Founded in 1982, Olive Garden is a popular Italian-American restaurant chain with many locations across the country. Olive Garden is owned by Darden Restaurants, a large restaurant company headquartered in Orlando, Florida.
Olive Garden restaurants serve lunch and dinner dishes and desserts that include fettuccini Alfredo, bruschetta, lasagna, eggplant parmigiana, and tiramisu. The Olive Garden restaurants have similar decor, drawing inspiration from rural Italian countryside homes in Tuscany.
Ingredients
Many Olive Garden diners order bruschetta as an appetizer, usually to share with a group of friends or family members. Ingredients for basic bruschetta include Roma tomatoes, garlic, black pepper, salt, fresh basil, extra virgin olive oil and grilled ciabatta bread.
Nutritional Information
Olive Garden's bruschetta contains 610 calories, 13 g of total fat, 2.5 g of saturated fat, 1,760 mg of sodium, 100 g of carbs and 10 g of fiber. It is a good source of fiber thanks to the fresh tomatoes.
Considerations
Unlike other dishes that rely on cream for flavor, the bruschetta tomato topping is relatively lower in fat than some appetizer options at Olive Garden. However, the thick slices of ciabatta are brushed with olive oil and grilled, which adds calories.
To keep bruschetta light, avoid adding calories and fat from extra grated Parmesan or Alfredo dipping sauce. If you order bruschetta as an appetizer, share it with friends or family members to split the calorie count.
Healthy Appetizer Options
If the calorie count on the bruschetta is still too high, consider other appetizer options. The stuffed mushrooms are filled with three types of cheese, clams, herbs and breadcrumbs, and at 280 calories and 15 g of carbs, have fewer calories and carbs than bruschetta. They do, however, contain more total fat.
Vegetable minestrone soup is another low-fat and low-calorie appetizer option, at 100 calories a cup and 1 g of total fat. The chicken & gnocchi soup is made with roasted chicken, dumplings and spinach; it contains 250 calories and 8 g of total fat.
Entree Considerations
If you order an entree, choose a lighter pasta dish with marinara or other tomato sauce. Dishes without pasta, such as the grilled chicken spiedini or the Venetian apricot chicken also can be a good choice if you are watching your carb intake. Always order the lunch size for pasta dishes to keep portion size and calories in check.
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