A crisp and herbaceous blend of lettuce, fresh tomatoes, fragrant fennel and nutty asiago is tossed in a lemon & garlic vinaigrette - just like the house salad at Giordano's but made right in your own home!
Ahhh Giordano's - famous for stuffed deep dish pizza.
And here I am, copying...a salad.
I don't know. What can I say, it's our favorite thing to get there!
I love having salad and pizza together. I can't figure out if it's because the cool crisp veggies add the hint of freshness that cuts through the cheesy richness of the pizza, or if it's because I am subconsciously convincing myself that if I have salad along with my pizza it's somehow healthier. It's probably both, I just go with it.
Some people may be aghast to hear that during the 6 years we lived in the Chicago area, we really only had deep dish pizza when people were visiting from out of town and wanted to experience Chicago deep dish.
The thing about deep dish pizza is that they are NOT kidding when they say deep dish. ONE slice of pizza from Giordano's is seriously 1 ½ to 2 inches thick, you can eat 1-2 slices and you are FULL. Even just finishing that second slice can sometimes send you into a food coma.
So in general, we opted to save the deep dish excursions for visitors. But this salad was in our regular carryout rotation on nights we didn't feel like cooking. Pete even touts Giordano's house salad as the best he's ever had. And I have a hard time disagreeing with him!
The combination of flavors and textures from the different lettuces along with the fresh burst of tomato and fragrant crunch of the fennel work so well together, and the buttery & nutty asiago adds just the right touch of richness. And that dressing...YUM. The dressing is easily my favorite part, it's lemony, garlicky and the perfect complement to the salad.
Recreating the salad itself was relatively easy: spring greens, arugula, radicchio (all of which are already included in most packages of spring mix - win!), romaine, baby heirloom tomatoes (or grape tomatoes, whatev!), fresh fennel and shaved asiago - easy peasy. But the lemon vinaigrette was a little more elusive.
But after lots of side by side testing with their dressing vs. my (many) attempts, I can proudly say that I FINALLY NAILED IT. It was that little bit of parmesan cheese right in the vinaigrette that really brought it home.
Just delicious. Perfect as a side salad (with pizza!), or as the main dish - you could even add some grilled chicken, shrimp, steak...whatever protein you like.
Yummy noises await you!
Copycat Giordano’s House Salad
Ingredients
For the salad
- 2 cups spring mix
- 2 cups romaine lettuce, chopped
- ¾ cup grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
- ⅓ cup (about ¼ bulb) fresh fennel, shaved/very thinly sliced
- 1 oz asiago cheese, shaved
For the lemon garlic vinaigrette
- 6 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon parmesan cheese, grated
- ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Combine all salad ingredients in a large bowl or on a large platter.
- Combine all vinaigrette ingredients in a small jar with a tight-fitting lid and shake vigorously to combine, or combine in a medium bowl and whisk well. Drizzle dressing over salad, toss to coat and serve immediately.
Notes
Yummyyyyyyyyyy! I love fennel in salads, can’t wait to try it ????
I usually prefer fennel cooked over raw, but the super thin slices in this salad are perfect! ????????
Made it tonight!!! It was so delicious! The thinly sliced fennel and asiago made this salad a perfect mix of flavors! It was gone!!! Everyone loved it!
I just made it and it was delicious!!!!
Awesome! So happy to hear you liked it!
I haven't made this yet but I'm seriously obsessed with the dressing! THANK YOU perfecting the recipe!????
Yayy! Thanks! 😊
Omg thank you! This is my #1 favorite salad on planet earth and I'm so grateful to be able to make it once we leave the area! ❤️❤️❤️
Thanks, Valkyrie! It's our favorite too, so delicious! 🙂
I'm obsessed with this dressing and so happy to have found this recipe online. THANK YOU! Can't wait to try it.
My husband loves this dressing even more than the original Giordanos salad which he claims not to like! Haha! Amazing recipe, absolutely love it.
I'm so happy to hear that, we love it too! Thanks!
Where’s the pasta? Was there yesterday and it definitely uses pasta.
Hi! Are you thinking of Portillo’s? Their chopped salad uses ditalini pasta!
The dressing was good but still missing a key ingredient. After looking over a bunch of other ones and experimenting, I added mustard powder, about a 1/2 teaspoon and that was IT! Absolute perfection. Try it. Never would have thought to put that in there, but it looks like that's the secret ingredient. ( I used powder as I ran out of prepared mustard, but I'm sure the prepared would be just as good and more convenient). Enjoy! And thank you for doing all the prior experimenting.