I think one of my favorite things to do is to recreate my favorite restaurant meals at home. Sometimes I get a really good end result, sometimes it is total yuck. Ok, lots of times, it is kinda yucky. But the process itself is enjoyable for me. Now, if you follow my blog, then you know I always say that even though recipes can sometimes come close to those restaurant favorites, I will never say it tastes exactly like what you get in the restaurant. Because many times, we just don’t have access to certain ingredients that the restaurants do but we can sometimes get the taste pretty darn close. And also, there is just something about eating out that makes food taste better sometimes.
First of all, you didn’t have to cook it. Second of all, you won’t have any dishes to wash. Thirdly, you’re out on the town having a really great time with good folks. All that adds up to a very tasty and enjoyable meal. So even if you can recreate the taste at home, you can’t exactly recreate the experience because those dishes ain’t gonna wash themselves. Having said all that, it’s still fun to try. And one of those recipes that I had to try is the good ole Olive Garden Salad Dressing. It’s kinda like the holy grail of salad dressings. If you’ve never eaten at an Olive Garden, be sure to put it on your bucket list. Most folks like to go there for the salad and breadsticks alone. So I’m gonna say that even if you don’t think this dressing tastes exactly like the one at Olive Garden, I think you’re still gonna really like the way it tastes.
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Serve with your favorite salad fixings.
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- 1 packet Good Seasonings Italian Dressing
- Ingredients needed to make dressing; oil, water & vinegar
- ½ tsp dried Italian Seasoning
- ½ tsp table salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp sugar
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tbsp mayonnaise
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 tbsp white vinegar
- 1 ½ tbsp water
Prepare Good Seasonings Italian Seasonings Dressing as it states on back of package (mixing with oil, water & vinegar in the measurements given on packet)
- Once prepared pour it in a medium bowl, then add additional ingredients listed above (starting with dried Italian Seasoning).
- Using a whisk, mix all ingredients until mixed thoroughly combined.
- Serve with your favorite salad fixings.
Store unused dressing in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 4 weeks. Be sure to give the bottle a good shake before using.
Kiri – I know exactly what you mean! I have a heavy hand when it comes to dressing so I always have to be conscious of how much I'm putting on or then it just becomes gross. LOL
I love the salad and breadsticks at Olive Garden. One of my favorite things!
I am sure this dressing is excellent even if it isn't a clone of the dressing at the restaurant.
Looks fantastic! I always have to force myself to go light on the dressing because I juts drown my salads otherwise. 😉
I can't wait to try this one and I have all of the ingredients already! Thanks for the post! 🙂
Making this!!!! Wow!
YUMMO..Thanks for the recipe..This looks mouthwatering..I have bookmarked it..
Aarthi
http://yummytummy-aarthi.blogspot.com/
I think you and I should open a restarant. Ok, I think you should open a restauant and I will visit you frequently.
This is one of my favorites!! We love to have Olive Night at home!! I have a great recipe on my blog for their Zuppa Toscana soup, it's SO GOOD, one of our favorites!! If you haven't tried it, maybe you can do that one your next Olive Garden nights? 🙂
Thanks for sharing this!! <3
Michaela anaffairfromtheheart.blogspot.com
Would like your Zuppa recipe if you would share it!
That looks so delicious. I love love that dressing. Thanks for sharing your recipe. Come visit us. We have a great low fat crockpot recipe this week and tomorrow roasted veges with grape seed oil. Wonderful.
So glad I came across your site! Can't wait to try this!
Hi Christina! Yes, I would definitely go with the Good Seasons brand on this. You could certainly try it with another brand and let me know how it turns out if you can't find the Good Seasons one. The jar came as part of a Good Seasons package but a mason jar with a lid will work just fine for this too (or any other lidded jar you have hanging around 🙂
I made it using wishbone's Italian dressing mix, I feel like there is a bit too much sugar and would omit it from the recipe next time around. Decent but still not quite on target. I'll eat it!
