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:
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Super quick and easy to make – you probably have everything you need to make them right now;
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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);
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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;
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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:
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Baking soda (aka bi-carb) can be substituted with more baking powder (baking soda is basically baking powder on steroids);
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Flour can be white or wholemeal;
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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!
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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.
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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!
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Whisk dry ingredients
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Whisk wet ingredients
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Add wet into dry ingredients
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Mix 8 times or less (excess mixing = tough cannonballs instead of soft fluffy muffins)
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Fold through 2 1/2 cups Add Ins of choice – I’ve used olives, sun dried tomatoes, roasted peppers (capsicum), feta and green onions.
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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:
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diced, sautéed vegetables – zucchini, corn, carrot, onion, potato. Cook them in a little butter, garlic, salt and pepper until softened;
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roasted vegetables – pumpkin, sweet potato!
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grilled vegetables – leftover homemade Marinated Grilled Vegetables would be 100% amazing!
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cauliflower or broccoli, cooked then roughly diced;
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ham or cooked bacon, diced;
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other deli and cooked meats (diced or shredded);
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canned corn, asparagus, mushrooms or other vegetables;
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any antipasto type deli goods – canned, jarred, in oil or brine;
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flaked salmon, trout, tuna (fresh cooked or canned drained); and
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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!
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Impromptu gathering with friends – whether at mine, at a friends’ place, in a park, anywhere!
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Gift for personal and work purposes – ideal because they are almost as good as freshly made 3 days later;
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For a fundraiser – everybody makes sweet things, but I swear, savoury ones are more popular;
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As an alternative to a basket of warm bread rolls at dinner;
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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.
Amazing and delicious. I’ve made these with different add-in and wonderful. Thank you Nag, as usual, great recipes.
Hi, if i was to freeze them, can they go straight into the lunchbox once thawed in fridge overnight or does it need to be heated in the morning before packed in the lunchbox
Just delicious! Used some disappointing (oil free?!) sun dried tomatoes that were otherwise destined for the bin and 2 grated zucchini (fried both in butter as suggested) plus feta and they are truly morish.
Love this recipe! So easy to add whatever you have on hand and they’re always delicious!
Delicious
Oh whoops I forgot the 5 stars! 🤦🏼♀️😂😂
Great recipe!
Worked out perfectly. Family feedback was “probably the best biscuits ever, amazing texture”. I added grated zucchini, cheese, sun dried tomatoes and a little chili. Will make again, looking forward to experimenting with variations.
Fantastic, so tasty. Made as mini muffins cooked for 16 minutes and used local cold pressed Rapeseed oil and oregano leaving out the garlic. Loved by everyone. Great appetiser. Next try will be gluten free.
Amazing! I made them more like a breakfast muffin with fried bacon, sautéed capsicums and mushrooms, and blanched spinach. Delicious! The little feta morsels were a very nice compliment to everything else. Another wonderful hit Nagi!
Don’t know why it has taken me this long to make these little bombshells.
SOOOOO GOOD.
Thankyou Nagi xxx
Made these in mini muffin pans as an appt to take to a party and they were a hit! I forgot to chop garlic when I was preparing my ingredients so used garlic powder instead and added a little oregano. I was asked if they were pizza muffins as the mix ins were somewhat reminiscent of pizza toppings. Can’t wait to make them again and try some variations to get different flavour profiles. Maybe next time I’ll chop some pepperoni to actually make them pizza muffins.
Yummo! These muffins were absolutely delicious!
I have been making muffins for years and this is the best recipe that I’ve used. I made them in a texan muffin tray as I like large muffins, I cooked them slightly longer than the 25 mins in the recipe. I definitely will be making them again!
So yummy 1st try
great recipe I used left over roasted veg with garlic think extra virgin oil in them helped them not to stick Love the fact can make variations of this recipe Think I added too much Bicarb or baking soda for me but Fab recipe
These muffins are delicious and went down a treat for lunch warmed with a little butter yum!
Could you make them as mini muffins or do you think they’d be dry?
Paprika works a treat!
So Yummy! I couldn’t get them out of the tin in one piece thou 😩. Maybe I’ll try with muffin cases next time.
Hey Kara,
Silicon muffin/cupcake cases work well. If they stuck to the muffin pan, they’ll stick to muffin cases too. 😢. I’m guessing the muffins were a touch wet? Other than adding a touch more flour, it’s worth checking your add-ins. Experience has shown me “wet” or “fresh” ingredients can make veggie muffins too wet and stick to their pans. Eg. Pumpkin works best when baked as it dehydrates compared to other cooking methods. Corn is okay as long as not frozen (ice= extra moisture). Good luck next time!
Add crispy bacon, and use the rendered bacon fat instead of the oil for even more flavour!
Hi Nagi, in recipe it says 2 and a half cups of add ins. 2 cups of cheddar considered the add in? If so it makes the ads ins a lot more? Or is it 2 cups cheddar than 2 and a half cups of anything else?
I’ve saved this recipe a while ago and have been meaning to make it and today was the day. It is super easy to make! My only problem was that the muffins were stuck at the muffin tray even though Ihad brushed oil. I was devastated! But managed to get them out (in pieces) and they tasted delicious! Will definitely make them again!
This Recipe is just so tasty an moist The Best on ever