This Mediterranean-inspired baked feta and tomatoes appetizer is roasted to perfection. With fresh herbs, olives, and a drizzle of olive oil, this dish is extra easy to make at home. Serve it alongside crackers or vegetable crudités.
Maybe its my minute sliver of Greek ancestry, but feta really does it for me. Throw a sprinkle of feta on pretty much anything and I’m happy. It just makes everything thaaat much better. And baked feta? My friends, you will be swooning over this creamy dishy.
Fresh feta cheese becomes gooey and melty and each bite gets paired with tasty roasted veggies like tomato, red pepper, shallot and herbs with a kalamata olive here and there. It’s basically what dreams are made of people! Well, weird foodie dreams at least.
This is one of my favorite easy appetizer recipes to make since it only takes about 10 minutes to prep, can be made in a advance and is always a crowd pleaser!
To make a baked appetizer recipe with feta like this, you’ll need real legit feta packed in water. That pre-crumbled kind just won’t suffice. This recipe is as easy as taking that big ol’ chunk of cheese, plunking it down in a baking dish, topping with goodies, and throwing it in the oven. That’s all there is to it really.
For the ultimate meal, serve it with my Mediterranean roasted eggplant salad as a side dish and Greek marinated chicken with herbs, yogurt and lemon as the main course.
Featured Review
Just finished devouring this and my wife said it’s the best thing she’s ever eaten. I recommend with a crispy toasted bread so you get the crunch with the creamy. Can’t wait to make this again and bring it to a party.
– Aaron
Ingredients
Everything you’ll need to make this baked feta recipe is shown in the image below. See the recipe card for a full list of ingredients.
One note – You can sub in dried oregano instead of fresh without sacrificing too much flavor, but please, for the love of god, use fresh parsley and basil!
How to Make Baked Feta with Tomatoes
This roasted feta and tomatoes recipe can be made in just a few simple steps:
- Preheat the oven to 400° F while you prep the veggies.
- Mix all ingredients other than feta together in a small bowl.
- Lay the block of feta down in a small rimmed baking dish. Use one that is oven safe but presentable to serve in since it will be hard to transfer to another dish. Add tomato mixture to top of feta, letting it spill over into the dish.
- Put it in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes until vegetables are roasted and feta has softened. Serve with crackers and/or vegetable crudités.
BONUS
Want to turn your roasted tomatoes and feta into a full meal? Transform this incredible baked feta appetizer into a 30-minute baked feta pasta. This version is SO much better than the viral one that was going around a few years ago since the red pepper and onion add crunch while the the herbs add olives add flavor.
Bake the feta in a large rimmed casserole dish dish (large so you can add the pasta later). Boil 8 ounces of spaghetti while the feta bakes and reserve about 1/2 cup of the pasta water before draining the noodles. Toss cooked pasta in with roasted feta and about 1/4 cup of the pasta water. Toss and add more water until it’s perfectly creamy. It’s my favorite way to do pasta right now!
Baked Feta Appetizer with Tomatoes with Olives
Equipment
- 1 Small rimmed baking dish
Ingredients
- 8 oz. block of feta fresh packed in water, drain and discard the water
- 1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 tsp. minced garlic
- 1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion you can use a shallot instead
- ¼ cup thinly sliced red pepper
- 1/3 cup Kalamata olives, pitted and halved
- 1 1/2 Tbsp. chopped parsley
- 1 Tbsp. chopped basil
- 1 tsp. chopped oregano or ½ tsp. dried
- ¼ tsp. black pepper, fresh cracked
- 1 Tbsp. olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400° F (205° C).
- Mix all ingredients other than feta together in a small bowl.
- Place block of feta into a small rimmed oven safe baking dish. Add tomato mixture to top of feta, letting it spill over into the dish.
- Bake for approximately 20 minutes until vegetables are roasted and feta has softened. Serve with crackers and/or vegetable crudités.
Video
Notes
- You can prepare this recipe a day in advance by chopping all of the vegetables and herbs tossing together and topping the feta. Cover and refrigerate until just before baking. Remove from the fridge and let it sit on the countertop while the oven heats up and then bake and serve.
- Toss with 8 oz. cooked pasta and 1/4-1/2 cup of reserved pasta water to turn the appetizer into a full meal.
Nutrition
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Comments & Reviews
Can I bake this in a crockpot? I’m taking this to a work event and they don’t have an oven.
I don’t think the crockpot would get hot enough to roast the veggies to the point that they’ll get a good char on them. That being said, it should be hot enough to melt the cheese! You could sauté the onion and pepper ahead of time before adding it to the crockpot OR you could just leave those out and add a few more cherry tomatoes to the pot. It would still have awesome flavor without them.
I just made this and served it over zoodles. It was amazing and a keeper.
Okay – that just went on my meal planning list for next week! Sounds like a great combo!
Just finished devouring this and my wife said it’s the best thing she’s ever eaten. I recommend with a crispy toasted bread so you get the crunch with the creamy. Can’t wait to make this again and bring it to a party.
I’m so thrilled you and your wife like it so much!!! Those roasted veggies really do it for me. Its heavenly!
I will be baking this at home and then taking it to someone’s house for an appetizer can I just reheat real quickly in the microwave when we get there?
You could and it will be okay, but it won’t be as good as fresh roasted. I’d recommend prepping everything before hand and then baking fresh there if you can!
This was absolutely delicious!!!
I just made it again last week too! Its so creamy and I’m glad you liked it too!
Does it refrigerate well?
You can definitely refrigerate and snack on the leftovers but it won’t be as creamy as it is when it’s warm.
Can this be a side dish, as well? Can I add green peppers, too? Thanks.
I don’t see why not – enjoy!
Risking the chance of being labelled unfoodie-like(!) – I have tried so very many times but I just cannot like sheep or goats’ milk in any form. I presume that I could use good old ‘fake feta’ as I always call the cows’ milk version as the texture can be almost exactly the same?
Of course you can! I’ve made it with cow feta plenty of times and it has been delicious. Slightly less creamy yes, but still worth it and extremely good.
Big hit! I used Bulgarian feta and extra olive oil. I served with crackers but next time will use pita or Italian bread. You’ll want to sop up all the delicious juices/oil! Definitely a keeper!
Isn’t it delicious? Wishing I had a big block of feta right now so I could make this one again!
Thanks for sharing! How far ahead of time can I make it?
You can do all of the prep work and assemble a day ahead of time but don’t bake it until just before serving. That way it will be warm and spreadable which is what makes it so good!
I can’t wait to try this recipe! I love onions but my family does not. Can I substitute oinion powder in place of raw onion?
Yeah sure! 🙂
So why put it in a dish inside of the baking dish? Why can’t you just place the block of Dey in dish and cover it with tomato mixture?
I’ve got news for you Debi – there’s no need to put the dish inside another separate dish! I baked mine directly in the white dish shown in the pictures.
But what is the “good stuff” for feta?
Basically blocks of feta backed in water will do the trick in a recipe like this, but the really “good stuff” in my opinion, is the imported fresh feta, usually from Eastern Europe. Its super fresh and instead of crumbling into dryer pieces, it smashes creamily between your fingers. I get mine at a local world foods market near my house but somewhere like Whole Foods usually has pretty similar quality. I’m not sure if this is what Anetta had in mind but I’m just jumping in here with my opinions since I’m not sure if she’ll see your message. This recipe is PERFECT for this time of year so I certainly hope you try it soon!
Thank you for answering. I will indeed make this soon.
I’ve actually found some pretty good feta from wisconsin lol. I think that the trick is making sure that it’s goats milk feta
Thanks so much for that info! Wisconsin is the mecca of cheese in America so I don’t doubt you have some good feta there. Good to know about the sheep / goat mix! 🙂
pardon me, what I meant to say was that the good feta is a combination of sheeps milk and goats milk.
I am completely and uncontrollably obsessed with feta. I’m not sure what part of Portland you’re in but there’s a World Foods store on Barbur Blvd. and another in the Pearl that has the best imported feta and all kinds of other international ingredients that can be hard to find. Its on my way home from work so I pretty much live in this store. Its almost embarrassing how often I’m there…