I love your jar!
Im assuming too, that the brand "good seasons" matters in the recipe. Other brands probably vary a bit on thier spices dont they? I will look for it in the store.
I've lived in Australia for so long now that I haven't given the Olive Garden breadsticks and salad a thought for ages. I can taste it now.
No good seasons here but I think I'll have a try at making it anyway.
MMMM I love olive garden salad dressing as much as the bread sticks!! Can't wait to make this 🙂
Would love to have you link up @ my link party, Tasty Thursday #1: http://mysanfranciscokitchen.com/tasty-thursday-1/
:o)
Yum! I cant wait to try this with the breadsticks and the amazing zuppa toscana soup recipe I have, that really does taste as good as Olive Garden… And maybe some alfredo sauce for breadsticks? Hmm.. Its getting chilly just in time 🙂 Thanks!
The salad looks so tasty, and I'm sure that it tastes like Olive Garden's salad, too. Thanks for sharing the recipe. Now we can have Olive Garden at home, too.
I found this on pinterest. Thanks for sharing. I love their salad dressing and have tried to duplicate it but never quite the same. I will try this.
I like making homemade salad dressings, but I don't do it nearly as often as I should. I should work on that. I know one dressing the husband would like me to work on is the honey-lime dressing from Cheddar's. He's addicted!
I made this tonight and loved it!! I personally never have ate at Olive Garden the first one s opening here in Alaska next week so i will try it out. My hubby though has and said this was pretty darn ls and loved it!!
That is SO awesome to hear!! Yay!! (Is it still okay to say awesome, or does that make me sound old & out of date?? LOL). So happy you liked it! Glad to hear you are getting Olive Garden. We don't eat there very often because it's on the expensive side for our budget but when we do it's a real treat. So it's nice to be able to make these meals at home (for a quarter of the price!)
Shawna, the first picture is after you make the packet of good seasonings dressing. Then, you are going to add additional ingredients to that. Which will give you a full jar. Hope that makes sense! 🙂
Can I ask, did you double this recipe for the 'finished product' photo? I don't understand how it went from the bottom bit of the jar filled from the seasoning packet mix to almost FULL after just adding a few tsps of spices and 1/4 cup of oil. Did I miss something?
This looks great, defiantly going to give it a try. If you are looking for another Olive Garden Copycat recipe you must try the Zuppa Toscano Soup. http://4peatssake.wordpress.com/2011/07/18/olive-garden-copycat-zuppa-toscana-soup/
OK, had our Olive Garden supper tonight and it was fan-tabulous! They all agreed the salad dressing tasted just like OG and they really liked the eazy way garlic breadsticks. # 1 son said to cut back on the sausage and I would have had it perfect. Thanks again for your recipes and all the hard work you do to get the blog out every day.
Mary – you made my day!! yay! So happy your family (and you!) are enjoying the recipes. Your comment meant so much to me and I'm so thrilled you are happy with how all the food is turning out!! Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy day to let me know!
I made this dressing tonight and I LOVED it. thanks for sharing.
Hi Andrea!! Woo hoo!! So happy to hear you loved this one! Thank you so much for coming back to let me know how it turned out for you!!
No thank you for taking the time to figure out my new favorite dressing to make. I just blogged about it and gave a big thank you to you. check it out when you have time. http://www.questfordelish.blogspot.com
I just made this with a brand new Good Seasons cruet, followed the directions exactly and my cruet is nearly full – looks just like the picture.
And even better – tastes sooooo good!! I am serving it at a party tomorrow and I anticipate lots of compliments on this!
Thank you!!
My husband will only eat salad and dressing from olive garden! i cant wait for him to try this! <3 thanks for sharing!
This is my new favorite dressing! I have made it twice already in just three days!
Hi Linda!! Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know! I really appreciate it!! So happy this turned out good for ya!
Great recipe and so easy to make! I read a previous post we can buy the dressing at Olive Garden, but it is probably very expensive. I will have to check next time I get to an Olive Garden.
