Botija Olives substitute

Best substitute

Kalamata olives

Use the same amount by weight, pitted; rinse for 30 seconds and pat dry as the botija olives you are replacing

Best for salsa de aceitunas for tallarines

Close match

In Peruvian cooking a botija olive is doing three jobs at once: salt, deep fermented savouriness, and a purple-black colour that turns an olive sauce grey-violet. Kalamata olives are the best swap at 1:1 by weight, rinsed briefly to knock back their vinegar. Beldi or oil-cured black olives at about three quarters the weight are the closest match for botija's soft, wrinkled intensity. Canned California black olives look right but taste of almost nothing, so use them only as a last resort and add salt and a spoonful of kalamata brine.

Other botija olives substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Beldi, Moroccan dry-cured or oil-cured black olives
Different taste
About ¾ the weight of the botija called for
Wrinkled, soft, salt-cured and very concentrated, which makes these the closest structural relative to a botija even though the flavour goes in a different direction.
What changes
Best for
olive sauce and olive pastes, stuffed potato dishes, anywhere botija is the dominant flavour
These are more bitter and leathery than botija, with a slightly smoky, dried-fruit intensity, and they are much saltier per olive, which is why you use less. The sauce comes out darker and a touch drier tasting, so add an extra tablespoon of oil or a spoonful of the pasta cooking water. Taste before salting anything else in the dish.
3Alfonso, Gaeta or other soft brine-cured purple olives
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
A middle path: brine-cured and soft like a botija, but milder, so nothing about the dish gets pushed too far in any direction.
What changes
Best for
escabeche, salads and cold platters, olive sauce for someone who dislikes strong olives
Softer and fruitier than kalamata, with less vinegar bite and less salt than a botija. The dish will taste gentler and rounder, so it needs a pinch of salt added separately, which botija would have supplied on its own. Colour is a good purple-brown and closer to botija than kalamata's red-purple.
4Nicoise or Taggiasca olives
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight, but expect to add ¼ teaspoon salt per half cup of olives
Small, soft, purple-brown olives with a clean, nutty, slightly herbal flavour, and a good option when you want the olive to sit in the background rather than take over.
What changes
Best for
escabeche de pollo, rice dishes, salads, olive garnish rather than olive sauce
Much milder and less salty than botija, so the fermented funk that makes a Peruvian olive sauce distinctive is largely absent and the dish tastes politely Mediterranean instead. They are also fiddly to pit for the volume an olive sauce needs. Best where the olives are visible pieces, not blended.
5Canned California black ripe olives plus salt and kalamata brine
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight, plus ¼ teaspoon fine salt and 1 teaspoon kalamata brine per half cup
The honest emergency option.
What changes
These are lye-processed, oxidised olives, not fermented ones, so they give you the right colour and the right soft bite and almost no flavour at all.
Best for
when the supermarket has nothing else, dishes where the olive is decoration, cooking for people who dislike strong olives
There is no getting around it: these taste faintly of tin and salt water and nothing like a botija. An olive sauce made from them is greyish, sweetish and flat. The salt and borrowed brine help, and a teaspoon of anchovy paste or half a teaspoon of capers per half cup adds back some of the savoury depth. If you have any other option on this list, take it.
6Black olive paste or tapenade
Taste and texture differ
2 tablespoons paste for ½ cup pitted botija olives
A shortcut worth knowing for olive sauce, since half the work in a salsa de aceitunas is pitting and blending, and a good paste has already done both.
What changes
Best for
salsa de aceitunas, quick pasta sauces, spreads and dips
Read the label first, because most tapenade already contains capers, anchovy, garlic and often lemon, all of which will show up in your sauce. That is fine for tallarines but wrong for a delicate causa. Start with less than you think and do not add salt until the end, since these pastes are usually very salty.

What is Botija Olives?

Botija Olives is Botija olives, sold in Peru as aceituna de botija or aceituna botija, are soft, wrinkled, purple-black olives from the Tacna and Ica valleys that are cured slowly in salt brine rather than treated with lye, which leaves them intensely salty, fruity and slightly winey.

Cooking tips

Botija olives are sold soft and wet, often still with pits, and they bruise into a paste easily. Squash each one flat with the side of a knife and the pit slides out in one motion, which is far faster than trying to cut around it for the cup or more that an olive sauce needs.
Taste your olives before you salt anything else. Botija and its closer stand-ins are salty enough to season a whole pasta sauce on their own, and the most common failure in salsa de aceitunas is a cook who salts the base first and only then adds the olives.
For salsa de aceitunas, blend the olives with a little evaporated milk or cream and a splash of oil rather than water. The fat carries the fermented flavour and stops the sauce from tasting harsh, and it also softens the grey-purple colour into something more appetising.
Botija brine is worth keeping. A tablespoon of it does more for a rice dish or an escabeche than another two olives would. The same trick works with the brine from a jar of kalamatas when you are substituting.
If you are jarring or pickling olives yourself rather than cooking with them, do not adjust the salt or acid in a tested recipe. Olive curing is a preserving process where the brine strength is doing the safety work, and the National Center for Home Food Preservation guidance is the right reference. Substituting olive varieties in a cooked dish is completely safe; substituting brine strength in a preserve is not.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just use regular canned black olives instead of botija?

You can, but understand what you are getting. Canned black ripe olives are cured with lye and oxygen rather than fermented in brine, so they are soft and correctly coloured but almost flavourless, with a faint metallic note. A botija is salty, fruity and slightly winey, and it is carrying most of the seasoning in dishes like causa rellena or salsa de aceitunas. If canned is all you have, add a quarter teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of brine from any jarred olive per half cup, plus a little anchovy paste for savoury depth.

Can I just leave the olives out?

In escabeche or a rice dish, yes, and the dish will simply be less salty and less interesting, so add a small pinch of salt to compensate. In causa rellena the olive is a garnish and its absence is only visual. In salsa de aceitunas, the olive is the sauce, and leaving it out means you have made a plain cream sauce, so use kalamatas.

What is the difference between botija olives and kalamata olives?

Both are soft, purple-black and brine-cured, which is why the swap works. Botija is fermented in plain salt brine over months and tastes deep, fruity, salty and faintly winey, with a wrinkled skin and a very soft flesh. Kalamata is cured with red wine vinegar, so it tastes sharper and more acidic, and it is a little firmer. Rinsing kalamatas for half a minute removes enough of that vinegar edge to close most of the gap.

Is botija olive paste the same as the whole olives?

It is the same olive, pitted and blended, and it is a perfectly good buy if your recipe blends them anyway. Use about two tablespoons of paste for every half cup of whole pitted olives. It is the wrong choice where the olive should stay in recognisable pieces, such as a causa or an escabeche, because it disappears into the dish.

Where can I buy botija olives outside Peru?

Peruvian and Latin American grocery shops sometimes carry them jarred or vacuum-packed, occasionally labelled Peruvian black olives, and online sellers stock the paste more reliably than the whole fruit. They are not a supermarket item anywhere outside Peru, which is why kalamata at 1:1 is the answer most people will actually use.

Related substitutes

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Botija Olives substitute

Other botija olives substitutes

2Beldi, Moroccan dry-cured or oil-cured black olives

3Alfonso, Gaeta or other soft brine-cured purple olives

4Nicoise or Taggiasca olives

5Canned California black ripe olives plus salt and kalamata brine

6Black olive paste or tapenade