Black Olive Dip is a quick and easy recipe to get your party started!! Perfect for entertaining this olive dip is simple to make, uses basic ingredients and will win over olive lovers and party goers. With a cream cheese and black olive combination it takes minimal effort to bring this dip together. This black olive dip with cream cheese can be served with pita chips or crackers for fuss free fun times.
Recipes like the Green Olive Dip, Kalamata Olive Dip and the Black Olive Tapenade are all about olives be they green, dark purple or black.
The Black Olive Pizza allows this special ingredient to work its own magic.
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🤍 Recipe Highlights
I have summarised everything that you will come to know and love (LOVE ❤) about the recipe in the points below:
- Easy: we make this dip by throwing all of the ingredients into the food processor and giving it a blitz to combine. This makes it super simple to bring together with the bare minimum of effort required.
- Simple ingredients: everything you need to make the recipe is easy to find at the local shops. The cream cheese will have the least shelf life, which is worth taking into consideration when purchasing ingredients in advance. It does however, usually have about a month from bringing it home to expiry date on the box.
- Versatile: this combination works as a dip or spread, so you can easily use it to get the party started or spread it on sandwiches or wraps for an easy full bodied selection.
- Taste and texture: there is the salty olives, the sweet cream cheese and the pairing of the remaining ingredients. Whilst basic, it ticks the flavorsome box with ease and delivers a dip with both taste and texture at the same time.
🥗 Ingredients
The photo below is to show you everything you need to make the black olive dip recipe. Please refer to the printable recipe card for specific ingredient measurements as well as detailed instructions.
As you can see the recipe calls for:
- Pepper: we use a little bit of black pepper for seasoning in the recipe. We don't however, want to use any salt as the olives are salty enough on their own.
- Olive brine: the olive brine or olive juice is simply the liquid in the jar that the olives came in. Instead of discarding this, we are going to add some of it to the cream cheese mixture for an extra level of flavor.
- Dried onion: this is dried onion flakes. It will be in the herbs and spices section of the supermarket. A little of this is enough to bring the flavor that we are looking for.
- Garlic powder: this is a soft powdered form of garlic. It will be in the herbs and spices section of the grocery store. It is important to note that this ingredient is different from garlic salt.
- Cream cheese: creamy, sweet and cheesy, this is an excellent ingredient to use in dip recipes. If you grab it out of the fridge as a starting point, it will be soft when we come to use it to make the dip.
- Black olives: we want to use store bought sliced black olives. These are easy as they already have the pit removed and we can simply throw them into the food processor.
Top Tip: I like to provide you with a number of substitutions and variations giving you an array of options when making my recipes. If in doubt of any of the above ingredients, or wanting alternatives, read this section (further below) before jumping into the instructions on how to make the recipe which are coming next 😉👌.
🍳 Instructions
Here are the step by step instructions to make the black olive dip recipe. We start by adding the ingredients to a food processor.
- Add the black olives (Photo 1)
- Add the cream cheese (Photo 2)
- Then add the dried onion (Photo 3)
- Next add the garlic powder (Photo 4)
👩🍳 How to Make Black Olive Dip
To make the dip, start by getting the food processor out and then adding the black olives to the bowl.
Next add the cream cheese, dried onion and garlic powder.
- Add the black pepper (Photo 5)
- Add the olive brine (Photo 6)
- Before blitzing will look like this (Photo 7)
- After blitzing will look like this (Photo 8)
Once your dip is combined, you can use a spatula to transfer it from the food processor into a serving bowl. Then get ready to party with your homemade olive dip!
🍽 Serving Suggestions
When it comes to serving your dip, Pita Chips, Crostini or Air Fryer Tortilla Chips are all good options.
You can even open a bag of crisps and throw them on the plate if you want to make life even easier.
👍 How to Guide
How to Store
Store leftover dip in a sealed, airtight container in the fridge. It can be kept for 2-3 days.
How to Freeze
It is not recommended to freeze this dip.
How to Reheat
This is a no bake dip that is best served cold.
😉 Substitutions and Variations
Here are my sub ins and outs that you might be thinking about as you read the post and I will tell you if I think they will work or why they won't:
- You can use whole pitted black olives in place of the sliced olives if you wish too.
- You can use onion powder in place of the dried onion if you would prefer too.
💡 Tasty Tips
Here are my top tips and tricks that I want to share with you so that you master the recipe from the get go:
- Blitz the olives to chop them up a little bit, however, keep the blitz short so that there is still some texture from chunks of the olives in the dip.
