DIY Olive Garden Salad Dressing

We don’t visit the Olive Garden very often, but when we do, I make sure to load up on their salad and breadsticks.  I honestly could drink their salad dressing straight from the bottle – it’s so good! I’ve been trying for years to dupe their dressing recipe and never really been successful.  Until now!  I found this recipe on foodnetwork.com and thought I’d give it a try.  It was close, but I made a few small modifications and I personally think this as close as I’m going to get to the real thing.

What you’ll need:

• 1/4 cup Canola Oil
• 1 tablespoon White Wine Vinegar (or Cider Vinegar)
• 1 tablespoon of White Vinegar
• 3 tablespoons of Mayonaise
• 1 tablespoons of Lemon Juice
• 1/4 teaspoon of Pepperonicini juice
• 2 tablespoons of Fresh Grated Parmesan Cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon of Garlic Seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon of Italian Seasoning

Combine ingredients into a blender, or a salad dressing shaker and mix until fully blended.  I personally use this salad dressing shaker and I love it because I can just throw all the ingredients in and give it a good shake, and I’m good to go.

I like to double the recipe and I find that the dressing lasts me a week of salads for lunch; I tend to keep it simple for myself, but if I was making it for a group and I wanted an authentic Olive Garden salad experience, I’d pour this over a mix of iceberg and romaine lettuce, sliced tomatoes, pepperoncini peppers, black olives, red onion, matchstick carrots, chopped purple cabbage, and croutons.  Top with freshly shredded Romano cheese and freshly cracked black pepper.  And maybe add some warm breadsticks too…;)

Adapted from foodnetwork.com  

Enjoy! 🙂