This easy olive dip recipe makes a Mediterranean inspired dip from green and black olives. We stir Sicilian green olives and juicy Greek Kalamata olives and aromatic fresh dill into sour cream and cream cheese, seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic. Garnish with chopped olives in extra virgin olive oil and sprigs of dill, and serve with crackers, crisps or crunchy crudités.
If you’ve made and enjoyed our fragrant dill dip, French onion dip, smoked salmon dip, or tuna, black olive and walnut dip, some of our best dip recipes, you’ll love this easy olive dip recipe. Like those other homemade dips, this Mediterranean inspired dip is so easy to make and comes together in minutes, especially if you use pitted olives.
Homemade dips are fantastic for evening pre-dinner nibbles, casual gatherings and more formal entertaining. We love to serve our dips with crunchy crudités such as cucumber spears and carrot batons, crispy potato chips, homemade pita crisps, which are easy to make, or these sourdough crackers or spicy sourdough crackers if you bake sourdough.
Your guests will appreciate the fact that you’ve taken time to make your own dips, rather than head to the nearest deli or supermarket. It shows that you care enough about your loved-ones to take the trouble to make something from scratch – although homemade dips are really no trouble at all. Shhh… And if you’re a fan of making dips, see our guide to how to make a dip out of almost anything.
Olive Dip Recipe for a Mediterranean Inspired Green and Black Olive Dip
I don’t know about you, but I much prefer to make my own dips at home. Not only are they more delicious but homemade dips take no time to make. Plus they’re incredibly versatile. You could adjust this dip recipe easily: add feta cheese, sliced sun-dried tomatoes or chopped grilled red capsicum (bell peppers).
The other thing I love about making dips from scratch is that you know exactly what ingredients are going into your homemade dips. I almost bought an olive dip for my mother, who enjoys scooping crackers into a dip while I’m making dinner.
But I looked at the base of the container and the ingredients were sugar (!), soy flour, soy protein, modified starch, preservatives, and natural colours. This dip does not need sugar! So I decided to make my own dip, based on my dill dip, and just add olives.
My dip includes black and green olives, fresh dill, cream cheese, sour cream, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, and garlic powder, but you could certainly use fresh garlic. It needs nothing more. It’s so incredibly delicious that you’ll never buy another olive dip from a supermarket again.
Let me share a few tips to making this easy dip recipe.
Tips to Making an Olive Dip Recipe for a Mediterranean Inspired Green and Black Olive Dip
Just a few tips to making this olive dip as it’s easy to prepare and comes together quickly. Make sure to leave the cream cheese out of the fridge for 30 minutes or so to let it soften so it’s easy to combine with the sour cream.
In warm weather the cream cheese will soften faster, so after finishing the dip you will want to return it to the fridge to firm up before serving it. In that case, save garnishing until just before you’re ready to serve.
This dip is all about the olives so do use good quality, delicious olives. I used firm young Sicilian green olives, which have a fresh lemony flavour, and juicy soft Greek Kalamata olives. It’s the skin and brine of the Kalamata olives that provide the subtle colour.
To speed things up use pitted olives. The dip will take a little longer to make if the olives aren’t pitted. To de-pit the olives, use the blade of a knife and press down hard on each olive, and the seed will pop out. Scrape the rest of the olive off the seeds, and roughly chop the olives.
I use chopped fresh dill, but you could try another fragrant herb – fresh basil would give the dip more of an Italian flavour, while dried oregano would lend the dip Greek flavours.
Make sure to garnish your dip with more of the chopped olives stirred through a little extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle on some sprigs of fresh dill.
Olive Dip Recipe for a Med Inspired Green and Black Olive Dip
Equipment
Ingredients
- 100 g cream cheese
- 150 g sour cream
- 16 black olives - pitted, roughly chopped, divided
- 16 green olives - pitted, roughly chopped, divided
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ¼ tsp ground black pepper
- 2 tsp fresh dill - roughly chopped, divided
- 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Leave the cream cheese out of the fridge for 30 minutes or so to soften, then in a big mixing bowl use a wooden spoon to stir the cream cheese and sour cream together to combine well.
- Stir in a dozen of each of the roughly chopped, pitted black and green olives, salt, pepper, and teaspoon of fresh dill, and stir until well incorporated. Taste and adjust the seasoning to suit your palate then scoop into a serving bowl.
- To a small bowl, add the remaining chopped black and green olives and extra virgin olive oil, stir to combine thoroughly then pile onto the top of the dip, and sprinkle on the remaining chopped fresh dill.
- Serve with crackers, crisps or crunchy crudités, and if you’re not ready to serve immediately, refrigerate until you are.
Nutrition
Please do let us know in the comments below if you make our olive dip recipe as we love to know how our recipes turn out for you.
