Olive Garden Salad Dressing
This homemade copycat Olive Garden Salad Dressing tastes even better than the original and the bottled stuff! It works great in pasta salads and as a marinade too!
A CREAMY ITALIAN DRESSING RECIPE
I think one of my favorite things to do is to recreate my favorite restaurant meals at home, like with this Olive Garden Salad Dressing. 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 but we can get the taste pretty darn close. Also, I know you can totally buy this stuff in the grocery store now but I promise you that this version will taste WAY better.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Yes. First you are going to prepare the packet of Good Seasons Italian Dressing just like it tells you to do on the back of the packet. Then you will take that prepared dressing and add the other ingredients listed below to turn this into Olive Garden Salad Dressing.
If you want the full Olive Garden experience then serve this with my Olive Garden Breadsticks and Olive Garden Pasta e Fagioli or Zuppa Toscana!
This dressing is delicious in pasta salads and as a chicken marinade!
Store unused dressing in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Be sure to give the bottle a good shake before using.
If you’ve never seen Good Seasons Italian Dressing before, you can usually find it down the aisle in your grocery store where all the other salad dressings are. The packets are usually near where they keep the packets of ranch dressing. Most stores carry the boxed sets that also come with the salad dressing cruet. See my ingredient image below for reference.
You will need:
– 1 bag of iceberg lettuce mix
– 6-8 pepperoncini peppers
– 6 ounces of whole black olives
– ½ red onion, sliced into rings
– 1 Roma tomato, sliced
– 1 cup of croutons
– ½-1 cup of parmesan cheese, freshly grated
Add the lettuce to a large salad bowl then add the peppers, olives, onion slices, tomatoes, croutons and parmesan to the salad. Drizzle the salad dressing over top and toss to combine, then serve.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED: (SEE RECIPE CARD BELOW FOR THE FULL RECIPE)
HOW TO MAKE OLIVE GARDEN SALAD DRESSING
Prepare Good Seasonings Italian Seasonings Dressing as it states on back of packet.
The packet makes just a small bit of dressing. Once prepared, pour dressing in a medium bowl. Then whisk in additional ingredients listed above (starting with the dried Italian Seasoning.)
Using a whisk, mix all ingredients until mixed thoroughly combined.
At this point you pour it into a container with a lid. Mason jars also work well for this or pour it over your salad and enjoy!
CRAVING MORE RECIPES?
- Olive Garden Chicken Alfredo
- Olive Garden Chicken Gnocchi Soup
- Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana
- Olive Garden Pasta e Fagioli
- Instant Pot Olive Garden Chicken Scampi
- Homemade Ranch Dressing
- Homemade Caesar Salad Dressing
- Thousand Island Dressing
- Mayonnaise Salad Dressing
Originally published: January 2012
Updated photos & republished: June 2019
Olive Garden Salad Dressing Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 packet Good Seasonings Italian Dressing
- Ingredients needed to make dressing; oil, water & vinegar
- ½ teaspoon dried Italian Seasoning
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ tablespoon mayonnaise
- ¼ cup light extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 1 ½ tablespoons water
Instructions
- In a bowl, 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, add the rest of the ingredients listed to the bowl
- Using a whisk, mix all ingredients until mixed thoroughly combined.
- Serve with your favorite salad fixings.
Video
Notes
- Store unused dressing in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Be sure to give the bottle a good shake before using.
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
“The Country Cook” is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and other nutritional values can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.
Recipe Credit: Barenaked Chef
This may be a stupid question but what is the nutritional value on this like calories serving size etc..?
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. 🙂
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
That was about good enough to drink!! 🙂 Thank you!
This was very good. How long does it last please? Thanks!
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.
I made this tonight it was awesome! So close to olive gardens too! Thank you!!
Made this and it was deeeelicious! Thanks so much for sharing!
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?
Kristi, yes, you make the packet of good seasonings italian dressing first. Then you add in all the other ingredients I have listed. 🙂
Amber, I use white vinegar when making the Good Seasons dressing as well. Hope that helps! 🙂
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!
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.
Anonymous, yes it is. 🙂
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
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!
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!!
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.
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!
This is my new favorite dressing! I have made it twice already in just three days!
My husband will only eat salad and dressing from olive garden! i cant wait for him to try this! <3 thanks for sharing!
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!!
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
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!!
I made this dressing tonight and I LOVED it. thanks for sharing.
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!
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.
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.
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?
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! 🙂
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!)
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!!
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 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.
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.
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!
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: :o)
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.
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.
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!
So glad I came across your site! Can't wait to try this!
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.
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!
I think you and I should open a restarant. Ok, I think you should open a restauant and I will visit you frequently.
YUMMO..Thanks for the recipe..This looks mouthwatering..I have bookmarked it..Aarthi
Making this!!!! Wow!
I can't wait to try this one and I have all of the ingredients already! Thanks for the post! 🙂
Looks fantastic! I always have to force myself to go light on the dressing because I juts drown my salads otherwise. 😉
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.
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