I work at olive garden and i love it!!! I have been there for three years. The dressing is 6 dollors at bottle. It comes in a glass bottle. I have two old bottles that i have used up so i put my homemade og (olive garden) dressing in those after i make it. You might want to buy a bottle just to save it and put your homemade into later.
Found the brand at the store. Its so much better the day after its mixed. Its pretty stinkin close to Olive Garden. Im sad that I ran out of salad fixins! Very good and totally takes care of that craving I get for thier salad. Thank you!!
Thank you so much for taking the time to come back & let me know how this recipe turned out for ya!! I'm thrilled to hear you liked it! Yay!
So my question is the oil, vinegar & water that you add at the bottom in the recipe in addition to the oil, vinegar & water you use to make the Italian dressing? Thanks
Anonymous, yes it is. 🙂
I've made this and it is really good. Tastes like the real thing. PS one packet of real mayo from any of the fast food places is the exact amount for the recipe.
When making the good seasons dressing, BEFORE adding the other ingredients, I assume you use olive oil, but what kind of vinegar do you use? White wine, red wine, regular white,…? Thanks!
Amber, I use white vinegar when making the Good Seasons dressing as well. Hope that helps! 🙂
Kristi, yes, you make the packet of good seasonings italian dressing first. Then you add in all the other ingredients I have listed. 🙂
You list olive oil, white vinegar and water in recipe but then it calls for those to make the good seasonings dressing…so do you add more later or where those amount listed for what you need for the Good seasonings dressing? Just want to make sure I'm using them twice?
Made this and it was deeeelicious! Thanks so much for sharing!
I made this tonight it was awesome! So close to olive gardens too! Thank you!!
Wow! Love both of these at Olive Garden. Have tried recreating the dressing at home, but am always just a little off….but now I've got a "keeper". Of course, if these taste like the restaraunt, I'll never get my husband out for dinner anymore! Thanks for sharing.
This was very good. How long does it last please? Thanks!
That was about good enough to drink!! 🙂 Thank you!
I have made the ranch dressing recipe using fresh, pressed (minced) garlic. How much fresh garlic would you substitute for the garlic powder in this OG recipe? Also, thank you so much for all your great recipes. I just discovered this site a few weeks ago & love it. Lesa
Hi Lesa, So glad you are enjoying all the recipes you've tried so far! Normally I love to use fresh garlic where I can. It's inexpensive and it adds a ton of flavor! But in this recipe, the garlic powder really is best since the garlic flavor is not a big star in the show here like in the ranch dressing. It's just a subtle background flavor and if you use fresh garlic, it really won't give you that "copycat" olive garden flavor. Hope that helps.
Also, to answer Snowmanlover's question, this dressing keeps in the fridge for 2-3 weeks. 🙂
This may be a stupid question but what is the nutritional value on this like calories serving size etc..?
FYI, I was told by the wait staff at OG that the dressing has parmesan in it (I have a dairy allergy so I asked) perhaps adding some would make it even more authentic. But if this tastes like it then i'm going to have to try the dairy free version!
Anonymous 1 – I'm sorry, I can't really help you out with the nutritional information. I'm sorry!
Anonymous 2 – I always sprinkle a bit of parmesan on my salad when I make it but I don't put it in the actual dressing. 🙂
Ok I just made it. Taste darn close to the olive garden dressing. I used a fresh garlic clove instead of garlic powder and 2 tsp of parmesan cheese.
Made this for our salad tonight. Since we can't buy the Good Seasons seasoning here in Canada, I substituted Club House Italian Dressing mix. Made the dressing as per instructions…only modification I made was about 1 tbsp. of parmasan cheese added. This dressing was the bomb…just like Olive Garden!! This recipe is definitely a keeper 🙂
@anon asking about the nutritional info, I think you would be pretty safe in just going with the value of your olive oil.. so i would think it would be pretty close to 120 cal/tbs, with it all being fat cals BUT it's the good fats,but you'd still want to use it as sparingly as possible. Yes I know there is sugar and mayo in it, but it's a small amount and it also has water init which would come into play also.I just think you'd be safe the way I said.
I used to work at the Olive Garden and my son got totally hooked to the dressing when I worked there…it was the only dressing he would eat (and therefore the only time he would accept salad as his veg of choice! Now as a full time mommy blogger, it's nice to have this in the arsenal. Great idea and thanks so much!
~Kate
I made this dressing last night and it was IDENTICAL to the Olive Garden! I live in Manhattan so the only Olive Garden we have is in Times Square, a great area but one in which people who live in NYC tend to want to avoid. You saved me a trip to get our fill.
I modified your recipe a bit by adding an 1/8 cup of fresh shredded parmesan cheese, some black olives, sliced onions and a couple pepperoncini peppers into the dressing. I threw these ingredients in a couple hours before I planned to serve, so they could marinate and soak up the dressing.
I also made your breadsticks the night before and reheated them the next night to serve (reheated at 350 and rebrushed with oil/garlic powder mix).
I would have to give you two thumbs way up on this. Perfect job recreationg the recipes!
I made this last night for my boyfriend (as well as the breadsticks) and let's just say I may get a ring out of this. You nailed it! It was absoultely exact to the dressing I have had (many a times) at The Olive Garden!
I modified it a bit (after tasting it and agreeing it tasted exactly like OG's) by adding the following ingredients and letting them marinate in the dressing for a couple hours before I served: about an 1/8 cip shredded parmesan, 1/2 cup sliced onions, black olives and pepperoncini peppers.
We live in Manhattan so you saved us a trip down to the only OG in the city – which is located in Times Square, an area which is great but at the same time, one in which those who live in NYC tend o want to avoid.
Thanks again!!
I would like to know what is in the salad…It looks delicious!! Plus I will be trying the dressing it also sounds very good!! 😉
Kgibsongirl, you said you added the sliced onions, pepperchinis & olives to marinate, does that mean you removed them before serving or did you chop them up real fine and leave them in dressing when serving?
IMO.. this recipe is spot on perfect and tastes exactly like the real deal.
My husband and I use to celebrate our anniversary at olive garden every year (our tradition) but in the past two years we haven't been able to go (with having small kids), so we skip it. But this year we can have olive garden at home, the tradition lives on 🙂 ty.
Hi!
JUST finished making/ eating this dressing, and I have to say I love it! OG dressing is my favorite, but being a broke college girl means I don't get to eat there very often! & I've been trying to find a great dressing to eat at home- besides the ever faithful ranch! I just wanted to thank you for sharing this recipe! I'm going to go fix myself another helping of salad… 🙂
Thank you SO much for this recipe. It's awesome! I'm going to post the link to your website on my facebook page so my friends can check it out for themselves. Hope you don't mind my sharing it.
Sooooo delicious! Pregnant currently and I CRAVE this! Delicious!
Hi, I just have a question about storing this. I have all the ingredients and I am about to make this but I am afraid I will have to toss out most of it after 2-3 weeks. Is there anyway to prolong the life of the dressing? Maybe freezing half or putting it in an air tight container? (haha i have no idea if it will even freeze) It is only me and my husband and I dont like having to throw stuff out if i can help it! (Although, we might end up eating more salads because of the dressing and then it wont be an issue)Thanks cant wait to try it!
Ok, so when you make the dressing first according to the directions on the packet, do you use Veggie oil or Olive oil? Then add the 1/4 Olive oil at the end?
Thanks!
Made this at lunch; Delish! Now I'm waiting for my 12 and 13 year olds to get home from school with their friends; I have a huge bowl of salad waiting in the fridge I know they will eat it right up! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
I love your salad bowl! Where can I find one like that?
I am excited to make the dressing!
