Olive Oil Bread Dip

Less than 20 minutes to make (and most of that time is just heating olive oil and garlic!). In this easy appetizer, olive oil and balsamic vinegar pair with herbs and garlic for the easiest and most delicious bread dipping oil combo you’ve ever had! Best enjoyed with crusty French bread and a big glass of red wine.

The olive oil + balsamic bread dip situation.

• It’s simple and easy to throw together. If you need a last-minute appetizer that you can make in just minutes – this is it! If you’re like me, you’ll probably have most of these ingredients in your kitchen already, which means you have this made in no time!
• Your friends are going to devour it! If you’re having a ladies’ night and you want to serve something alongside those bottles of cabernet, this easy appetizer needs to be on the table! Chances are good your friends will have had something similar to this at a restaurant, but they will be completely blown away by the fresh flavors of THIS dip! It puts all restaurant olive oil bread dips to shame 🙂
• It looks super fancy (but it’s not). Fake it ’til you make it, right?! This dip makes it LOOK like you probably spent a lot of time in the kitchen or ordered from your favorite Italian restaurant, but in reality, you heated a bit of minced garlic with olive oil and then poured it into a serving dish with dried herbs and balsamic vinegar. Accept the compliments graciously when your friends rave about this appetizer – you “worked hard” 😉 And you deserve it! Serve it with homemade crostini for a little extra oomph!

Here’s how it all comes together.

Add olive oil to a small saucepan over medium-low heat.

Add fresh minced garlic. Heat for about 12 minutes.

Add dried spices, salt, and black pepper.

Stir to combine.

Pour the herbaceous olive oil into a serving dish or shallow bowl.

And add balsamic vinegar.

Finish this dish with freshly shredded Parmesan.

Serve with crispy crostin and enjoy!

Here’s how you pick the right olive oil.

• For an appetizer like this bread dip (and my herb and garlic marinated feta), where the ingredient list is short, make sure you use a good quality olive oil.
• You don’t need to spend $50 a bottle. I like to look for an extra virgin olive oil that is cold-pressed and organic. This will narrow down the selection, giving you the purest and most flavorful olive oil.  
• It might take a few tries to find your favorite flavor of olive oil. There is a surprisingly wide range of flavors that olive oil can have depending on where the olives were grown, including: peppery, floral, nutty, or even spicy!

Things I learned while testing this recipe.

• Use fresh garlic. Don’t use a jar of minced garlic. Grab some fresh cloves and mince them yourself. Fresh garlic is usually cheaper, and honestly,  you have no idea how long those jars of garlic have been sitting on the shelf before you buy them. 
• Use quality olive oil. You don’t have to spend an arm and a leg to get good olive oil. Look for something cold-pressed, organic, and most importantly, in your price range!
• Shred your own Parmesan cheese. Pre-shredded cheeses are coated in cellulose so the shreds don’t stick together. Skip the additives and opt for a wedge of Parmesan. There is nothing more delicious than freshly grated cheese!

Some of my favorite flavor combinations.

Feel free to switch up the ingredients in this recipe based on your taste. Some of our favorite add-ins include:

• dried rosemary
• dried basil
• red pepper flakes
• lemon juice
• extra minced fresh garlic cloves

Here’s what I’d serve with this.

• marinated feta cheese
• roasted goat cheese dip
• the best spinach + artichoke dip
• lemony kale Caesar salad dip
• cheesy baked pepperoncini dip

Just in case you have leftovers.

• Only kidding. You won’t have leftovers. You’ll probably need to make a second batch if anything 😉

More easy appetizer recipes for your eating pleasure.