This simple and delicious Olive Dip does not disappoint. It is rich, creamy, salty, and whips together in under 10 minutes. Best part, it is packed with both green and black olives!
Serve this crowd pleasing appetizer with your favorite crackers, veggies, and chips. Feel free to make this party perfect appetizer up to 2 days in advanced. I guarantee everyone will be going back for seconds once they taste this dip!
This recipe is a variation of my beloved Fried Dill Pickle Dip, check it out!
We love olives in our family! It doesn’t matter if they are green or black, stuffed with cheese, or marinaded in a spicy brine, all are equally loved in our eyes.
For decades our family has made some version of a cream cheese based Olive Dip (it varies depending on who makes it). This is my version and it has become our go-to recipe the last few holidays… And I guarantee you and your family will love it as much as we do.
More Reasons To LOVE This Olive Dip Recipe
- As easy as 1,2,3 – whip, spread, and serve. What could be better than an easy and quick dip?!
- A delicious no bake appetizer that is perfect to feed a crowd.
- Full of olives; black and green ones! Or alter the choice of olives to suit your taste preferences.
- Can be made the day before you plan to serve it. This helps if you are hosting, one less thing to do and make the day of your party.
If you’re looking for a fun mocktail that goes perfectly with this, try my Dirty Martini Mocktail (it has olive brine in it and a triple olive garnish)!
Watch My Quick, 30 Second Video Tutorial:
Ingredients For The BEST Olive Dip
This creamy dip is only 7 ingredients and packed with flavor. Keep reading for a few notes and potential substitutions.
- Cream Cheese: Full fat and brought to room temperature. If it is cold the dip will become lumpy and not combine to a smooth consistency.
- Sour Cream: This should also be full fat and at room temperature.
- Green Olive Brine: Use to thin the dip and add a teeny bit of saltiness.
- Garlic Powder: Is a dip complete without garlic? Feel free to grate a fresh garlic clove into the dip for a more pronounced garlic flavor.
- Black Pepper: An essential to balancing the flavors.
- Green Olives: Make sure you are using pitted olives. Feel free to use your favorite brand, I use Pearls olives stuffed with pimentos.
- Black Olives: Again, use pitted olives because they are a pain in the butt to pitt yourself. Use your favorite brand, I pick up the canned olives from Pearls typically.
- Salt: Only use this to your taste preferences. In my opinion the olives are salty enough so it is not necessary.
For a deliciously spicy note, try adding a handful of my homemade Quick Pickled Jalapenos!
How To Make Olive Dip
This is a short summary of the steps, the recipe card below will have more details. Make sure you have a stiff wire whisk or a hand mixer fitted with the whisk attachments too.
1. Whip together the cream cheese, sour cream, green olive brine, garlic powder, black pepper, and salt. Fold in your finely chopped green olives and black olives.
2. Spread the Olive Dip into a serving dish or bowl and top with more olives. Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.
3. Serve with your favorite dippers (I served my dip with pita chips). See more suggestions below.
What To Serve With Olive Dip
- Crackers
- Chips- tortillas, bagel chips, wavy chips, potato chips.
- Fresh Veggies- cucumbers, carrots, celery, assortment of sweet peppers.
- Toasted Baguette Slices
- Pita bread
Serving Olive Dip For A Party
This recipe yields 2 cups of Olive Dip which will feed 8 to 10 people (a ¼ cup serving each). Doubling the recipe yields 16 to 20 servings and tripling yields 24 to 28.
If you plan on making a large quantity of this dip, I recommend spreading it in a large, shallow dish. This makes it easier for party guests to scoop out the dip while getting some of those extra olives and green onions on top.
4 Pro Tips For Even Better Dip
- Make sure the cream cheese and sour cream is brought to room temperature. This ensures you will have a smooth and creamy dip. Dips with lumps in them is usually because the cream cheese is too cold when incorporated with the other ingredients.
- Chop the olives and green onions in small bite sizes pieces. There is nothing worse than scooping into a dip and getting a huge chunk of something. You want your ingredients to be evenly distributed to get all the flavors in one scoop.