I just love reading everyone's comments! I'm just so happy y'all are enjoying this recipe!! Sarah, I got that bowl a few years ago at Target (it was a Black Friday sale..LOL. But I have recently seen a similar one at Kohl's. 🙂
I just made this salad dressing and WOW, to me, it tastes just like Olive Garden's! Thank so much for posting this 🙂
Very, very similar! Tastes great! My new go to vinaigrette for sure! Thank you so much for the recipe:)
Loved the recipe! It was delicious (coming from a non-salad eater!). Thanks again.
The salad dressing was delicious. I made it for a party we had at our house and it was a hit. Thanks!
This was amazing! The only change I made was I used cider vinegar (it was all I had) and I added Parmesan to the dressing! The whole family raved! This will be my go to dressing! Thank you so much for sharing!
I live abroad and no Italian dressing spice packets here (aka good seasons). Can you please tell me what the ingredients in those packets are (minus the chemicals of course, lol). Thank you!
2 Tablespoons basil
2 Tablespoons marjoram
2 Tablespoons oregano
2 Tablespoons rosemary
2 Tablespoons thyme
Just tried this recipe and it was very good. I did leave out the salt because the dressing mix has too much for me, but everything else was perfect. Thank you so much for sharing this.
This is a great recipe. Not exactly Olive Garden but just as good. I use fresh garlic and add fresh grated parmesan cheese to the dressing. I also use less olive oil. Now I can get my salad fix anytime.
on the recipe for the Olive Garden salad
dressing do you use the oil amount on the packet and an additional 1/4 cup?
Anonymous – yes. You make the package exactly the way the instructions state on the back. Then add all the additional ingredients listed above to it.
Excellent recipe! In my early 20's I worked as a sou chef in a high end Italian resteraunt (locally owned, non franchise) Quite a few of our finer chefs tried to emulate the olive gardens Italian dressing recipe, none came as close as yours. I found the recipe and made it at home, my wide and two year old are infatuated with it!! Thank you, good work and congrats on your successful blog
My guys (husband and grown boys) who eat nothing but ranch dressing) DEVOURED this! It was yummy and I appear like superwoman after a 12 hour day. Yep, I'm that mom. Pinterest makes me look like I can cook fabulously.. Tee hee hee
I don't know if y'all have ever tried adding ranch to the salad along with the Italian dressing but it is an amazing flavor!
Use canola oil or salad oil. Olive oil varies in flavor.
I just made this dressing for dinner tonight and it was so close to OG's. My husband loved it. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!I am so happy;)
I am so happy to have found your blog and this recipe!!! I made it tonight and it is absolutely so close to Olive Garden's dressing. My husband loved it too!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!
I worked at Olive Garden for ONE day back in 1980. A new restaurant was opening so we were to have a week of training. I quit because I didn't want to have to sing the "Hospitaliano" song that they used to make their employees sing, I think for birthdays since I can't sing…however, they told us that day that the dressing is made using Wishbone Italian and doctored up with egg and other seasonings. That was before it came out that raw eggs were going to kill you, so not sure if they went to the mayo or still use eggs. I never noticed a difference if they changed it. I use Good Seasons all the time so I can't wait to try this.
That is interesting! Hope it came out good for ya!
Made this today and i must say this comes pretty darn close to the real thing. I cant wait for my husband to taste it 🙂
Hope he loved it!
I made this recipe.. It was amazing! However, when I refrigerated it for one night it got all hard and crusty. It was in the door, so it's not in the coldest place of the fridge. It needs to be refrigerated because of the mayo, but is there anyway to keep it liquidy? I want to be able to use this more than once. 🙁
That's because of the olive oil that's in it. Jut put it out on the counter for a few minutes for it to warm up a tad and it will be easily pourable in minutes Hope that helps. So happy you like this recipe! 🙂
Okie, I will continue to do that then. Thanks for the recipe. 🙂
Hi. I made this a couple weeks ago and it was delicious. I added a little extra something (can't remember) by mistake and it was still yumm yumm yummy!! Can't wait to try your other recipes. Gracias!!
