Olive: Ingredient of the week

Studies show olives are good for the heart, and may protect against osteoporosis and cancer (Courtesy)

Mzeituni is the Kiswahili name of the olive, a fruit with a hard pit and bitter flesh when unripe and brownish black when ripe.

In culinary terms, the olive is treated as a vegetable, eaten in savoury dishes or on their own as a snack or appetiser. They can be pickled when unripe and green. When ripe, they have a purplish-black colour and taste sweeter. With about 10 types of olives, you have olive oil for culinary, beauty and hair uses. From the olive tree, we get olive wood kitchen utensils and decorative items.