Olive Garden Salad
That crisp restaurant salad at home — Copycat Olive Garden Salad, Olive Garden Salad Dressing, Big Italian Salad, Pasta House Salad — for busy weeknights.
★ lunch
lunchCopycat Olive Garden Salad
Have all-you-can-eat Olive Garden salad at home.
Colleen WelcherIngredients
- 4 cups American blend salad mix
- 2 cups Whole, pitted black olives
- 1 cup Whole pepperonis
- 1/2 an onion Red onion, sliced into half rings
- Freshly grated Parmesan, for topping
- 1/4 cup Olive oil
- 2 TBS White wine vinegar
- 3 Tbs Mayonnaise
- 2 tsp Dried Italian seasoning
- From 1 lemon Lemon juice
- 1 tsp Garlic powder
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- 1Make the dressing: in a small bowl, whisk together oil, vinegar, mayonnaise, Italian seasoning, lemon juice, garlic powder and salt until everything is emulsified. Refrigerate until ready to use.
- 2Make the salad: toss greens with olives and onions. Serve topped with Parmesan cheese and pepperoncinis (and croutons if desired).
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Open in Pepper →The Salad Everybody Actually Eats
A cold bowl of crunchy lettuce with black olives, pepperoncini and a tangy dressing gets picked clean in a way plain greens never do. It's the one salad my kids ask for by name, and it takes about ten minutes to put together.
Cooks on Pepper reach for this collection on spaghetti nights, when the garlic bread is in the oven and they need something fresh on the table fast, or when they're feeding a crowd and want one big bowl to pass around.
Every recipe here is a version of that idea: the Copycat Olive Garden Salad with its olives and pepperoncini, the Olive Garden Salad Dressing you can shake up in a jar, a Chickpea Italian Salad and a Garden Salad with sliced Chicken Tenders when you want it to be dinner, plus Pasta House Salad with artichoke hearts.
Quick Tips
- 1
Chill the bowl first
Stick your serving bowl in the freezer for 10 minutes before tossing. Cold metal or glass keeps the lettuce crisp all through dinner.
- 2
Dry the greens well
Spin or pat lettuce completely dry; dressing slides right off wet leaves and pools at the bottom.
- 3
Shake the dressing hard
Oil, vinegar and mayonnaise need a good 30 seconds of shaking in a jar to come together and stay emulsified.
- 4
Dress right before serving
Toss no more than 5 minutes ahead, and start with half the dressing so nothing goes soggy.
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