Thank you so much Maria!
Are you adding extra oil, vinegar and water than just what the packet calls for?
You mix the packet up first according to the packet directions. Then you add the additional ingredients above to it.
I made this and it was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for sharing!!
Thank you! And thanks for taking the time to come back and let me know how it turned out for you!
Love this salad dressing! We don't have an Olive Garden but this gives me my fix! I like to cut raw vegies (carrots, celery, cucumber etc.) add dressing and feta cheese. I have that as a salad at least once or twice a week.
So happy you like this one! I make it a lot. It really is a favorite of ours.
what's the calorie count on the "olive garden salad dressing"? anyone?
I'm sorry I don't have an answer for you. I think there are programs you can use online that help you to figure out calorie counts as well as fat grams. Someone told me about a weight watchers program online that does it but I'm sorry that I don't have a link for you. Maybe someone on here will be able to help!
the basic recipe on the package is about 130/2 tblsp. However you can make it with less oil which I did, Leaving out 1/4 cup of oil.
I would guess with the added mayo it would be about that or less.
When I get around to it I will figure it out exactly
ETA based on a 1/8 cup serving using reducing oil (as on packet) I came up with 80 cals
We love Olive Garden dressing. Does the Good Seasoning packet have MSG in it? I just decided to start making my own dressings today when I saw the ingredients on the store bought bottle.
I just looked at the back of one of the packets of Good Seasons dressing mix and do not see MSG as one of the ingredients. Hope that helps!
I live in Toronto, Canada and they have closed all of Olive Garden's years ago. I loved that place, I will try this dressing to revive the memories. Lois
I made this salad dressing tonight and it was wonderful. It tasted just live Olive Gardens and my family loved it.
Looks great! This is my favorite part about going to Olive Garden. Just pass me some salad and breadsticks 🙂 Krista @ A Handful of Everything
I have made your dressing twice now and the whole family LOVES this dressing!! My husband who is notorious for only eating the TOP layer of his salad (aka where all the good stuff is) actually cleans his plate if he has this dressing. He told me tonight to never buy dressing again! Thanks a million for sharing this!!
I made this dressing last night. I used part of the batch on a green salad (which was wonderful), and the rest on pasta salad. I believe it is one of the best pasta salads I have ever made! Thank you so much for yet another great recipe!
I made this this morning, and it is absolutely FANTASTIC! Thank you SO much for posting this! I've been trying to find a way to get myself to eat salds for a while, I just never feel full after, but I've always loved the Olive Garden dressing. I'll definitely be using this in the future!
Worked at Olive Garden for years. They take premade Italian dressing and add raw eggs and parm cheese to make it their own. Your addition of mayo makes up for the eggs, but you're clearly missing the cheese.
What type of oil do you suggest using in making the packet of dressing, before adding additional ingredients. Also, will apple cider vinegar work as well as white vinegar….thanks…love your blog and all the great recipes and info!
During the holidays everyone in the family gets together and we all have one food item to bring or make for dinner. Last year I was responsible for doing the SALAD. I made this recipe and it was such a hit that it's been a favorite family request ever since. Now it's "official" I am the family's" Holiday "Salad King" (It's Christmas!) and I'm whipping up a batch of this fabulous dressing right now!
I was wondering which Olive Oil to use. There are so many, it makes my head spin. Extra virgin, virgin, classic, and on and on. I appreciate any advice. Thanks!
Looks great! always wondered how to! only thing id advise is add like a TBsp of powdered parm…i know there's has it in it! 🙂
Really good,I used 1/2 water and 1/2oil for the package ingredients to lighten it up added about 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese and increased mayonnaise to a tablespoon,fantastic!
I made this exactly as directed and used it to dress a summery Pasta Salad. YUMMY is it an excellent dressing.
Just made this today, it was awesome. After I poured the majority of the dressing back into the dressing jar I poured some salad into the bowl (I had mixed the dressing in) so I wouldn't waste a drop.