Copy Cat Olive Garden Salad
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A copy cat recipe for the Olive Garden Salad that you can’t get enough of! Juicy tomatoes, salty olives, spicy pepperoncini peppers, crisp red onion, crunchy croutons and salty parmesan cheese are tossed with romaine lettuce and topped with that delicious Olive Garden Italian Dressing. Add chicken to make it a meal or serve along side your main course – this salad is a keeper!
Who loves Olive Garden Salad and bread sticks? I do! I do! I will admit…I haven’t been there in yeeeears, like since I was 15 years old, but that doesn’t mean I can’t love their salad right?
My girlfriends and I would go to Olive Garden for dinner ALL.THE.TIME. It was during that fashion period when frayed jean skirts were in. I only remember that because we took a picture in front of Olive Garden (not joking) and I swear we all were wearing an Abercrombie jean skirt.
I am writing this post in my heart PJ bottoms, a maternity top (my baby is almost 8 months old) and a black cardigan from Target.
Oh how times have changed.
But what has not changed, is this salad. It’s a keeper! My sister makes this all the time when we come over for dinner. This is a no brainer recipe that’s nice to have in your back pocket. If you need a quick side dish or are in charge of bringing salad to the family holiday dinner, this is your recipe. It’s so pretty and tastes good with EVERYTHING.
I served this exact salad on Saturday evening except I added some cranberries because…well…I wanted to. It was delicious! The cranberries added a nice sweetness but they’re definitely not necessary. I served it with Lay’s potato chips and Diamond Burgers.
See? It goes with EVERYTHING.
If you don’t like Italian dressing you can use a balsamic instead. Do whatever pleases your palate.
Save this one, for sure!
Don’t forget to pin this recipe on Pinterest by clicking the image below!
- 2 bags romaine lettuce
- Sliced pepperoncini peppers (as much or as little as you would like)
- Handful of Parmesan Cheese
- Sliced red onion (as much or as little as you would like)
- Cherry tomatoes (as much or as little as you would like)
- Olives – I used Kalamata (as much or as little as you would like)
- Croutons (store-bought or homemade)
- Olive garden Salad dressing
- Homemade croutons
- 1 small loaf of of bread cut into 1 inch cubes
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 pinches of salt
- 2 pinches of black pepper
- 2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
- Prepare ingredients by slicing or chopping and place in a bowl or on a plate and arrange ingredients as you would like. Note that you should measure the ingredients based off of your personal taste.
- If you are making homemade croutons, cut a load of bread into 1 inch cubes, drizzle with olive and season with salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese and bake in a 425 degree oven for about 10 minutes.
Olive Garden Salad is the best!! I can’t wait to try your homemade version!
Hi Jessica, love this salad!!! I have teens now and they love to go to Olive Garden. Every year we get a gift card to OG for Christmas and we always go on New Year’s afternoon, around 4, before it gets busy. I always get unlimited salad and soup. Always vow to skip the bread sticks, but sometimes I succumb. So glad to have this great recipe, and I love everything you included!
Thanks so much for the kind comments Allie! I bet your kiddos love it – I sure did!!