This chopped salad will wow everyone at the table! Homemade Italian dressing, crunchy vegetables and parmesan combine to create an extraordinary salad.
Looking for a great side salad to accompany all your meals? Alex and I are always looking for a good green salad. (It’s like a great pair of shoes, isn’t it?) Introducing our new favorite: these unbelievable chopped lettuce. It’s classy and tight. There’s our homemade Italian dressing: spicy, hearty and herbaceous. Add shallots, tomatoes, cucumber and a pinch of peperoncini. The Parmesan seals the deal. are you ready to cook Because this chopped salad wants to become part of your kitchen repertoire.
Related: 10 Homemade Vinaigrette Recipes
How to make a chopped salad
We served this salad at a dinner party last weekend. Wow! What’s in this salad? People mumbled around the table. That’s when you know a recipe is a keeper! It looks unassuming, but it’s still one of our favorites to this day. What this chopped salad brings is our homemade Italian dressing recipe. The flavor is zesty and bright, full of garlic, white wine vinegar and balanced with hints of maple syrup. Dried basil, thyme and oregano add an earthy note. (See our dressing tips below.)
Dressing aside, this chopped salad is all about chopping all the ingredients! Here we have selected ingredients that are reminiscent of an Italian minced salad. Feel free to customize the veggies in this chopped salad…but we thought this combination was near-perfect:
- Crunchy Vegetables: shallot, cucumber and cherry tomatoes
- Pepperoncini in a glass: Add flavor and some warmth
- Green olives: Just add the right salty kick.
Tip for making homemade Italian vinaigrette
Making a homemade dressing is the key to a great chopped salad! Here are some tips for creating a creamy emulsion where the oil and vinegar mix perfectly:
- Whisk by hand with a big whip.
- Use a medium sized bowl to allow sufficient movement of the whip. (Trust us, we’ve done this before in small bowls and it’s almost impossible to melt the oil and vinegar.)
- Gradually add the olive oil. We add it, tablespoon by tablespoon, beating until the oil is fully incorporated.
Turn chopped salad into an entree!
This chopped salad is so delicious you’ll want to make it with every meal! To mix it up a bit, you can make a main course salad out of it and eat it for dinner. We suggest:
Let us know if you try our chopped lettuce in the comments below!
Accessorize it!
The definition of versatile, this salad goes with almost everything from soup to lasagna to pizza. Here are some more perfect pairings…
This chopped salad recipe is…
Vegetarian and gluten free. For vegan, plant-based and dairy-free, omit the parmesan. (It’s still good!)
The description
This chopped salad will wow everyone at the table! Homemade Italian dressing, veggies and parmesan combine to create an extraordinary salad.
- 1 Recipe for homemade Italian vinaigrette
- 1 Romaine Herz (3 cups)
- 5 cups lettuce
- 1 large shallot
- 1 English cucumber (2 cups chopped)
- ½ cup cherry tomatoes
- ½ cup ripe green olives, halved
- ½ cup sliced peperoncini in glass
- ¼ cup Parmesan shavings or shavings and more for serving
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional
- Prepare the homemade Italian dressing.
- Chop romaine lettuce and lettuce. Finely chop the shallot. Peel and dice the cucumber. Halve tomatoes and olives.
- Mix and toss all salad ingredients, including dressing. If you continue, refrigerate the components separately; Bring the dressing to room temperature before serving.
- Category: salad
- Method: Raw
- Kitchen: Italian inspired
Keywords: Chopped Salad, Best Chopped Salad, Italian Chopped Salad, Side Salad Recipe, Salad Recipes
Looking for more salad recipes?
Aside from this chopped salad recipe, here are some of our favorite salads from A Couple Cooks:
