This sundried tomato and feta savory quick bread is as easy to create as it is delicious to devour. Marrying the tart chewiness of sundried tomatoes and the salted creamy flavor of feta cheese (don't worry, there's also a dairy free version below), it’s a union that is bound to make your taste buds sing.
The information provided on this site is based on my personal experience living with alpha-gal syndrome. I consistently cite and link to expert sources, but nothing published on this site should be perceived as medical advice.
Alpha-gal sensitivities vary by person. You should understand your dietary restrictions, making any adjustments needed, and directing any questions to your physician.
With sundried tomatoes, tangy feta, and sweet fresh basil, this quick bead is packed with Mediterranean flavors. It pairs well with other ingredients typically found in Italian, Greek, North African, and similar foods. Serve it as part of an antipasto platter with alpha-gal safe cured meats, cheeses, and olives. Or serve slices of this sundried tomato and feta bread with your favorite Mediterranean-inspired chicken or fish dish. You can also use this bread to make croutons as a delicious garnish for tomato soup or to add a little crunch to your favorite salad.
In This Article
What is Quick Bread?
Quick bread is a broad category of bread that doesn’t use yeast. Instead, quick breads use other ingredients – like eggs, baking powder, and/or baking soda – to leaven the bread. Examples of quick bread include muffins, biscuits, cornbread, and quick loaf breads. As the name suggests, these breads are fast and easy to make because they don’t require the lengthy rising and proofing times associated with traditional yeast breads. Quick bread can be either sweet – like pumpkin bread, banana bread, and lemon loaf – or savory.
What is Savory Quick Bread?
Savory quick bread is a variation of quick bread that incorporates savory ingredients and flavors, as opposed to the sweet ingredients commonly found in recipes like blueberry muffins or orange-cranberry loaf. It can include a variety of ingredients, such as herbs, cheeses, vegetables, and meats. This sundried tomato and feta bread is a perfect example or a savory quick bread with the tart chewiness of sundried tomatoes and the salted creamy flavor of feta cheese
Benefits of Making Quick Bread
Quick bread has several benefits. First, it’s simple and fast to make, which is perfect for beginners and busy bakers alike. It’s also incredibly versatile. You can choose your own adventure by mixing and matching flavors and ingredients based on what you have on hand or what you’re craving. Lastly, homemade quick breads lack the preservatives and artificial additives often found in store-bought versions, making them a healthier choice.
How to Make a Quick Bread Recipe into Muffins
As a general rule, you can convert any quick bread loaf recipe into a dozen muffins. Instead of pouring the batter into a greased loaf pan, spoon it into the paper-lined cups of a muffin tin. Depending on the size of your muffins, the baking time will be shorter — typically about 20-25 minutes. Just make sure to check for doneness with a toothpick or cake tester to ensure they’re fully baked.
Is It Okay to Melt Butter in Quick Bread Recipes?
While it’s perfectly fine to melt butter in some quick bread recipes, it doesn’t work for all quick bread recipes. For example, most biscuit and scone recipes need cold butter cut into small pieces or grated (rather than melted) to ensure that the dough is the right consistency. And it’s that technique that works best for this sundried tomato and feta bread.
Key Ingredients and Substitutions
These are the key ingredients needed to whip up a loaf of sundried tomato and feta bread.
Buttermilk
The acidic nature of buttermilk adds moisture and a rich, tangy flavor to baked goods. It also helps break down the gluten in the flour, which is why buttermilk biscuits are always more tender than biscuits made with regular milk. For these reasons, it’s important to use buttermilk in this recipe.
If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can easily make your own. Pour one tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar into a one cup liquid measuring cup. Then add milk to the one cup line, stir, and let the mixture sit for ten minutes. The acidic liquid added to the milk will “sour” it into a buttermilk substitution. While whole milk works best for DIY buttermilk, low-fat milk and non-fat milk will also work. However, the quick bread likely won’t taste as moist or rich with lower-fat milks.
If you are an alpha gal who follows a dairy-free or vegan diet, you can make vegan buttermilk using lemon juice or white vinegar and one cup of soy milk.
Flour
Because I like to use a combination of all-purpose and whole-wheat flour when baking quick bread, this recipe uses both. However, you can easily use 100% all-purpose flour or gluten-free flour. I have not tested this recipe with almond flour.
Sugar
Because it’s a modest amount – just one tablespoon – you might be tempted to omit the granulated sugar from this recipe. However, it’s really important to add it to balance the salty and savory flavors of the other ingredients.
I use organic cane sugar that is both unrefined and vegan friendly. Using this ingredient helps ensure that the sugar hasn’t been processed with bone char, which can be an alpha-gal trigger. I have not tested this recipe with other sugars, like coconut sugar, but if you have regular success substituting granulated sugar for another sweetener, it will probably work here.
Basil
I’ve found that this recipe works best with fresh basil. Not only does it deliver the best flavor, but it also adds texture and interest to the bread. If you choose to substitute dried basil for fresh, use just one teaspoon as opposed to ¼ cup of chopped fresh.