- Alter the amount of green olives and black olives to suite your taste preferences. Just make sure you use 1 cup of olives and 1 tablespoon of olive juice total to mix into the dip. For example, my mom LOVES black olives so I will use all black olives and black olive juice when I take this dip to her house.
- Chill the Olive Dip for an hour or two before serving. This allows the flavors to develop making it even tastier! You can also refrigerate the dip overnight if you are making it ahead of time.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s)
I am not in the business of telling you what is healthy for you and what is not. I will say there is a lot of fat, carbohydrates, sodium, and calories in olive dip. Just remember everything in moderation!
If stored in the refrigerator and in an airtight container, Olive Dip will last for up to 4 days. Just give it a good stir when you remove it from the refrigerator before serving. I do not recommend freezing olive dip. Cream cheese has an unpleasant clumpy texture when it is thawed from the freezer.
I do not recommend reduced fat cream cheese or sour cream in this recipe. Both have a high water content which alters the texture and flavor of the dip. If you want to make this a little healthier, substitute the sour cream for plain Greek Yogurt.
YES! I recommend making your dip the night before you plan on serving it (the extra refrigerator time allows the flavors to develop and marry together). What I like to do is I refrigerate it in the bowl I prepared it in. In the morning I give it a good whip with my whisk, spread it into the serving dish, and top it with the extra olives and green onions.
More Dip Recipes You Might Enjoy:
- Bacon Caramelized Onion Dip
- Jalapeno Sausage Dip
- Cottage Cheese Taco Dip
- Jalapeno Artichoke Dip
- Olive Spread
- Butter Bean Hummus
- Smoked Buffalo Chicken Dip
- Smoked Queso Dip
- Ricotta Dip with Roasted Grapes
- Fried Dill Pickle Dip
- Buffalo Crab Dip
- Feta and Onion Hot Dip
- Or browse all of my appetizers.
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Olive Dip
EQUIPMENT
- wire whisk - or make it easier by using a hand mixer.
INGREDIENTS
- 8 ounces cream cheese - room temperature
- ¾ cup sour cream - room temperature
- 1 tablespoon green olive brine
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- ⅔ cup green olives - chopped plus more for topping
- ⅓ cup black olives - chopped plus more for topping
- salt; - to taste
INSTRUCTIONS
- In a medium sized bowl whip together the cream cheese, sour cream, and green olive brine until light, fluffy, and smooth.
- Add the garlic powder, black pepper, chopped olives (green and black), salt, and combine well.
- Evenly spread the Olive Dip into a serving dish and top with more green olives, and black olives (see recipe notes for holiday snowman option).
- Chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 to 2 hours or overnight.
- Serve with your favorite dippers.
VIDEO
RECIPE NOTES
Storing Information
- Refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Dippers To Serve With Olive Dip
- Pita Bread
- Chips- tortillas, bagel chips, wavy chips, potato chips.
- Fresh Veggies- cucumbers, carrots, celery, assortment of sweet peppers.
- Toasted Baguette Slices
- Crackers
Make It a Festive Snowman for the Holidays
- Add olives for the eyes and mouth and a carrot for the nose. See image for guidance.
Metric conversions are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
This looks amazing! Have you tried the healthier alternative with Greek Yogurt yet? If so, how did it come out?? Can’t wait to make this over the weekend
Hey Jake!
I quite often use Greek yogurt in place of sour cream for my dip recipes. I do not recommend substituting the cream cheese for it because the dip will be far too runny and not as creamy in consistency.
Hope this helps! Thanks for the great question.
~Elizabeth
This Olive Dip recipe is awesome! I was a little hesitant to try it, because I don’t usually like olives, but it is so good. The flavors are well balanced and it is really easy to make. I will definitely be making this again.
This was a REAL hit at the party, thanks!
Loved this! It really satisfied my olive cravings!
This was fantastic! It was a great hit at our last get-together!
Oh man! I am not a fan of olives, but my mama LOVES them so I made this for her and she adored it! Such a great recipe!
Oh so delicious!!!
What a great dip! It was a hit at our party.
As a huge fan of anything and everything with olive, I have to say this is fantastic!