Copy Cat Olive Garden salad recipe - Better than the original! (2024)

FAQs

What salad dressing does Olive Garden use? ›

Our Signature Italian dressing has been a favorite with our guests for over 35 years. It's crafted from a special blend of Italian spices, oil, and vinegar. Great for salads and marinades! www.olivegarden.com.

Olive Garden starts with bagged pre-cut lettuce, adds some cut onions, cut tomatoes and a few canned black olives and pepperoncini and croutons - just like this recipe. Really? Come on!

The next time you're dining in, you can add a bottle or two directly onto your order and take home that salty, tangy dressing to spice up your homemade salads. And don't worry — it's exactly the same as what Olive Garden normally serves.

Ranch Dressing

The ranch is hands down America's most beloved salad dressings. It is made from a number of ingredients such as buttermilk, mayonnaise, mustard, garlic, onion, chives, salt, and pepper.

In the restaurant I worked in, I also noticed that cooks seasoned every element with a pinch of salt — even the lettuce. This resulted in every bite tasting vibrant and flavorful. "Season your salad just like you would anything else," Simpson said.

Add lemon or lime juice, mustard, herbs or a touch of honey for sweetness. Toss salad in a large bowl. This helps all those delicious flavors meld together well so your salad is full of taste from the first bite to the last.

It wouldn't be unreasonable to guess that Olive Garden, the massive Italian-American restaurant chain with over 900 locations, follows a similar process. But by most accounts, the majority of items on Olive Garden's menu are made in-house, from scratch, on a daily basis — including its signature soups.

Olive Garden croutons are made with Romano cheese, seasoned with garlic, Italian herbs & spices, and baked to a delicious golden brown.

What makes Olive Garden different? ›

Olive Garden was the first restaurant to coin the concept of “unlimited” menu items. Even though they changed their famous tagline to “We're all family here," we're glad that one thing has stayed consistent: their “never ending” menu items.

The soups are made in-house daily—but all the desserts are frozen. The pasta, however, is made to order. The restaurant only uses microwaves for heating dipping sauces and warming desserts. Otherwise, everything is pan fried, deep fried, or grilled.

Marzetti Company, a dressing and specialty foods manufacturer that began producing dressing for Olive Garden long before it was sold in stores. According to the back of the bottle, the recipe that the company created for Olive Garden hasn't changed for nearly 30 years.

Product Details

Enjoy an Italian classic with our Olive Garden Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing. Crafted with imported balsamic vinegar, our gluten-free Balsamic Vinaigrette salad dressing brings an authentic flavorful Italian experience to your dinner table.

Italian Dressing Recipe Ingredients

Lemon juice and white wine vinegar – They make the dressing zesty and bright. Dijon mustard – For extra tang. Garlic – It adds sharp, savory depth of flavor. Honey – Don't skip it!

Nutrition information

Enjoy an Italian classic with our Olive Garden Light Italian Dressing. Crafted with Italian spices, oil, vinegar and Romano cheese. Our Light Italian salad dressing brings an authentic flavorful Italian experience to your dinner table with just 30 calories per serving.