Copycat Olive Garden Salad & Dressing
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Make your favorite copycat Olive Garden salad at home with its matching zesty Italian salad dressing! The flavors in both combine to make a subtly sweet yet slightly tangy dish that is sure to be a crowd-pleaser.
Who doesn’t like the all-you-can-eat soup, salad, and breadsticks from Olive Garden? Olive Garden is well-known for serving hearty pasta dishes, mouth-watering soups and buttery, garlicky breadsticks.
However, I personally think that the salad steals the show. Olive Garden salads are so crisp, fresh, and addictive. Even known salad-haters love this salad and dressing combination! The crunchy, tangy, spicy flavors all come together with a burst of zestiness.
Olive Garden Salad & Salad Dressing
It would be a disservice to this tasty salad to enjoy it without the addition of the heavenly Olive Garden salad dressing. Ingredients like garlic, parsley, and cheeses blend together to match the red onions and black olives in the salad. You simply must try them together!
Olive Garden salad and dressing is perfect for lunches, and brunches and makes a wonderful side dish. Bring it to any potluck or get-together. It is a classic favorite that takes very little effort.
OLIVE GARDEN NIGHT AT HOME
One of my family’s favorite Sunday night dinners is when I make “Olive Garden Night at Home.” We gather around the table with this delicious Olive Garden Salad, piping hot bowls of Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana, and a big basket of warm Olive Garden Breadsticks.
There is no need to go out, stay comfy and enjoy this classic meal at home.
Looking for more copycat dishes to make at home? Try my Copy Cat Taco Bell Enchirito Recipe, Cinnamon Honey Butter – A Texas Roadhouse Copycat Recipe or Cincinnati Chili | Skyline Chili Copycat!
INGREDIENTS FOR COPYCAT OLIVE GARDEN SALAD & Dressing
FOR THE SALAD DRESSING
- Mayonnaise: Used as the base for many salad dressings, mayonnaise gives the dressing a nice creamy texture.
- White Vinegar: White wine vinegar is best used with more delicate salads and any situation where you want to add a hint of vinegar, but do not want that flavor to overwhelm the dish.
- Vegetable Oil: Any oil labeled “vegetable oil” or “salad oil” is fine for making a basic vinaigrette for salads.
- Corn Syrup: The syrup ensures a smooth texture and a natural sweetness to balance out the tangy mayonnaise and lemon juice flavors.
- Parmesan Cheese and Romano Cheese: While many salad dressings use these cheeses, this particular recipe calls for both because they blend so well with the Italian flavors.
- Garlic Salt: One clove of garlic can be used if no garlic salt is on hand.
- Italian Seasoning: The blend of herbs present in Italian seasoning usually consists of basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme, and marjoram, with other herbs and spices sometimes making an appearance.
- Parsley Flakes: Parsley flakes make a good addition to salad dressings and vinaigrettes and add to the other seasonings in this recipe.
- Lemon Juice: Beyond keeping fruit salad fresh, lemon can also help enhance its flavor.
- Sugar: This step is optional. If you prefer your dressing on the sweeter, less zesty side, then you will want to add sugar.
FOR THE SALAD
- Dole American Blend Salad: To make this recipe as easy as possible, you can buy this salad blend in a bag at your local grocery. It contains green leaf lettuce, iceberg lettuce, red cabbage, carrots and radishes. If you cannot find the American Blend, I love to make it with the Italian Blend. So yummy!
- Red Onion: Red onions are most often used in salads, salsas, and other raw preparations for their relatively mild flavor and light crunchy texture.
- Black Olives: These tasty olives blend well with the other tangy flavors in this recipe.
- Pepperoncini: This particular salad is usually served with the whole pepperoncini. The flavor can be quite spicy so if you prefer a sweet pepper, you can use a banana pepper instead.
- Croutons: Croutons are deliciously crunchy and take a good salad to a great salad instantly!
- Tomato: This recipe calls for a small tomato, sliced in four portions. You can also use cherry tomatoes instead if you would prefer.
- Romano Cheese: Romano cheese blends perfectly in this salad because it is also in the dressing. For that reason, Parmesan cheese works well, too.
