Olive Garden is known for its salads. The salad and the Olive Garden salad dressing are served with every meal. Their cold, crisp salad is hard to beat, and you can make this recipe anytime when you have the copycat Olive Garden Salad Dressing whenever you want.
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Table of Contents
What makes the Olive Garden Salad dressing so good?
I don’t know about you, but I love the Olive Garden Soup and salad combination. The hard part is deciding between the Zuppa Toscana and the Pasta e Fagioli, but you know what isn’t hard? Digging into their crispy salad. It has the perfect balance of flavors. Their take on Italian dressing has the perfect combination of herbs, tartness, and sweetness.
Ingredients you will need to make the homemade Olive Garden Salad dressing
First, gather all the ingredients. Here’s what you need:
- Mayonnaise – I prefer Hellman’s or Duke’s
- White vinegar
- Vegetable oil – you could use extra virgin olive oil, they do not use olive oil
- Light corn syrup – this gives the salad dressing the right texture
- Grated Parmesan cheese
- Grated Romano cheese
- Garlic powder or 1 garlic clove
- Dried Italian seasoning
- Dried parsley flakes
- Lemon juice
How to Make Olive Garden Salad Dressing at Home
It doesn’t get much easier than this to make this salad. If you do not have a blender, grab a bowl and a whisk. Or you could put all of the ingredients and place them in a jar, fasten a lid, and shake vigorously.
- Place all ingredients in a blender until well mixed. If this is a little too tart for your personal taste, add a little extra sugar.
How long does homemade Olive Garden dressing last?
You can enjoy your Olive Garden salad dressing for about ten days if stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Other uses for Italian salad dressing
Another great use for the Olive Garden salad dressing is as a marinade for vegetables or even meats that you might like to grill. So you can see the Olive Garden salad dressing can be used in more than one way. This salad dressing also makes a great dressing for your favorite pasta salad.
What do you need to make an Olive Garden Salad?
Now you have your dressing, but what else do you need to make it complete. I love making a salad at home, this way I get to add all of the tomatoes and croutons I want. Here is what you will need.
- Iceberg lettuce
- Romane lettuce
- Red onion
- Pepperoncinis
- Black olives
- Roma tomatoes
You can get the exact portions right there Olive Garden Salad.
Making Olive Garden Salad Dressing at home is easy to do. You can make other recipes that taste just like they do in a restaurant.
How about Applebee’s Dressing for Oriental Chicken Salad? This is a terrific way to bring the taste of a restaurant home with this recipe.
Update
Yes, this dressing can be purchased at many stores such as Wal-Mart, Sam’s, and other grocery stores. Why would you want to make this from scratch? This recipe still has fewer preservatives, and you can always tweak a recipe when you make it from scratch.
So you can add a little more sugar, or maybe you want to add a few more spices. I know their bottle does not say it has mayonnaise on it. It does say oil and eggs, and when you beat those two together you get an emulsion that looks a lot like mayonnaise.
Looking for more Olive Garden copycat recipes? Check these out
- Olive Garden Lasagna Mia
- Olive Garden Creamy Chicken Pasta
- Pasta Rustica
- Olive Garden Breadsticks Copycat Recipe
Popular Homemade Salad Dressings
- KFC Coleslaw Dressing
- Santa Fe Salad Cheesecake Factory
- Blue Cheese Salad Dressing Recipe
- Bacon Salad Dressing
- Ginger Salad Dressing
- Buttermilk Salad Dressing
- Green Jacket Dressing
Be sure to take a look at more of the best Olive Garden copycat recipes and easy salad dressing recipes.
Did you enjoy this copycat recipe? Sign up to be notified when new copycat recipes are released.
Olive Garden Salad Dressing Copycat
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/3 cup white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
- 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 tablespoons grated Romano cheese
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt, or 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Instructions
- Combine all the ingredients in a blender until well mixed.
- If this is a little too tart for your own personal taste, add a little extra sugar.
- Store dressing in an airtight container.
Noodle head
Just tried this recipe after trying many that have claimed to be the famous Olive Garden dressing and was excited as always to taste it… But just like the others it did not taste like it. It still tasted good, but it needed more oil (which I did add) and less vinegar. But overall it was a good tasting dressing. I give it three stars! 🙂
Darryl
This isn’t Olive Gardens current dressing but its amazingly delicious. Minus the corn syrup and sugar. Yumm. Thanks for the post.
Denise
I made this dressing for Christmas and we all loved it. Very good!