Butter
Like buttermilk, butter (or a plant-based alternative) is an important ingredient in this quick bread. For the best results, cut cold butter into small pieces and then use a pastry blender or food processor to incorporate it into the dry ingredients. You can use margarine or vegan butter as desired to suit your taste and dietary needs.
Related Article: Dairy Free Baking: Proven Tips for Beginners
Feta
Crumbled feta gives this bread its creamy flavor. Use one cup in the batter and sprinkle another ½ cup on top just before baking. I always recommend that alpha gals choose vegetarian feta to reduce the chance of a reaction to the animal rennet used in some brands of feta. You can also easily substitute vegan feta in this recipe.
Sage Advice: Looking for other recipes featuring feta cheese? Try this delicious watermelon salad that pairs sweet melon with spicy arugula and creamy, tangy feta and tops it all with a lime cilantro vinaigrette.
Sun-Dried Tomatoes
To ensure that they add the right chewiness to the bread without drying it out, I recommend using oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes that have been drained. But if you have dry packaged sun dried tomatoes, you can reconstitute them by soaking them in olive oil for a few hours.
To Make This Savory Quick Bread Dairy-Free
For a dairy-free version of this savory feta bread, use these ingredients and then follow the same instructional steps in the regular recipe below:
- 1 cup vegan buttermilk
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup whole-wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
- 5 tablespoons unsalted vegan butter, cold and cubed
- 1 1/2 cups vegan feta cheese, crumbed (divided)
- 1/3 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
How to Store Leftovers
Once the bread has cooled completely, you can store it at room temperature for up to five days or in the refrigerator for up to one week. You can also freeze this bread for up to three months.
Sundried Tomato and Feta Savory Quick Bread
Ingredients
- 1 cup cold buttermilk
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup whole-wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup fresh basil chopped
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter cold and cubed
- 1 1/2 cups feta cheese, crumbed (divided)
- 1/3 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan with nonstick spray and set aside.
- Whisk the buttermilk and eggs together until combined.
- If using a food processor: Pulse the flours, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, salt, pepper, and chopped basil together. Add the cubed butter and pulse several times in the processor. Pour the mixture into a large bowl.
- If using a pastry cutter: In a large bowl, whisk the flours, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, salt, pepper, and chopped basil together. Add the cubed butter and cut into the dry ingredients with a pastry cutter until coarse crumbs form.
- Stir in one cup of feta cheese and the sun-dried tomatoes until combined.
- Add the buttermilk mixture and stir to combine. The batter will be thick, chunky, and sticky.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle with the remaining ½ cup of feta and sprinkle with additional fresh pepper.
- Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If you notice that the top of the loaf is browning quickly, tent a piece of aluminum foil over the loaf pan to help the bread bake more evenly.
- Cool bread in the pan on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes before slicing and serving.
My taste buds are indeed singing! This savory bread was so delicious. It was my first time baking with feta cheese and we really enjoyed it.
I’m so glad you liked them! While I’m able to enjoy dairy again (after two years of abstaining due to my alpha-gal allergy), we love that there are tasty feta cheese options out there. (Especially because I’m not a fan of most vegan cheeses.)
I love sun dried tomatoes, and the combination with feta cheese is truly delicious!
The combination of sun-dried tomatoes and feta is amazing. I’m going to try them as muffins next time and freeze half for later.
That sounds smart! Then you’ll have them at your fingertips when it’s soup season.
I am always down for savoury breads, they are filling, satisfying and totally worth having around, as anytime I am hungry I just take a piece and I am satisfied. Thanks for the lovely recipe.
This bread makes amazing croutons if you have any that’s getting a little dry.
This quick bread is fantastic. The tangy sun-dried tomato and feta combo is top-tier. And it is nice to have a quick bread recipe that isn’t super sweet!
I agree! While I definitely have a sweet tooth, savory is a welcome change from time to time.
This is a fabulous recipe! I was looking for savory quick breads and saw this and had to try it! I appreciated all your tips, too, because I’m not a confident baker. We all loved this bread, especially toasted with some butter on it! Yum!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it. When we have leftovers, we cube the bread and make croutons. Such a fun topping for salads or in soups.
These were the perfect brunch, I love the addition of feta! I’ll make it again.
I’m not really a baker but I just love sundried tomatoes so wanted to give the bread a go.
It came out so perfectly…it literally looked like yours, that never happens for me!
Thanks for a really thoughtful recipe that works for beginners!
I’m so glad it worked out so well for you!
This recipe and it was a delightful treat! The outcome was moist bread that is perfect for snacking or as a side dish. It’s now a favorite in my household and I can’t wait to make it again.
So glad your family loved it!
This savory quick bread is so tasty! I’m not a big fan of tomatoes, but the savory part makes it perfect!
A sundried tomato bread that wins over someone who isn’t a fan of tomatoes? Hooray!
Tomato & feta is such a dream combo! This quickbread was absolutely perfect as written, thank you so much!