HOW TO MAKE COPYCAT OLIVE GARDEN SALAD AND SALAD DRESSING
FOR THE SALAD DRESSING
Place all ingredients in a blender until well mixed. If this is a little too tart for your own personal taste, add a little extra sugar.
You can enjoy your Olive Garden salad dressing for about 10 days if stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
FOR THE SALAD
Chill one salad bowl in the freezer for at least 30 minutes. Place the bag of salad in a bowl. Place on top of the lettuce the red onion, black olives, pepperoncini, tomato, and croutons. Add plenty of Olive Garden Salad Dressing on top.
Finish it off with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
Love it? Pin it!
Don’t forget where you found these tasty Olive Garden inspired Salad and Dressing recipes! Pin it to your favorite recipe board on Pinterest before you go!
OTHER COPY CAT RECIPES YOU WILL ENJOY
- Taxi’s Cabbage & Blue Cheese Soup (pictured above)
- Dairy Queen Apple Pie Blizzard
- Copy Cat Hooters Wings in the Air Fryer
- Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Caramel Apples
- Copycat Starbucks Medicine Ball Tea
- Whatchamacallit Candy Bar Copy Cat
- Copy Cat Taco Bell Mexican Pizza
- Olive Garden Pasta Fagioli
Olive Garden Night at home isn’t complete without a big bowl of their signature Salad with its zesty Italian dressing! Let’s make some!
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Olive Garden Salad & Dressing
Ingredients
- FOR THE DRESSING:
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/3 cup white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoon corn syrup
- 2 tablespoon Parmesan cheese
- 2 tablespoon Romano cheese
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt or one clove garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon parsley flakes
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- sugar optional
- FOR THE SALAD:
- 1 bag Dole American Blend Salad
- 4-5 slices red onion
- 4-6 black olives
- 2-4 pepperoncini peppers
- 1/2 cup croutons
- 1 small tomato quartered
- freshly grated Romano cheese Parmesan Cheese works well too!
Instructions
- To prepare the dressing: Place all ingredients in a blender until well mixed. If this is a little too tart for your own personal taste, add a little extra sugar.
- To Prepare the Salad: Chill a salad bowl in the freezer for at least 30 minutes. Place bag of salad in the bowl. Place on top of the lettuce the red onion, black olives, pepperoncini, tomatoes, and croutons. Add some freshly grated Parmesan cheese if you like, and add plenty of Olive Garden Salad Dressing on top. Toss before enjoying.
Notes
Nutrition
This recipe was originally posted on October 17, 2011. It has been updated to improve user experience and re-shared on April 9, 2022.
These recipes look great! I am an editor on AllFreeCopycatRecipes.com and would love to feature your recipe as a linkout to your blog. Check out our site and let us know if you would like to work with us! Have a great day and keep on cooking!
Arielle, I would LOVE to! What is the best way to get in touch with you? Or you can email me at anaffairfromtheheart@gmail.com Thanks for browsing my site! Michaela
My favorite SOUP and my favorite SALAD all in one post!!! YUM!
I made the salad and it was very very good! Dressing is nice and tangy! YUMMO! Will make again.
So glad to hear that you enjoyed it!! Thanks for letting me know! 🙂
Is there a recipe here for the bread sticks?
Rachel – I don’t have one for the bread sticks. I typically purchase the garlic breadsticks in the freezer section.
This is fantastic! My family loved it and was very impressed with my skills. LOL, I need to thank you for that.
One of my favorite salads to order! I’m glad I can make this salad at home. I love the tangy dressing and make extras
Loved this salad, so fresh and that dressing is delicious. Great for leftover, for lunch next day too!
I love the dressing on this salad especially so it’s my new favourite to make at home. Such a gorgeous salad too.
Delicious salad with so many textures! The dressing is one of my favourites ever! Highly recommend everyone try it! 🙂
This is my kindof salad! I love that it has croutons for crunch as well as cheese for yum. Can’t wait to make this, sounds like it goes with everything!!
Olive garden’s salad is my favorite and I love that you have created a copycat version of it! I need to try this out at home!
It’s that salad dressing for me! So tasty and SPOT on to the real deal at the restaurant. Thanks for sharing!