Green Olive Cream Cheese Spread
Green Olive Cream Cheese Spread — a mid-20th century Southern staple made with chopped pimento-stuffed olives blended into softened cream cheese. Its exact origin is hard to pinpoint, but it likely rose to prominence during the Depression era due to its frugality and shelf-stable ingredients.
It really started as a sandwich, but today, it’s considered more of a spread for crackers or petite toasts as part of a charcuterie board or an hors d’oeuvres spread. Food historians can’t pinpoint its first rise on the horizon, but believe it came about in the South during the Great Depression when higher levels of protein were out of reach for many. Some recent food websites posting the recipe, or reminiscing about the sandwich received a deluge of comments, many of which from Baby Boomers who had childhood memories of their grandmother’s version of this simple, delicious spread in a sandwich.
My Number One Fan made this routinely years ago, and finished it with chopped walnuts or pecans and then we both forgot about it for a time. She resurrected it from memory and it was high time to ensure the recipe was captured for posterity in the annals of Kitchen Tapestry.
Green Olive Cream Cheese Spread
Green Olive Cream Cheese Spread — a mid-20th century Southern staple made with chopped pimento-stuffed olives blended into softened cream cheese. Its exact origin is hard to pinpoint, but it likely rose to prominence during the Depression era due to its frugality and shelf-stable ingredients.
Ingredients
- 1 8-oz tub whipped cream cheese (like, Philadelphia Whipped)
- 1/3 cup sliced green olives stuffed with pimentos, drained (like, Early California Salad Olives)
- 1 tsp Mrs. Dash garlic-herb blend
- 1 tsp Mrs. Dash onion-herb blend
- 4 dashes Tabasco Sauce
- Optional: 1/4 chopped pecans
Instructions
- Take the cheese cheese out of the fridge about an hour prior to making the dish for ease of blending.
- Place everything in a mixing bowl except the chopped olives and using a handheld mixer, mix on high for 30 seconds or so until the cheese is creamy and the seasonings have been blended in.
- Add the olives and mix again for 10-15 seconds until blended. This further chops the olives into spammer pieces, making the spread creamy and malleable.
- If adding optional pecans, repeat step #3 with them.
- Cover and refrigerate for 3 hours before serving so all flavors amalgamate.
- Serve on crackers, petite toasts or spread on bread for a sandwich.
