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

FAQs

How does Olive Garden get their lettuce so crisp? ›

Chilled Ingredients: Olive Garden keeps the salad ingredients refrigerated before they are assembled. This helps preserve their crispness and ensures they are cool and refreshing when served. Made-to-Order Assembly: Olive Garden assembles the salads upon order, rather than pre-making them in advance.

What's in Olive Garden salad dressing? Olive Garden has two versions of its salad dressing: signature Italian and Light Italian. The signature Italian is a vinaigrette, but instead of olive oil and balsamic vinegar as you might expect, it's made with soybean oil and distilled vinegar.

To make this salad, you will need iceberg salad mix, tomatoes, red onion, pepperoncini peppers, black olives, croutons and parmesan cheese.

Restaurants understand balance.

Chefs balance flavors and textures in salads with a mix of cooked and raw ingredients, proteins, grains, veggies, fruits, herbs, and dressing, Herpin said. Think about all of these components (as well as color!) to make the perfect bowl.

The Keys to Crisp Lettuce

Lettuce actually needs a good amount of airflow, in addition to a bit of moisture (but not too much!), in order to stay crisp. That's why restaurants store their lettuce in special perforated bins that allow for air circulation while it's held in the fridge.

Salads – And Most Other Dishes – Are Made Fresh

Additionally, the online ordering platform allows you to hold the olives, tomatoes, onions, and/or pepperoncini if you're getting a salad for pick-up. If the ingredients came to the restaurants already mixed together, customizations likely wouldn't be allowed at all.

Bringing lettuce back to life

If your lettuce has wilted, this tip will help to revive it: Simply soak the lettuce in ice water for 15 minutes (or up to an hour, depending on how wilted your lettuce is), and its crispness will be restored.

Season your greens

A good salad is always well-seasoned, and this shouldn't stop at the dressing. Most home cooks may not know this, but the way that chefs in restaurants get you to spend money on a salad you could easily make at home is by seasoning the greens.

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. A creamier and richer version often features sour cream or yogurt for enhanced taste.

House salad (without croutons) with low-fat dressing, and minestrone soup. Olive garden is famous for their house salad and breadsticks. Paired with minestrone soup, it's a healthier meal, although the sodium content is high. Omit the breadstick to reduce the sodium, fat, and calories.

Is the bottled Olive Garden dressing the same as the restaurant? ›

Since being introduced on store shelves in 2012, Olive Garden's Italian dressing -- the same as what's sold in the restaurant itself -- has sold like gangbusters. It was initially intended to be on store shelves for only a year -- but proved so popular that they couldn't pull it from shelves.

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

Our croutons are made with Romano cheese, seasoned with garlic, Italian herbs and spices, and baked to a delicious golden brown. Try all of Olive Garden's® signature ingredients.

“The iconic Olive Garden cheese grater and our 'Say When' philosophy when grating fresh parmesan over our craveable Italian food is just one way we deliver on the never-ending abundance our guests love,” a spokesperson for the company wrote in a statement provided to Nexstar.

House salad (without croutons) with low-fat dressing, and minestrone soup. Olive garden is famous for their house salad and breadsticks. Paired with minestrone soup, it's a healthier meal, although the sodium content is high. Omit the breadstick to reduce the sodium, fat, and calories.

Olive Garden's salads are prepared fresh in-house, and each one will look a little different.

Our soup and sauce masters create dishes by hand and from scratch, every day. With fresh, whole ingredients like kale, peppers and squash. Because they know cooking that way – the Italian way- everything tastes better. to everything they make.