Copycat Olive Garden Salad

Having only eaten breakfast sandwiches & ice cream earlier, we decided to have a salad for dinner so we at least had one healthy meal today. 

There was a coupon in the paper last week for bottles of Olive Garden’s Signature Italian dressing.  While I’ve seen several copycat versions of the dressing recipe, this bottle is the official mix of ingredients used at the restaurant. 

The salad is very simple but so amazing – at the restaurant most dishes come with unlimited soup or salad, and I always opt for the salad.  Most of the time when I dine there, I fill up on the salad and bring my entrée home as leftovers. 

For any of you who want to recreate it at home, I’ve included instructions for a copycat dressing if you are unable to find the official version at your grocery store. 

I didn’t really measure the ingredients – I put more olives and onions than the Olive Garden normally puts and less banana peppers (the original uses pepperoncini but I already had banana peppers in my fridge). 

Copycat Olive Garden Salad

Ingredients:

• Romaine lettuce
• 1-2 tomatoes
• ½ onion, sliced
• Black olives
• Banana peppers or pepperoncini
• Croutons
• Parmesan cheese
• Pepper
• Olive Garden Signature Italian Dressing (or you can make your own – Family Fresh Meals has a copycat recipe)

Directions:

1. Toss all ingredients together & serve!