Laura Kockelkorn
Any substitutes for Romano cheese? I don’t know where to find it in the country I live in
I_Fortuna
Most creamy dressings are made with eggs and oil (mayo), sour cream or cream. I make this dressing all the time using apple cider vinegar, mayo, oregano and seasoning salt. Yes, OG dressing is very salty, I love it. I am a person that cannot have too much salt but OG dressing and food have never caused me problems. I love their salad and could eat just that when I go. I don’t use sugar in mine and it tastes more like OG to me without it. I don’t even use that much seasoning salt, however, and lemon always enhances the saltiness. I don’t know what the label says but very little OG dressing is needed to dress a salad.
Rick
Nothing like Olive Garden dressing, but not bad.
Emilie's Pastries
Ok, about to try it now….ew………ew, ew, ew…very tart…but good. No, I just went to olive garden yesterday and…ew, ew…ya not quite like olive garden. But, it is good. I didn’t have any Romano cheese, so that might improve the taste if I added that. Good recipe, despite all the negative comments. I’ll have to try tweaking it a bit, though. …ew
Rpaez79
You can buy the Olive Garden Dressing at any Sam’s Club. They have exclusive rights for the first year. It is at a great value as well.
Sheree
thanks for the info….
Kim
I’m confused by the ingredients. The list says 2 TABLEspoons of Romano and 2 TABLEspoons of Parmesan but when you watch the video the author says 2 TEAspoons of each. So which is it? I’d like to try this dressing but want to make sure I’ve got the right amounts.
Brenda Martin
Alex, please send me your Olive Garden salad dressing recipe. bhmartin@charter.net
Thanks!!!!
Anonymous
I am going to agree with Crystalbeasley. I made this tonight, along with a typical salad from OG, and while it wasn’t exactly like theirs, it was very yummy. I wanted a larger amount of dressing so I tripped the recipe, except the vinegar, I only used 1.5. This dressing was very yummy, although I am not quite sure it is the recipe that OG uses.
Crystalbeasley
This isnt exactly like the OG dressing. But it’s very good and so easy to make. I never buy bottled anymore. I just whip this up in a few minutes.
Stephanie
I rarely buy bottled salad dressing any more either.
Buggychaser
Olive Garden salad dressing doesn’t have mayo in it!
Raneroni2
I bought a bottle of their dressing and the ingredients mention oil and eggs. That is what mayo is made of. 🙂
Sofya
After long research and many good italian dressings, but not OG dressings I have came up with THE one:
1Tbsp mayo,
4 Tbsp distilled venigar (other venigars are off- just look at the ingredients in OG),
3 tsp canola oil (olive oil gives too much distinct taste),
1/2 tsp sugar,
4 tbsp fresh lemon juice,
4 Tbsp romano cheese ( there is NO PARMEZAN cheese in the OG ingredients!), this is the main ingredient!
1/4 tsp garlic powder,
1/4 tsp dried parsley,
1/4 tsp italian seasoning
salt to taste
Anonymous
Was not impressed with this salad dressing. Too much lemon or something – did not think it was like OG’s.
Josh bradford
i like these ingrendiants very nice
Karen M.
Love this recipe. I did have to add a little more sugar and italian seasoning. I don’t care if it isn’t exactly like OG, but it was delicious just the same. Thanks anyway.
Karen M.
Love this recipe. I did have to add a little more sugar and italian seasoning. I don’t care if it isn’t exactly like OG, but it was delicious just the same. Thanks anyway.
Jill
This is amaaaaazing!!! Thanks for sharing!!
Rae4d3703
This is awful!!!!
Kelly
Ive never commented before but I feel like I have to because this dressing it outstanding!!! And i personally think it tastes a LOT like Olive Garden. I didnt have corn syrup & used only a Tbsp of Mayo & 2 tsp sugar to account for the corn syrup but left everything else the same & it was fabulous. Thank you for the recipe!!
Uncle Bill
I have not tried this recipe after reading the reviews. I did, however, purchase a bottle of their salad dressing from Olive Garden for $4.95 and exactly recreated their salad at home. Just use Dole’s Just Lettuce mix, add sliced tomatoes, black olives of the American canned variety, pepperoncini peppers, and sliced red onion if you like. It is perhaps noteworthy that their dressing is manufactured by McCormick’s. And while mayonnaise is not specifically listed as an ingredient, they do list eggs, soybean oil, and lemon juice concentrate (probably RealLemon) — prime components of mayo, though less sweet than regular American mayo. They also list milk, probably because of the Romano cheese from cows. The result is an opaque (not translucent) fluid which, when applied to the salad in one or two tablespoons, assumes a translucence. Almost invisible. It freshens the salad ingredients delightfully. I recommend just buying it.
Jonathan Christopher Rys
where did you buy it?
Jean Cary
Olive Garden is great for buying right there at the restaurant. I always buy the black tie cake for my sons birthday (call in advance) the whole cake only cost me $38 and I think it is cut in 12. I have also bought the dressing years ago there.