Green Olive Dip is a quick and easy recipe! An olive dip that is perfect for entertaining and best served with chips, crackers or pita chips. Using simple ingredients and taking only 5 minutes to make, it will get your party started the right way. This cream cheese green olive dip requires minimal effort and everyone will ask you for the recipe 😉.
Recipes like the Black Olive Dip, Kalamata Olive Dip and the Green Olive Tapenade are all about olives!
The Cream Cheese Pepper Jelly, Honey Walnut Cream Cheese and Honey Pecan Cream Cheese are super quick dips using a block of cream cheese.
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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:
- Fast recipe: if you need a quick dip recipe up your sleeve so that when friends or family drop in unexpectedly you can feed them then this is the recipe you are looking for.
- Simple ingredients: you will be able to get everything you need to make the recipe from your local grocery store.
- Budget friendly: this is a cost effective dip recipe that won't break the bank. Yes, you can purchase store bought olive dip, but it won't taste as good as the one you can make yourself 😉👍.
- Versatile: this cream cheese green olive dip recipe is versatile and lends itself to being served with a variety of pairings as well as at a number of events. Try it with pita chips, crackers, potato chips or spread on crostini.
- Use it for: parties, game days, picnics, a night on the couch, pot luck or anything and everything you can think of!
🥗 Ingredients
The photo below is to show you everything you need to make the 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 in the recipe for seasoning.
- Olive brine: this is simply the liquid in the jar of the olives. When you open them, use a sieve with jug underneath to collect this. Then measure the 2 tablespoons from the jug.
- Garlic powder: less intense than use garlic cloves or minced garlic, this dried garlic offers convenience and ease of use. It is a pantry staple that is always handy to have in the cupboard.
- Dried onion: you will find this in the herbs and spices aisle of the supermarket. It is labelled 'dried onion' and is small flakes of onion, not powdered form.
- Cream cheese: excellent to use for dips and coming with a wide range of products with different prices this soft, spreadable cheese pairs exceptionally well with the olives.
- Green olives: these are pimento stuffed olives. The ones that are green but have the little red bit in them.
Tasty 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 recipe. We start by preparing the olives. You will need a food processor for this initial step.
- Add olives (Photo 1)
- Blitz for 5 seconds (Photo 2)
- Add cream cheese (Photo 3)
- Add dried onion (Photo 4)
👩🍳 How to Make Green Olive Dip
To make the dip start by draining (no need to rinse) the olives and collecting the brine from the jar. Then add 2 cups of them to the bowl of a food processor and blitz to chop them up.
Next remove the lid of the food processor and add the cream cheese to the chopped olives, followed by the dried onion.
- Add garlic powder (Photo 5)
- Add olive brine (Photo 6)
- Then add the black pepper (Photo 7)
- Blitz to combine (Photo 8)
After adding the dried onion, you need to add the garlic powder, olive brine and black pepper to the mix. You can see this being done in the photos above.
Once all of the ingredients are in the food processor give it a pulse to combine, then use a spatula to scrape down the insides of the bowl. Blitz again and then use the spatula to transfer the dip to a small serving bowl.
🍽 Serving Suggestions
You are not limited when it comes to ways and ideas on how to serve this dip.
Pop it in a bowl and add a plate underneath it and spread chips around it like in the photo below.
Or if you want to go to a little more effort you can make some pita chips in the oven or air fryer and pop them on the plate.
You can see this combination in the photo below. It does take a little bit more time but is equally as nice as a pairing with the dip and offers a non chip with dip option.
👍 How to Guide
How to Store
You can store the dip in a bowl with cling wrap over the top or in an airtight container in the fridge. It can be kept for 3-4 days. When serving again, allow it to sit on the bench for a couple of minutes as it will firm up in the fridge and if you try and serve it straight away, people will break their chip in it (oh no! 😭).
How to Reheat
This dip is best served cold. There is no 'baking' of it involved and it won't need to be heated or reheated.
How to Freeze
This dip is not suitable to freeze.
You can however, as a means to be organise purchase and freeze the pita chips if you are going for that option and then thaw and bake them when ready to entertain if you want a solution to not having chips or crackers in the pantry.
😉 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 plain pitted green olives in place of the stuffed olives (pimento olives)
- But you can't use whole olives with the pit (seed) still in them.
- You can use this combination to make other types of olive dip for example black olives or kalamata olives.
- You can use onion powder in place of the dried onion if you wish too.
