Kalamata Olive Dip

🤍 Recipe Highlights

I have summarised everything that you will come to know and love (LOVE ❤) about the recipe in the points below:

• Simple ingredients: you will be able to purchase everything you need to make the dip from your local grocery store. They are year round available ingredients that are easy to get your hands on.
• Quick and easy: the type of food that only takes minutes to bring together yet tastes delicious is the best food for parties. With only 5 minutes of your time you can whip up this dip and pop it on the table ready to be devoured.
• Versatile: this versatile dip is flexible and lends itself to a number of serving occasions. Be it a party, picnic, family gathering or Sunday brunch, it will work for all of these occasions and then some.
• Make ahead: you can make this dip the day before you want to use it and store it in the fridge with cling wrap. Meaning you only need to whip it out when it comes time to serve it. This is a great way to be organised when you have a lot of entertaining 'to-do's' on your mind.
• Taste and texture: olives and cream cheese are a winning combination any day of the week. Blitz them together, add some pita chips or crackers and you have yourself a kalamata olive spread home run.

🥗 Ingredients

The photo below is to show you everything you need to make the creamy kalamata 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:

• Olive brine: this is simply the liquid also known as olive juice that comes in the bottle or tin that your olives are packed it.
• Dried onion: these are dried onion flakes that you will find in the herbs and spices section of the supermarket where the cooking ingredients are.
• Garlic powder: soft and easy to use, we use this to season the cream cheese when making the dip. It is important to note the distinction that this is different to 'garlic salt'.
• Kalamata olives: these are maroon, purple coloured olives. We want to get pitted kalamata olives. Which simply means the olive pit has been taken out so we can throw them straight into the food processor bowl.
• Cream cheese: an excellent cheese to use in dips both hot and cold. This thick bright white cheese has a sweet taste and robust texture.

Tasty Tip: I like to provide you with a number of substitutions and variations giving you an array of options when making the recipe. 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 blitzing the olives.

• Add the olives to the food processor (Photo 1)
• Blitz for 5 seconds (Photo 2)
• Add the remaining ingredients (Photo 3)
• Blitz to combine (Photo 4)

👩‍🍳 How to Make Kalamata Olive Dip

To make the kalamata olive dip, start by adding the pitted olives to the bowl of a food processor.

Give them a rough blitz to chop for about 5 seconds. Then remove the lid and use a spatula to push the chopped olives back down into the base of the bowl.

Then add the cream cheese, dried onion, garlic powder and olive brine. Give them a blitz and then once again, remove the lid, push the ingredients back down into the bowl and then give them another quick blitz.

Once done, use the spatula to transfer the combined dip to a serving bowl, pop it on a plate and get ready to get your dip, dunk or dollop on 😉👍.

🍽 Serving Suggestions

Homemade Pita Chips, Crostini or Tortilla Chips are all good serving ideas when it comes to serving your dip. Or you can simply open a bag of potato chips and throw them onto a serving plate for a super quick and easy option. For a bread option, Toasted Bread in the Oven is a great resource to check out.

One point I always like to add when talking all things dip is that if you do want to use thin potato chips (cause so easy right 😉👍), then provide a cheese knife in the dip.

This way it can be dolloped onto the chips and there is less chance of any mid dunk chip break offs.

👍 How to Guide

How to Store

Store leftovers of the dip in a bowl with plastic film pulled tightly over the top or in an airtight container. They can be kept for 2-3 days.

The dip is best served cold or at room temperature, but you can use oven baked warm pita chips with it.

😉 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 a wide variety of different types of olives to make the recipe. Be they green olives, green stuffed olives, black olives or spicy olives.
• You can use onion powder in place of the dried onion if you wish too. In which case I would reduce the amount to 1 teaspoon only.

💡 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:

• Reserve a couple of the olives at the beginning and you can slice these and put them on the top of the dip when you are ready to serve it.
• If you hear a banging when blitzing the food processor, stop and check that there is not an accidental olive pit in the 'pitted olives'.
• We do want to chop the olives (in the food processor) but we don't want them to be as chopped as if we were making tapenade. So give them a rough blitz. Their texture will enhance the taste and texture of the creamy olive dip.
• The cream cheese gets softer the closer it gets to room temperature. So grab it out as a starting point so that it is a little less firm by the time you come to use it.
• I like to roughly chop the cream cheese up so that the ingredients are well balanced in the food processor when you add them all in.
• If you enjoy dips with a delightfully intense flavor about them, you might also like to try the Smoked Trout Dip 😉👌.
• Or if you like making homemade condiments to top your cheese and crackers try the Chilli Tomato Jam, Tomato Bacon Jam and pop each on the Baked Camembert Platter for snacky snacks fun.

🤓 Frequently Asked Questions

What goes well with Kalamata Olives?

Kalamata olives go well with cheese, cured meats like salami or kabana. On a platter with grapes, crackers and dried fruits. They also work well stirred through pasta or as a pizza topping.

What cheese goes well with Kalamata Olives?

Blue cheeses like gorgonzola and Danish blue go well with kalamata olives as does brie or camembert cheese.

What to drink when eating olives?

A crisp chilled white white such as a pinot gris (pinot grigio) pairs well with olives or a smooth red wine such as pinot noir.

😍 More Easy Dip Recipes

Dips, cheeses and spreads can offer so much variety through taste and textures that you don't need a main meal to go after them. Here are some more ideas for you to try:

• Cream Cheese Bacon Dip
• Baked Brie With Red Pepper Jelly
• Roast Capsicum Dip
• Blue Cheese Yogurt Dip
• Baked Brie with Garlic
• Cream Cheese Pepper Jelly
• Microwave Brie
• Cranberry Brie
• Cranberry Jalapeno Dip

It is time to get our olives on my friend! If you are feeding a crowd, you might like to try the Grazing Platter or Crudité Platter. The latter of the two showcasing this greek olive dip. You can also find all of my appetizers or dips and spreads recipes in the one spot.

Adrianne

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