A burger bun is generously covered with the Best 3-Ingredient Olive Sauce in Michigan.

Best 3-Ingredient Olive Sauce

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A generous bowl of Ultimate Lemon Dill Potato Salad is topped with fresh dill and lemon zest.
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Lemon Dill Potato Salad

This recipe for the Best 3-Ingredient Olive Sauce, featuring Manzanilla olives will satisfy your craving for a deliciously, salty olive burger. If you’re not from the Midwest, an olive burger may sound a bit foreign, but they are a tasty Midwestern tradition that’s definitely worth trying.

For me, the perfect summer dinner is a simple olive burger, a side of potato salad and maybe a lemon bar. It doesn’t get any easier or more delicious than that in my book.

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Best 3-Ingredient Olive Sauce – the perfect topping for the last grilled burger of the season

Out of my cold hand! You may hear a Michigander or two echo this sentiment, with their favorite grill spatula raised in defiance. At the time I’m writing this post, it is 73 degrees F. in Michigan……in November.

A burger bun is generously covered with the Best 3-Ingredient Olive Sauce in Michigan.
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A Michigan Olive Sauce Burger with all the fixings!

I feel compelled to stress once more that it’s 73 degrees in November in Michigan.

This time of year I’m usually raking leaves or shoveling snow. And sometimes I’m even shoveling snow first, so I can rake the leaves to the curb in time for the last City-wide leaf pick-up of the season.

Normally, by November my grill is covered and tucked away until spring. And so am I for that matter. I’m a die-hard, disciple of charcoal, so, for me to be grilling during a warm spell in November is a pretty moment, indeed.

I’m very sorry. I know you may be thinking about cranberry sauce right now, but I just had to get one more burger on the grill, and subsequently share this recipe for the Best 3-Ingredient Olive Sauce.

With this recipe, you are just three little ingredients and five minutes away from a deliciously, salty olive burger. This green olive sauce recipe just may become your new favorite.

Olive burgers – a Michigan tradition

As you may know by now, I am a proud Michigander. I love our seasons, our agriculture, our ingenuity and our traditions.

If you’re not from the Midwest, an olive burger may sound a bit foreign. They are a Midwestern tradition, and depending on who you ask, they originated in Michigan in the early 1920s in either Grand Rapids or Flint. If you find yourself in the area and want to try an old-school olive burger, visit the Kewpee Restaurant in Downtown Lansing, MI. It won’t disappoint.

Manzanilla olives – the star of this green olive sauce recipe

So what exactly are Manzanilla olives and where can I get them?

Spanish Manzanilla olives are the quintessential green olives found in the grocery store next to the black olives and relish. Remember those green olives with pimientos stuffed in the center your grandma used to put on a relish tray? Chances are she was serving Manzanilla olives.

Psst! The secret to a good olive burger is the sauce, and this green olive sauce recipe is the best

If you travel the state of Michigan in search of the perfect olive burger, you’ll find the ratios of olives to mayonnaise in olive sauce for burgers vary from restaurant to restaurant. Some recipes are more mayonnaise-forward with a few chopped olives mixed in. Others add a little brine for flavor and a thinner consistency. In my recipe for the Best 3-Ingredient Olive Sauce, I wanted something that delivered bold olive flavor and would spread easily, but still hold its place on the bun.

In this recipe for the Best 3-Ingredient Olive Sauce, the olives are rinsed and drained before they are patted dry and chopped fine. There’s enough salt in the olives, so adding brine or additional salt is unnecessary. The mayonnaise is there to just bring the olives together into a thick, spreadable sauce. Add just a little pepper and you are ready to serve this delicious, 3-ingredient olive sauce.

The result is a more olive-forward sauce that still satisfies that last (or first) olive burger craving of the season.


Best 3-Ingredient Olive Sauce
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Best 3-Ingredient Olive Sauce

Recipe by Maria Ostrander Course: Burger SauceCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy
Servings

6

burgers
Prep time

5

minutes
Cooking timeminutes

This recipe yields approximately 3/4 cup of sauce – enough to generously sauce six burgers.

Ingredients

  • One 5.7 oz. jar of Manzanilla olives with pimientos. Rinsed, drained and patted dry.

  • 1/4 cup mayonnaise

  • 1/8 tsp. ground black pepper

Directions

  • Rinse, drain and pat dry the green Manzanilla olives.
  • Place the olives in a small food processor. Pulse 5-7 times until the olives are roughly chopped. You can also do this step using a knife and cutting board.
  • Transfer the chopped olives to a small mixing bowl and add the mayonnaise and pepper. Mix thoroughly.
  • Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
  • Top burgers with olive sauce and enjoy.

Notes

  • The recipe calls for mayonnaise. Can I use salad dressing instead? How can I say this delicately……no. Sorry, but there’s no alternative here. I like both Miracle Whip and Mayonnaise. They both have a place in my refrigerator, but the two are not interchangeable in this recipe. You really need the rich, creaminess of the mayonnaise to balance the sharpness of the olives.
  • What are Manzanilla olives and where can I get them? Spanish Manzanilla olives are the quintessential green olives found in the grocery store next to the black olives and relish. Remember those green olives with pimientos stuffed in the center your grandma used to put on a relish tray? Chances are she was serving Manzanilla olives.

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11 Comments

  1. I’m from Grand Rapids, Michigan to and just moved to Texas. I cannot find a restaurant that has a good ole olive burger. I can’t believe no one has olive burgers. I’m excited to try your recipe. I always went to Mr. Burger to get my olive burger fix. Thank you for sharing.

  2. Karen Vetter

    I am also a Michigander – from Kalamazoo, home of Western Michigan University and Bell’s Brewery. I do not like mayo, so I use French onion dip as my binder. The flavor is amazing!

  3. Great idea to throughly dry the olives, but I prefer hand chopped olives with some slices for texture and aesthetics.

  4. This is very good. I added a squirt of ketchup and a sprinkle of Lawry’s also.

  5. I am also a resident of Michigan lol, and I have an olive sauce obsession. I can’t stress enough the importance of rinsing and drying the olives. I made tons of poor examples before i read your instructions. It helps hold the sauce together instead of being a thin mess. Thanks!!

  6. Pingback: Famous Michigan Recipes - 3 Boys and a Dog

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