- It is not recommend to add salt to the recipe. Readers have provided feedback that the dip tastes best without it.
- You can serve the dip with pita bread, crostini or crackers. Chips work well but you have lots of other options too if looking for them.
💡 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:
- This recipe can be made in advance and stored in the fridge till needed 😉👌.
- The recipe makes about 1 cup of olive dip.
- The amount of olive brine in the jar will be more than is needed to make the dip. If you have leftover olives, you can pour the brine back into the jar with them or simply discard it after reserving the amount needed.
- The dried onion will save you time and tears but makes no compromise on flavours!
- We want to chop the olives up with the food processor, yet still have them have some texture. So only blitz for around 5 seconds.
- You can provide a small cheese knife or spoon when serving the dip so that people can 'scoop' the dip onto the chips or crackers. If you use really thin potato chips, they can easily break when being dipped.
🤓 Frequently Asked Questions
How do you use green olives?
Green Olives pack punches of taste and colour and are versatile with many serving options. You might like to try these ideas:
- Served with pita chips
- On a grazing platter
- For a cheese board
- With pasta
- Baked (roasted olives)
- As a pizza topping
- On a crudité platter
- For making tapenades
- In salads
- Paired with crostini
Is olive brine in an olive jar?
Olive brine (also known as olive juice) is the liquid in the jar that the olives come in.
What is pimento made of in olives?
The red pimento in pimento olives is a form of chilli pepper.
😍 More Easy Dip Recipes
Get your dip, dunk and spread on with easy recipes that work for entertaining or simply a night on the couch with wine and a cheese platter. Here are some more ideas to try:
- Corn Dip with Cream Cheese
- Ham Dip
- Corn Relish Dip
- Sun-dried Tomato Tapenade Recipe
- Cream Cheese Salsa Dip
- Artichoke Olive Tapenade
- Cream Cheese Bacon Dip
- Spinach Cob Loaf
It is time to get dipping my friend. You can also find all of my appetizer recipes or dips and spreads in the one spot.
Adrianne
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📖 Recipe
Green Olive Dip
Equipment
- 1 Food processor
- 1 Spatula
Ingredients
Green Olive Dip
- 2 cups green olives Note 1
- 250 grams/ 8 oz cream cheese at room temperature, Note 2
- 1 tablespoon dried onion
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 2 tbs olive brine Note 3
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Blitz: add olives to the food processor and blitz for 5 seconds to roughly chop.
- Combine: add cream cheese, dried onion, garlic powder, olive brine and black pepper to the chopped olives. Blitz for 5-10 seconds to combine. Then remove the food processor lid, use a spatula to push the ingredients down from the sides into the bowl and blitz again for 2 seconds.
- To serve: use a spatula to transfer the dip to a serving platter and serve with chips, crackers or pita chips.
Notes
- Note 1 - Green olives: you can use pitted (seeds removed) or stuffed green olives or a combination of both, but you need 2 cups. We drain the olives but keep the brine and use 2 tablespoons of that in the dip. I use a tall 450 gram jar of Spanish stuffed green olives. Or a larger jar, measure the amount needed, pour the brine back in and keep it in the fridge for other recipes.
- Note 2 Cream cheese: the reason we use room temperature cream cheese is that it is much softer and therefore quicker to blitz it. Straight from the fridge, it is a little too firm (achievable but not as super easy). So grab it out 1st and let it sit for a bit. You can also chop it up a bit so that you are not adding a full block of cream cheese to the food processor, rather a full block that has been chopped into pieces.
- Note 3: Olive brine: this is the liquid in the jar that the olives come in. It is also referred to as 'olive juice'. We only need 2 tablespoons. You can use a sieve and jug to collect this when draining the olives from the jar.
- Note: Recipe information: I published this recipe initially in 2020. Since then readers have indicated they prefer it without salt as it is salty enough. So in 2023, I remade the recipe, omitting the salt and have updated the post to reflect this change.
Nutrition
Recipe published October 2020, updated September 2023 with new images and a rewrite to omit salt from the recipe after reader feedback.
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Nikki says
I highly highly highly suggest you do not add salt to this recipe because it's so salty on its own... I made it without adding the salt and it's absolutely perfection 👌
Adrianne says
Thank-you Nikki for your feedback and the input regarding the salt in the recipe. I understand where you are coming from. I am happy to hear that you enjoyed the taste without the salt.