoury muffin recipe. Love that you’ve done all the experimenting and offer so many great ideas for substitutions. Your enthusiasm is infectious and your recipes are so good.
This was fun and easy to make! I substituted with queso fresco instead of feta and about half whole wheat flour because I ran out of regular AP and it was still delicious. This is probably the 10th recipe I’ve learned to make on your site. Thanks for keeping us fed, Nagi. Happy holidays!
I swear I put 5 stars on my previous comment, 1 fell off!
Definitely worth 5 stars.
Thanks so much Robyn!! N x
Made these this morning to take to work for lunch. Oh yum, the moistest savoury muffins I have every made. Another one of Nagi’s recipes that will be a regular in our house. Next time I think I will add some spinach as well.
Can I use fresh tomatoes (not dried)? My son is a fiend for tomatoes and I’m looking for something easy to pop in a lunch box for him.
I’d like to start by saying I’ve made many of your recipes and they have NEVER let me down— not once! This one was no different. It was everything I wanted in a savoury muffin and more.
I used sautéed onions/potato/capsicum, haloumi, feta, and olives.
Thank you so much for your recipes, the detail and effort you put in doesn’t go unnoticed. I especially love that you include substitutes, as it gives us flexibility.
Thank you again!
Woah what a great compliment, thanks so much N, I truly appreciate it! N x
Just finished making these. I used olives, chopped raw, capsicum, roasted capsicum, pan fried spring onion and bacon bits, lactose free cheese and garlic. They cooked well, tasted yummy. Next time I might add a little parmesan. 🙂
Oh no just made these and forgot to add in oil 🙁 but i did add bacon fat so see how they come out!
Eeek – I hope they turn out ok!! N x
Love this recipe so many different ways to switch it up. I only had the stuffed olives with Jalapeños and they worked out great gave a little heat.
Great recipe. So moist! Made them with two types of olives plus fetta and they were delicious. I think this is going to be a great base muffin recipe for me. I’m going to try the blueberry muffins next and I’m sure they’ll be great too.