Copycat North Woods Inn Green Salad
Crispy, fresh iceberg lettuce is topped with a creamy, buttermilk gorgonzola salad dressing for this Northwoods Inn Copycat recipe.
My fondness for these Northwoods Inn copycat recipes continues to grow. This recipe in particular took some trial and error. You see, all of the identical recipes I searched up for a copycat recipe were way, way off. The consistency, the taste, everything about it made me think the person who originally posted it hadn’t tasted their own recipe.
That first round of recipe testing was a big dud for me, so I set out to find a delicious, basic gorgonzola cheese dressing instead.
A typical steak dinner at North Woods Inn consists of a large steak, green salad, red cabbage salad, and garlic cheese bread. Scroll down for links to these additional recipes!
Don’t forget the incredible Copycat Northwoods Inn Garlic Cheese Bread.
Or the deliciously sweet and tangy Copycat Northwoods Inn Red Cabbage Salad.
Copycat North Woods Inn Green Salad
Ingredients
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 cup light mayonnaise
- 4 oz package crumbled gorgonzola cheese
- 1/8 tsp garlic powder
- 1/8 tsp ground white pepper
- 1/8 tsp celery seed
- 1 head iceberg lettuce cleaned and roughly chopped
- optional: splash of milk if you want to thin the dressing
Instructions
- Stir the buttermilk, mayonnaise, gorgonzola cheese, garlic powder, pepper, and celery seed together in a bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate several hours before serving over cleaned, roughly chopped iceberg lettuce.
- If desired, you can thin the dressing with a splash of milk, mix well and then serve over the lettuce.
If you want it to taste right it needs to be gorgonzola cheese and you need to add a touch of celery seed. That will capture the correct flavor.
Thank you for the tips! I will add those into the recipe.
Just mixed it all up and it came out tasting just like NWI Blue Cheese, or at least as close as possible. The other recipes I’ve tried don’t even come close. I will agree with Renee Redding below, the celery seed makes it. Gorgonzola does it as well. Thanks for posting!
Thanks for the feedback Steve! Happy that it came close. I’m realizing now that NWI simply calls this salad the “Green Salad.” So I think I will recommend gorgonzola instead of blue cheese going forward. As well as the celery seed. Appreciate that feedback a lot in adjusting this recipe to be closer.
I agree, other recipes I’ve found online all seem to repost the same recipe for the dressing and it is so far away from what it actually tastes like. I’m starting to think nobody ever taste tested them and just reposted it everywhere trusting that it was close😅
Delicious! Thank you for the recipe, I’ll definitely use again!
So I tweaked mine a little. I love Northwood’s salad and been a fan of theirs for years and years and years. I added a splash of heavy cream and about 4 tablespoons of sour cream. I also used whole mayonnaise rather than light. Don’t be shy on the seasoning. Delicous.
So I tweaked mine a little. I love Northwood’s salad and been a fan of theirs for years and years and years. I added a splash of heavy cream and about 4 tablespoons of sour cream. I also used whole mayonnaise rather than light. Don’t be shy on the seasoning. Delicous.
Spot on with the celery seed. I used half and half mayo/sour cream and added fresh garlic cloves. I tripled the celery seed and pepper too. Perfection and I’ve been eating a NWI for over 50 years.
Thank you so much for your feedback!