Make every salad taste amazing…
Olive Garden seems to be know for so many favorites. Alfredo pasta, Zuppa Toscana, Pasta e Fagioli, those bread stick and my favorite….the crunchy, endless salad. I’m not gonna lie though…I probably wouldn’t love the salad as much without their famous dressing. YUM!
Well folks, now you can have that delicious salad dressing whenever you want! To top it off, it’s SUPER EASY to make! Go grab your favorite salad and let’s get shakin’!
Copycat Olive Garden Salad Dressing Recipe
- 1 packet Italian Dressing Mix
- 3/4 cup oil (vegetable/canola)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 Tablespoon mayonnaise
- 1/3 cup white vinegar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp dried Italian seasoning
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- OPTIONAL: 1/4 cup shredded or gratedRomano&Parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top of your salad
- Using a whisking dressing mixer, mix all ingredients until thoroughly combined. Refrigerate for at least an hour to marinate flavors.
- Use right away, or can be stored in and airtight container, in the refrigerator for about 3 weeks.
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Copycat Olive Garden Salad Dressing Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 packet Italian Dressing Mix
- 3/4 cup oil vegetable/canola
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 Tablespoon mayonnaise
- 1/3 cup white vinegar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp dried Italian seasoning
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- OPTIONAL: 1/4 cup shredded or grated Romano & Parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top of your salad
Instructions
- Using a whisk or dressing mixer, mix all ingredients until thoroughly combined. Refrigerate for at least an hour to marinate flavors.
- Use right away, or can be stored in and airtight container, in the refrigerator for about 3 weeks.
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Nutrition Information:
Nutrition Disclaimer
Family Fresh Meals is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is only an estimate. We recommend running the ingredients through an online nutritional calculator if you need to verify any information.
Post updated September 2020
telephonelady says
Yummy! Tried this last night.
Corey says
Yay! I am so glad you liked it 🙂
Susan Mead says
Finally! So much flavor, so much tang! (I’ve been eating it with a spoon.) I’ve been looking for a recipe with little to no sugar.
Value added: It made my boring chicken soup really good.
SAsithorn Ast says
I made this dressing and it’s soooooo delicious…making more for this week because it’s all gone 🙂 Thank you!
Corey says
So happy you loved it 🙂
Maya says
What’s the difference between the Italian dressing mix to the Italian seasoning?
googled Both and the have same ingredients in them.. Confused..
stephanie says
italian dressing mix has things like salt, sugar, garlic, onion, bell pepper, thickening agent, etc.
italian seasoning is just green herbs. (basil, oregano, rosemary, etc.)
hope that helps 🙂
BARBARA STRUEBING says
Delicious!!!!!!!!!! Thank-you!
Emma Branicki says
hey, how much is a packet of dressing?
Karen Sanchez says
1 packet of Italian dressing mix is 0.7oz
Shirley says
Very good!!! We enjoy Olive Garden salad and can have that wonderful taste made at home. Thank you!
Mike G. says
HI, I love Olive Garden dressing and use it on 1 to 2 big salads a day. Unfortunately I’m having to cut back on my sodium intake or start taking medications. I took a look at the nutritional values on my bottle of dressing and realized I was taking in a huge part of my daily sodium intake with the dressing. I would love to try your dressing recipe and I was wondering if you knew how I might be able to reduce the amount of sodium.
Emjay says
It’s a great recipe. Try omitting the extra 1/2 tsp salt, it’s already in the Italian Dressing mix. We did that and didn’t miss the extra salt at all.
Karen Thompson says
We use Crystal Diamond salt for everything – it has less than half the sodium of regular salt. No difference in taste.
Ed says
Salad dressings are huge sources of sodium so you really need to make your own if you can. You can find a copycat recipe for the Good Seasoning dressing mix……try that, or one that we found that is equally excellent is the Panera Bread branded Balsamic dressing that you can buy in grocery stores.
Brittany says
Made this and it turned out really good! I’ve made it twice!
Steph says
As someone who is obsessed with Olive Garden’s salad, I found that it needed a little bit more white wine vinegar to really get that thing. It definitely helps get a lot closer to the Olive Garden dressing taste. Don’t forget to put your plate in the freezer, prep all of your ingredients and stick them in the freezer for a good five minutes beforehand ( including the dressing! ) then take it out, add the dressing tossed salad add some Parmesan on it it is so amazing! Nothing better than a super cold crunchy take a salad.
Josette says
I love salads but do like cold salads. I like mine room temperature, and I even like warm roasted vegetable salad with a dressing. I haven’t tried this yet, but will make this week.
Jennifer Von Canon says
It’s White Vinegar. (Not wine vinegar) if your dressing is missing the extra tang-this is why. Also – Olive Garden emulsifies with egg yolks, not mayo.
Stephanie says
What brand is the packet of Italian dressing mix? Or, I guess, where do I get it, does it matter the brand, etc.? Thanks!
Corey says
Brand shouldn’t matter since they basically all have the same ingredients.
Karen Johnson says
Made this recipe several times. Last night added a little minced garlic and shallot before blending… really kicked the flavor up a notch.
Love cooking says
Delicious! Thank you for sharing this recipe. ?
Wayne says
Really like this recipe. Costco stopped selling it don’t know why. Too expensive other stores so I already had all the ingredients except for the Italian salad mix got it at winco .48 cents each. So not only is it a great dressing I can make it for under a dollar. Thanks for posting
Emjay says
Excellent recipe–couldn’t tell the difference! So, I’ve made this dressing twice now–each time with different EVOO (one light-tasting and one more robust). We all preferred the dressing with the light-tasting EVOO and thought it tasted more like the restaurant dressing. Also, first time I omitted salt (there’s salt already in the Italian Dressing mix) and we liked it better that way too.
Laura says
Made this several time so far. Absolutely love it. Made exactly as written. Definitely a keeper.
Corey says
So happy you love it Laura!!
Sheila Price says
Can I use Apple Cider vinegar as opposed to white vinegar?
Corey says
You can, the taste will just be a little different than the Olive Garden dressing. Still good, just a little different
Bernadette says
What brand of Italian dressing mix?
ROSE tucker says
One word. DELICIOUS.
Revelle A. says
This is my go-to recipe for salad dressing! The whole family loves it!!!
Tom Schramm says
Made this on a whim just to try it and this is an awesome recipe!! Had to reduce the salt for health reasons and used 1/2 cup grapeseed oil and 1/2 cup olive oil. If you like Olive Garden Dressng this ia a great copycat!! And no high fructose corn syrup like the store bought stuff.
Courtney says
What brand of Italian dressing mix do you suggest? This recipe looks awesome and will be simple to veganize with vegan mayo. I am excited to try it!
Corey says
I usually use our store brand mix.
erin campbell says
Excellent! No changes necessary. Always a hit when I serve it and people always ask me for the recipe.
Brad says
I’ve been craving this recipe but the Olive Garden brand at the store is filled with soy and preservatives. I’m so happy I found your recipe! I substituted the mayo with Greek yogurt. Gave it that creamy texture without extra fat. I also
used an immersion blender. It took just a few push of the button to get it mixed. Tasted amazing! For anyone that’s allergic to soy (me) I used Walmart house brand of Italian mix.
Susan Kelly says
SO much like the real thing at Olive Garden. Just fabulous! Happy dance time!! Bunches of thanks for sharing.
Melissa says
I’m wondering if I can use all olive oil instead of veg oil and olive. How will it affect the taste?
Corey says
I’ve only made the recipe as written Melissa, so I can’t say for sure.
Kori says
I make it this way because we only have light olive oil in our house and it is great!
Cindy Roy says
I’ve made your recipe many times…an absolute favourite at our house! The flavours are bang on! Thanks for sharing.
Patricia A Molina says
Yes I made this and so good
Chef Roy says
There seems to be Parmesan /Romano in the dressing. Would that work
Dawn says
This dressing is killer good so yummy. Made it for a family get together. Sister and sister-in-law both wanted the recipe 😋
Corey says
Awwwwe. I love that! Thanks for sharing Dawn 🙂
Missy H says
This was actually delicious. Tasted like Olive Garden, but way better. Just found this recipe in a google search. I was suspicious of the water, but I trusted the process! I used apple cider vinegar because it’s what I had and did grate fresh garlic. It was legit delicious. Thanks so much.
Corey says
Yay! I am so happy you loved the dressing Missy 🙂
CoxFam says
Our family is addicted to this dressing! We make all our dressings fresh and this one is worth the extra effort.
Kori says
Olive Garden salad and breadsticks were a childhood favorite. After being sick recently it was the only thing that sounded good.
I am vegan so I made it with Veganaise and I only had light olive oil so I used entirely that.
Have made this several times and the recipe made it into my folder for future use.
Thank you for helping me with this craving!
Eva Johnson says
Love this recipe. However , How much is a serving size? ( Tbsp or tsp ) How many carbs in that serving ?
Rachel says
I love the Olive garden salad and scoured the internet to replicate the dressing. The bottled one they sell had processed ingredients I didn’t want such as soybean, high fructose corn syrup (why is this even in salad dressing??), and other ingredients that were hard to pronounce. I like to buy/eat food that has ingredients I know.
I made this recipe. We didn’t have italian dressing mix since we cook from scratch mostly. So I just omitted that. It came out really tasty! Just served it over good quality organic salad greens, cherry tomatoes, slices shallots, cucumbers and croutons. My 2 yo and 5 yo ate 2 servings each even though we never require or even ask them to eat veggies. We just serve it with other food, in this case fried chicken. But they preferred the salad and this dressing lol. Thank you Corey and team for the recipe. It’s going to be a regular in our home. <3
Angela says
Thanks for posting the Nutritional information per serving, but how much is one serving?
Corey says
About 2 tablespoons
Jeanne C Orrison says
This is a keeper…use it regularly.
Valentina Lovendahl says
AMAZING! I live in Europe, so sadly I can’t buy the original salad dressing. Which I was disappointed about for a LONG time so I decided to look for recipes online and tried this one, I was a bit skeptical at first but, WOW! It tastes JUST LIKE IT! I’m obsessed! This is my go-to now, thanks for this!