- If you are using whole pitted olives yet hear a banging when blitzing them, stop and check the food processor bowl. Sometimes an olive pit will end up in the jar despite them being pitted olives 😉👌.
- Scrape down the insides of the food processor using a spatula after the initial blitz. That way these bits get combined in the dip after a 2nd pulse or blitz.
- The spatula will also help you transfer the dip from the food processor to a serving bowl.
- You can make this dip the day ahead and store it in the fridge covered with plastic wrap. Then simply remove it the day you want to serve it, plate it and add crackers.
🤓 Frequently Asked Questions
What goes well with Black Olives?
Black olives pair very nicely with cream cheese to make an easy dip. They are also excellent to use to stir through pasta, as a pizza topping for charcuterie boards and more!
Can olives be eaten straight from the jar?
Yes, olives can be eaten straight from the jar. It is more common to do this with stuffed pimento olives than black or kalamata olives but each type are fine to eat from the jar.
Do I need to rinse olives before using them?
It is not necessary to rinse olives before using them. Doing so would wash away the salt brine that they came in and it is this olive juice that adds to the flavor of the olives.
😍 More Easy Dip Recipes
Party in style with an array of recipes to turn to that offer diversity through type of appetizer, dip, spread or cheese. Here are some more ideas to help:
- Bacon And Cheese Cob Loaf
- Roast Capsicum Dip
- Baked Brie with Garlic
- Artichoke Olive Tapenade
- Spicy Olive Tapenade
- Baked Brie With Red Pepper Jelly
- Cob Loaf Dip
- Sun-dried Tomato Tapenade Recipe
- Cranberry Jalapeno Dip
Or try the Grazing Platter or Crudité Platter if you are feeding a crowd. It is time to get our olive dip on my friend! You can also find all of my dips and spreads recipes in the one spot.
Adrianne
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📖 Recipe
Black Olive Dip
Ingredients
- 2 cups black olives sliced, Note1
- 250 grams/8 oz cream cheese room temperature, Note 2
- 2 tablespoon olive brine Note 3
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder Note 4
- 1 teaspoon dried onion Note 5
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Black olives: add the sliced black olives to the food processor bowl and blitz for 5 seconds to roughly chop.
- Combine: next add the cream cheese, garlic powder, dried onion, pepper and olive brine. Then blitz for 5 seconds, stop, remove the lid and scrape down the insides of the food processor, then put the lid back on and blitz for a further 5 seconds till all of the ingredients are consistency mixed in.
- To serve: transfer the combined dip into a serving bowl and place it in the centre of a platter. Then spread pita chips, crackers or chips around the base of the bowl and provide a cheese knife for serving.
Notes
- Note 1 Black olives: I buy a tall thin jar of olives that you can purchase at Aldi, Coles or Woolworths. Sliced Olives are good for this recipe as you know without doubt there will be no pits! Simply drain (don't rinse) and throw them into the food processor.
- Note 2 Cream cheese: this ingredient is is very thick and solid. When it comes out of the fridge it is quite firm. It will be much easier to work with (for any recipe) if you let it sit on the bench for a little while as it will naturally soften as it reaches room temperature.
- Note 3 Olive brine: the olives will be in their own brine (liquid), sometimes known as olive juice. We drain the olives and reserve some of this brine to add to our dip to ensure that it is packed with flavour!
- Note 4 Garlic powder: you will find this in the herbs and spices section of the supermarket. It is a very fine pale cream coloured powder (it is different to garlic salt).
- Note 5 - Dried onion: as above you will find this in the herbs and spices section of the supermarket. In a small package or jar. If you cannot find it, use you use onion powder (equivalent amount) in its place. However avoid using regular diced onion as it will be too much (ie omit instead).
Nutrition
Recipe published in November 2020. Updated in October 2023 with a rewrite offering you more tasty tips and omitting the salt from the recipe 😉👍.
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JoAnn says
In my part of the US (western NY), black olives are packed in cans with water.
Green olives come in glass jars with a salt, water, vinegar brine.
I'm trying to imagine brined black olives.
I've had black olive and cream cheese dip before, and it's quite good, though not salty.
Adrianne says
Ok thanks JoAnn. I have been doing more research into the products sold in the USA when I am publishing my recipes so I will keep your helpful tips in mind, thanks. We don't have olives in cans here, it sounds interesting and I will Google to have a visual, thanks. Yes the cheese and olives are a good combination, but sounds like no one like dips that are too salty. Thanks for your time and knowledge!!