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HEALTHIER OLIVE GARDEN DRESSING RECIPE
Our community asked for it, so Blender Babes created this copycat Olive Garden dressing recipe!
We understand the craving for all you can eat soup, salad and breadsticks from Olive Garden!
We also know all too well how many calories can accumulate from dipping breadsticks in the dressing, 3 bowls of salad plus 2 soups!
This is a great everyday, creamy Italian dressing. It is a very versatile salad dressing that goes with a wide range of toppings and is deliciously healthy when made with vegan mayonnaise, just mayo or light mayo.
For a bright flavor and nice sweetness, pomegranate seeds are a great topping on a salad with this dressing.
We guarantee you will absolutely LOVE this copycat Olive Garden dressing recipe but just to note: You will see that the color is different than the orginal but not to worry, the taste itself is truly ahhhh-amazing!
A high powered blender is not necessary for this recipe!
Be sure to join our blending-loving tribe to receive more great copycat recipes from Blender Babes!
If you try this Olive Garden salad dressing recipe let us know by rating it in the comments! HAPPY BLENDING!
Healthier Copycat Olive Garden Dressing Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup vegan mayo raw mayo OR light mayo
- 2/3 cup white vinegar
- 3 teaspoons unrefined sugar of choice raw or turbinado sugar or coconut sugar, etc.
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/2 cup parmesan romano cheese blend
- 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 2 teaspoon fresh parsley OR parsley flakes
- 1 teaspoon garlic salt
Instructions
- Place all ingredients into the blender in the order listed, secure lid and blend until smooth.
- For Blendtec: Press the BATTERS/DRESSINGS button OR blend on a Medium to Medium-Low speed for 30 seconds.
- For Vitamix: Start on VARIABLE Speed 1. Turn machine on and slowly increase speed to VARIABLE Speed 10/HIGH and blend until smooth, about 20 seconds.
- Pour over your favorite salad!
- All done! Enjoy!! Now take a photo, rate it, and share your accomplishments to enter our weekly photo contest! 🙂 Tag @BlenderBabes & #BlenderBabes
Nutrition
BLENDER BABES RECIPE TESTER NOTES
“It smelled EXACTLY like Olive Garden’s dressing when they first bring out the salad to your table! MMM!!!!”
“AMAZING COPYCAT of American’s all the time favorite restaurant, OLIVE GARDEN but much better and healthier for you! YOU KNOW what it is in it instead of all that processed stuff!”
“My husband loved it and I also found it to be a great everyday dressing.”
FUN FACTS ABOUT OLIVE GARDEN
Talk about popular chain restaurants! In 1982 the first Olive Garden restaurant opened in Orlando Florida and by 1989, there were already 145 locations!
You can also find five restaurants in Mexico, on in the São Paulo airport in Brazil and another one in Kuwait!
Definitely don’t forget this little tidbit next time you head there… you can order from the lunch menu AT ANY TIME!
That’s right, even if it’s supper time you can ask for the lunch menu (which is less expensive) and they will let you order from it! SCORE! 🙂
Does this work with vegan parmesan cheese or should that just be omitted?
Hey April! I haven’t tried this recipe with vegan parmesan cheese but now I want to since I’ve been dairy-free with my lactose intolerant baby. 🙂 Since I use it on pasta however I think it might work great! If you try it let me know how it turns out. ~Tarahaun
How much is a 2 gr serving? You tell me it makes 2 cups then give the serving size in grams. Most salad dressing servings are 2 Tablespoons. 2 gram = .13 Tbls. Makes no sense.
Hi Beth! Yeah we swtiched recipe plugins and it wasn’t seamless 🙁 It wasn’t in grams before. I’ve updated the post so it’s correct, thank you for brining it to my attention! 🙂
I cant wait to give this a whirl!!
Need to make a blooming Onion Healthier
YES!!! Those are THE BOMB!!!!! Why does fried food have to be so darn TASTY!! Mickey you tell us when you perfect the copycat version and we’ll work on it too 😉
I would like to make lasagna healthier!
I would like to make Qdoba tortilla and it’s salsa’s healthier
Yes!! Healthy tortilla’s are on our list too Geena!
very healthy and yummy great receipe!!
Thanks Jen! 🙂
My fav Mexican restaurant Chuys has this yummy Jalapeño cream dip and I wish it was more healthier.
Jalapeño Cream Dip from Chuys sounds AMAZING!! We will have to look into that Sally!
I always use just olive oil and vinegar but I bet my husband would like this for a change 🙂
Yes it’s a nice change of pace Jodi! Let us know if he likes it. 🙂
This looks good. I like the Olive Garden dressing..look forward to trying it. I’d like to see some health copycats of Panera soups.
Thanks Sue! We agree! We did make this copycat Panera soup recipe – the Cream of Broccoli Cheddar one!
Looks yummy…would love a healthy version of panera bread broccoli cheese soup.
Yay Marissa! We did a copycat recipe of the broccoli cheese Panera soup! Perfect for when it cools down in the fall!
Love to have a healthier version of La Madeline tomato basil soup/
This looks pretty good! 🙂
I’m always keen on healthy ideas for nachos/taco bowls, just because I love the crispy chips and shells.