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.
Woohoo these are amazing Nagi, so juicy inside and a hit with everyone – even the sweet toothers! It’s so nice to have a change from sweet muffins once in a while, thank you x
Hey Nagi, these look delicious! I want to try them and have leftover buttermilk from your amazing red velvet recipe – can I use that to sub the sour cream? (I know you mentioned the sub was a buttermilk sub, so can I sub the sub?)
Thanks ahead of time x
Hi Jacqueline, yes you can use that as the sub is essentially buttermilk 🙂 N x
Made these today. Added jalapeño and salami as well. . Mixed the add ins in with the dry ingredients then added the wet. Less mixing. 5 stars. Best light moist fluffy muffins ever.
Just made these for the first time added chorizo divine! Love all your recipes easy to follow and the result is always tasty delicious food thanks Nagi!
Will this work with self raising /plain gluten free flour?
I used oat flour and they turned out great! But I used 5 eggs!
They’ll be slightly more dense Ines – N x
Just wondering if the 2 cups of cheddar cheese is seperate from the 2 1/4 – 2 1/2 cups of add ins?
Is it possible to make mini muffin versions of these and if so what would be the baking time?
Sure could Lake – I’d try cooking for 15 minutes or so 🙂 N x
Thanks Nagi! These savoury muffins are a treat. Very popular in our house. Thank you.
You’re so welcome Marisa! N x
My friends were raving about you’re recipes & they were right to! I chose this recipe to start off as I had all the ingredients in my fridge and YUM! I happened to have roasted some red capsicums the night before (because they’d become too soft for salads) so they made a yummy addition, plus olives, feta and spring onion – that was all that was needed!! Thank you Nagi, can’t wait to try your other recipes 🙂
ps – love recipes that use leftovers or random stuff from the fridge!!
Sounds perfect Stephanie!! N x
Isolation indulgence!
Love the recipe. I used feta, shallots, bacon, capsicum and sundried tomatoes. So moist and very difficult to social distance from. Just love these moist crunchy pieces of deliciousness.
Yes, so many fantastic options here!!! N x
These are in the oven right now!! The smell is heavenly, hurry up and finish. Late lunch coming up, thanks Nagi!!
I hope you love it Raelene! N x
Had to try, these looked so delicious. Love all your recipes; if you ever put out a book I would definitely buy it! I didn’t have enough milk so swapped milk/yogurt ratio 1C yog 1/4mlk worked brilliantly. Great recipe to have on hand. Thank you!
Love hearing this CP, that’s great to know!! N x
Just made these gems! Used feta, spinach, sundried tomatoes, onion and bacon. Absolutely delicious and thanks for the mixing tip, I think I usually over mix because these were so moist, yum!
YUM, sounds perfect TCawley!! N x
Hey ,the recipe sounds great …
But I am a vegeterian …don’t even eat eggs ..can it be done without egg.
Hi Varuna, sorry I haven’t tried with a vegan substitute but would love to know if it works! N x
These are total airy flavour bombs. Even fussy grandchildren approve.
Ta Nagi.
Hi Nagi can I use buttermilk instead of regular milk?
This was a fun recipe. My add-ins included ancho relish, olives, golden raisins and walnuts. I wish I would have added some black pepper, but otherwise tasty. Can’t wait to try other add-ins!
Oh my, these are hands down the most delicious muffins I’ve ever tried! Have made them so many times already and they never last more than 5 minutes in our household 😅 thank you so much!
Hi Nagi,
I’ve made these over and over and always turn out great. I occasionally add chopped, cooked bacon. Thanks for another useful recipe Nagi!
I liked the recipe but the inside stayed gooey. I’m not sure if that’s how it’s suppose to be. I cooked it 5exrea minutes. The taste was great though.
Hi Sidra, sounds like they still needed slightly longer in the oven to cook through – N x
Made these yesterday and added some of the leftover Xmas ham – delicious!
Perfect!!
Hi Nagi, I made these yesterday and they were lovely warmed up for breakfast. Thank you so much!