Olive Garden Salad

Olive Garden Salad Dressing
■1/2 C. mayonnaise
■1/3 C. white vinegar
■1 tsp. vegetable oil
■2 Tbsp. corn syrup
■2 Tbsp. Parmesan cheese
■2 Tbsp. Romano cheese
■1/4 tsp. garlic salt
■1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning
■1/2 tsp. parsley flakes
■1 Tbsp. lemon juice

One of the best things about the Olive Garden is their never-ending salad bowl. They sell the house dressing right there at the restaurant, but I thought it would be easier (and more frugal) to try and duplicate the Olive Garden salad dressing at home. A quick internet search turned up dozens of recipes, most of which were exactly like the one above.

What’s nice about the Olive Garden salad dressing recipe is that the ingredients are readily available. In fact, you may already have them in your refrigerator/pantry. Toss with fresh tomatoes, Vidalia onions, black olives, croutons, pickled Pepperoncini and freshly grated Parmesan cheese to give you a true Olive Garden restaurant experience.

Amazing how you can find just about any knock-off recipe on line these days.

When my cousin first started on WW she said she really liked the Zuppa Toscana soup from Olive Garden so I found a recipe, made it and it tasted just like the soup at the restaurant. It's a potato/Italian sausage/kale soup. Once I had the flavors figured out it wasn't difficult to break it down and drop the carb and fat content so it was a soup that could be enjoyed on the WW eating plan.

The things I incorporated instead of the high carb, high fat ..... Instead of regular Italian sausage I used turkey Italian sausage, instead of potatoes I used cauliflower and instead of heavy cream I used canned no fat milk. Oh, and I upped the amount of kale by more than double so it was filling but not heavy.

It's fun to take those recipes and play around with them to make them more friendly to your own dietary needs while still getting the same basic taste.

I make that same one all the time. One point....unless it has time to let the flavors meld, it's awful. So make sure to give it 15-30 minutes before you eat it or you won't like it.

Have thet changed the recipe? Pretty sure it didn't used to have mayo.

This recipe is from someone who said they used to work there.

1 gal. Wishbone Italian Dressing
4 oz eggs (2)
8 oz Romano Cheese
1 oz dried Parsley
1 oz Dried Oregano
 
Mix all ingredients well and refrigerate. 

NormM wrote:This recipe is from someone who said they used to work there.

1 gal. Wishbone Italian Dressing
4 oz eggs (2)
8 oz Romano Cheese
1 oz dried Parsley
1 oz Dried Oregano
 
Mix all ingredients well and refrigerate. 

I doubt that they would start with pre-made salad dressing. Also, I think they'd have to tell people that there were raw eggs in their dressing or risk being sued.

We've never been to Olive Garden. When I see the ads and I'm tempted, I just remind myself that we usually don't like fast food (or portion control kind of restaurants). But even with the good food we have here and the proliferation of restaurants, people still go there, like they go to Applebee's and other chains. Sometimes it amazes me that people here will go to someplace like Red Lobster when we have so much fresh seafood (even Maine lobster) available all the time and at a very reasonable price.