Olive Garden Salad

A copycat recipe for the famous Olive Garden Salad full with juicy sweet berries, savory black olives, sharp red onions, garlicky croutons, tangy pepperoncini peppers and salty parmesan. The salad is dressed in a homemade creamy Italian dressing (or catch the Olive Garden dressing in the shop).

Prep Time25

Total Time25

Course: Salad

Cuisine: American

Calories: 299kcal

Author: Angela

Ingredients

½ cup whole black-olives
8 oz romaine-lettuce, coarsely chopped
2 large roma-tomatoes, thinly sliced
6 whole pepperoncini-peppers
⅓ cup parmesan-cheese, freshly grated
¼ of 1 large red-onion, very thinly sliced
1 cup garlic-herb flavored-croutons (store-bought or homemade)

For the Dressing

1 ½ tsp dijon-mustard
½ tsp dried-oregano
⅓ cup red-wine-vinegar
1 tsp granulated white-sugar
½ tsp Italian-seasoning
2 tbsp good quality full-fat-mayo
½ cup olive-oil

Instructions

For the Salad

Coarsely cut the lettuce then wash & throughly dry. Put lettuce in a large-bowl. Top the salad with black-olives, thinly sliced tomatoes, very finely sliced red onion and pepperoncini.

For Dressing

In a large-mason-jar add all of the dressing ingredients.
Put on the lid and shake to blend. It may take a moment of great vigorous shaking, however, the mayo should fully integrate (keep shaking till it does) In case you have time, make this ahead and chill in the refrigerator (intensifies-flavors). Shake again before adding.

Assembly

Toss the salad with the dressing (you likely won't use all of the dressing, use what you would like.
Add the croutons & freshly grated parmesan-cheese directly on the top and serve immediately.

Notes

Just include cheese, dressing and croutons into the total amount of salad which will be eaten the exact same day that you make it. The lettuce, veggies or croutons do not sit well with the dressing, the croutons will get soggy.

There's a whole lot of dressing! It's possible to halve it if you would like. It'll last 5-7 days saved in an airtight container in the refrigerator.