Anybody out there love the Olive Garden’s all you can eat salad and breadsticks as much as I do? I adore that crunchy salad tossed in their tangy vinaigrette dressing with freshly shredded Parmesan cheese on top. My only complaint? I can never get enough cheese. You know that awkward moment when your server is topping your salad with freshly grated cheese and waiting for you to signal that it’s enough? You want him to keep going till his arm is ready to fall off and there’s a mound of cheese so high you can barely see the lettuce underneath, but that awkward moment gets so uncomfortable you finally signal that you have enough, even though you don’t. Well when you make this salad at home, you can add all the cheese to your salad that your cheese loving heart desires.
Let’s face it, the secret to their amazing salad is the dressing, right? Well…and the cheese, but we’ll address that part later. The salad itself has your typical salad ingredients; lettuce, tomato, onions, and croutons. They make it a little more exotic by adding in some black olives and Pepperoncicni peppers. It’s that tangy, delicious dressing that makes their salad so stinking delicious! When you see how easy it is to make you’re going to be so happy you stumbled upon this recipe.
Alright, enough talking about it, let’s make some salad already!
Make the dressing:
Place olive oil, mayonnaise, white vinegar, lemon juice, sugar, Kosher salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, minced garlic and freshly grated Parmesan cheese in a blender.
Blend for 30 seconds to 1 minute on high speed to emulsify all the ingredients into a smooth creamy dressing.
For best flavor, refrigerate dressing for at least 2 hours or longer.
Make the salad:
Place chopped Romaine and Iceberg lettuce in a large bowl.
Top with tomato and sliced onion.
Drizzle with salad dressing to coat the lettuce, tomato and onion.
TIP: For the best flavor, blend the dressing again for 10-15 seconds right before adding it to the salad.
Top the salad with Pepperoncini peppers, sliced black olives and seasoned croutons.
Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.
If desired, sprinkle with additional parmesan cheese to serve.
When you make this salad at home you can customize it suit your personal taste. Don’t like olives? Leave them out. Love Pepperoncini peppers? Add more! Do onions have you in tears? Ditch them. Make it the way you love it! The dressing though, is lick the bowl clean delicious, just like the one served at the restaurant, but I think it’s actually a little better. I highly recommend a few trips to the gym to strengthen your arms so you can top your salad with an embarrassingly tall pile of freshly grated cheese, LOL. You’ll get no judgement from me!
Copycat Olive Garden Salad
Equipment
- Blender
- extra large bowl and salad tongs
Ingredients
For the Salad:
- 3 cups Romaine lettuce, chopped
- 3 cups iceberg lettuce, chopped
- 1 cup Roma tomatoes, or grape tomatoes sliced or halved
- ½ large purple onion, sliced
- 1 cup Pepperoncini peppers, drained
- ¼ cup sliced black olives, drained
- 1 cup seasoned croutons
For the Dressing:
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 3 tbsp mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp white vinegar
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 1½ tsp sugar
- 1 tsp Kosher salt
- ¾ tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp Italian seasoning
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ¼ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
Instructions
Make the dressing:
- Place olive oil, mayonnaise, white vinegar, lemon juice, sugar, Kosher salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, minced garlic and freshly grated Parmesan cheese in a blender.
- Blend for 30 seconds to 1 minute on high speed to emulsify all the ingredients into smooth creamy dressing.
- For best flavor, refrigerate dressing for at least 2 hours or longer.
Make the salad:
- Place chopped Romaine and Iceberg lettuce in a large bowl.
- Top with tomato and sliced onion.
- Drizzle with salad dressing to coat the lettuce, tomato and onion.
- Top the salad with Pepperoncini peppers, sliced olives and seasoned croutons.
- Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.
- If desired, sprinkle with additional parmesan cheese to serve.
Did You Make This?
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