How to Make Olive Dip

This olive dip is easy to make and perfect for a party appetizer. Packed with chopped green olives and sundried tomatoes, it’s delicious with chips or crudité!

Dips are some of my favorite appetizers to make, as they can be made in advance and are always crowd-pleasers. They are also great paired with other appetizers, so please check out the Appetizer recipe archive if you’re looking for more ideas. 

Jump to:

• Why Make This Green Olive Dip Recipe
• Creamy Olive Dip Ingredients
• How to Make Olive Dip
• Variations & Substitutions
• How to Store Cream Cheese Olive Dip
• 🧐 Recipe FAQs for Olive Dip
• 👩‍🍳 Expert Tips
• Serving Suggestions
• Other Delicious Dips
• 📖 Recipe
• More About Molly

Why Make This Green Olive Dip Recipe

• So easy: you can make this creamy dip in 5 minutes, then all you have to do is wait for it to chill.
• So tasty: delicious flavor combination that will delight olive lovers everywhere!
• Unique: this cream cheese dip is so much more interesting than the traditional sour cream/mayonnaise-based dips, and you can even use it as a sandwich spread too!
• Make-ahead: olive dip needs to chill before serving, so you can make it up to a day or two in advance

Creamy Olive Dip Ingredients

• Green Olives: I prefer olives with pimentos, but feel free to replace with whatever (pitted) olives you prefer. Buying a jar is recommended, so you can use the brine in the recipe. You can also try this recipe with black olives if you like those better!
• Sundried Tomatoes: Both dry-packed tomatoes and jar-packed tomatoes work for this dish. Just make sure to pat dry any tomatoes dripping in oil. 
• Cream Cheese: Use your favorite brand of cream cheese, or replace with Neufchâtel cheese for less fat and fewer calories. You could also replace with reduced fat cream cheese. 
• Crème Fraîche: Replace this with sour cream or even Greek yogurt if you’d like.
• Shallot: I love the mild flavor of shallots, but you could replace this with red onion or Vidalia onion. Or, add some scallions instead. You could also replace with a teaspoon of onion powder.
• Garlic: Leave this out, if you aren’t a garlic fan. If you don’t have fresh garlic, you can replace with ½ teaspoon of garlic powder. 

How to Make Olive Dip

1. Peel 1 shallot and 2 garlic cloves. Cut shallot into a few big chunks, then add to a food processor along with the garlic cloves. Pulse until finely chopped.

2. Pat dry ¼ cup sundried tomatoes and cut into chunks. Add tomatoes and 1 cup green olives (pitted) to the food processor. Pulse until finely chopped.

3. Scrape olive mixture into a medium bowl. Add 8 ounces cream cheese to food processor and blend until smooth.

4. Add 4 ounces crème fraîche and 1 tablespoon olive brine from the olive jar, then blend again until smooth.

5. Scrape cream cheese mixture into bowl and stir together until well combined.

6. Put olive dip into refrigerator for 30 minutes so that flavors have a chance to meld. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Serve with potato chips, pita chips, or crudité.

Variations & Substitutions

This olive dip recipe is very flexible. You can use whatever olives you like, and you can combine both black and green olives. You can leave out the sun-dried tomatoes. You might try adding in some roasted bell peppers instead to retain some of the contrasting red pops of color. Try red onion instead of shallots, and use garlic powder instead of garlic cloves. Add in herbs like fresh thyme or chives. You can also try spices like paprika, smoked paprika, or crushed red pepper. For a lower-fat version of this dish, use reduced fat cream cheese or Neufchâtel cheese along with greek yogurt instead of crème fraîche.

How to Store Cream Cheese Olive Dip

Cover tightly with plastic wrap or transfer to an airtight container, then refrigerate. Olive dip will last for 3-5 days in the refrigerator. 

Can you freeze olive dip?

No. Or at least, I wouldn’t recommend it. Dairy products like cream cheese and sour cream will separate upon freezing/defrosting. So while it’s safe to freeze dip, you will probably find that the texture is a bit grainy when you defrost it. 

🧐 Recipe FAQs for Olive Dip

👩‍🍳 Expert Tips

• Blending the ingredients in stages is the key to the best olive dip around. If you throw everything into the food processor at once, you will find that by the time the shallots, garlic, and tomatoes are in small enough pieces, the olives have basically dissolved into the dip. You might also find that you need to blend it for so long that the dip turns an unpleasant shade of brown. With the method above, you make sure that each component is chopped or blended to the right consistency before stirring them together. 
• You may be wondering whether you can eat this dip right away after you make it. You certainly can, but this dip really benefits from at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator. During that time, the flavors will meld together, and the garlic and onion flavors will mellow a bit. You’ll find it’s even more delicious than when you first made it. 
• Have extra crème fraîche? I have a few other recipes that you might want to try to use up any remaining crème fraîche in the package. How about using it as a garnish for this Carrot Ginger Soup? Or stirring into a sauce for this Smoked Salmon and Asparagus Pasta. And I absolutely love crème fraîche in this Smoked Salmon Canapés with Cucumber recipe. 

Serving Suggestions

Now that you’ve made this easy olive dip, what you should serve with it? My personal favorite combination is this dip with kettle potato chips, but it is also delicious with crackers.

Pita chips make a good accompaniment as well, or you could serve it with a crudité platter of carrot sticks, cucumber sticks, and celery sticks. Finally, don’t forget that this creamy olive dip can be used as a sandwich spread as well, and is delicious on top of a bagel too! 

And speaking of delicious olive dishes, if you love this dip, you need to check out this Olive Salad recipe—enjoy on a salad, in a sandwich, or as a dip on its own.

Or, for another dip for briny flavor lovers, you're going to need to try this Dill Pickle Dip or this Dirty Martini Dip next!

Other Delicious Dips

Aren’t dips the best? I feel like they make every party better! If you agree, you might want to check out this delicious Green Onion Dip or this Chard Tahini Dip as well. Or try one of these:

If you try this green olive dip recipe, I would love to hear from you! Please rate this recipe and leave a comment below—your feedback is invaluable to me.

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📖 Recipe

Instagram Users: Now that you've made this cream cheese olive dip recipe, tag me @vanillabeancuisine or #vanillabeancuisine because I'd love to see your results!