How to Make The Perfect Chopped Salad
Chopped salads are hard to resist- they offer endless combinations of greens, fruits, and dressings, not to mention they’re easy to prepare and are bursting with flavors and nutrients.
From dicing and slicing your ingredients to putting them together nicely in a bowl, chopped salads actually require very little work if you have the right chopping bowl and mezzaluna.
The results will make it seem like you have spent a great deal of time preparing a tasty and satisfying meal.
How do you make a perfect chopped salad? Here are some tips to organize those well-proportioned bites:
- If you want to make chopped salads a regular meal in your household, a good mezzaluna - or ulu - is very important. With its curved, sharp blade that you roll back and forth across your ingredients, you can chop neatly and quickly. A hardwood salad bowl that comes with a mezzaluna chopper can guarantee speed and uniformity.
- Yes, it is a chopped salad, but you don’t want to overdo it. Going over the top might leave your greens crushed and overworked.
- While lettuces like iceberg and romaine are naturally crunchy, too much chopping could lessen their crunch. It’s easy to fix - just incorporate more crisp ingredients, like sliced almonds, bacon strips, or even popcorn, to give you that satisfying crunch.
- Cut back on the watery ingredients. Go easy on items with high water content, like cucumbers, tomatoes, watermelon, because they’re difficult to chop without getting liquid all over your salad. If you’re fixed on adding these ingredients, try serving them on top of your salad.
- Use your mezzaluna to toss your salad well. The dressing should cover every bite and nugget so that every forkful presents all the flavors at once.
To satisfy your chopped salad cravings, have a look at these bonus recipes that are filled with bold flavors and all-time favorite ingredients:
Bringing back your favorite memories of a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, this special chopped salad has crumbled bacon and feta, creamy avocado, and crunchy corn all over shredded lettuce. Top it all off with olive oil and lime juice, leaving you with a meal that reminds you of summer all year long.
Got cilantro in your fridge? Turn it into one of the creamiest dressings that you can pour over a Tex-Mex style chopped salad. Loaded with corn, avocado, cherry tomatoes, black beans, and romaine lettuce, this salad is even more irresistible when tossed with an incredibly rich Greek yogurt cilantro dressing. It’s perfect on its own as the main course or as a side dish for all your dinner favorites.
It’s back to the basics with this simple salad recipe, but using freshly chopped ingredients like romaine, tomatoes, and cucumbers makes it an all-time favorite. Have leftover turkey? Chop it and toss it in. Add a couple of hard-boiled eggs and indulge! Finish it off by drizzling with a tangy, lemony basil dressing and toss well for a light, refreshing meal.
When you’re in need of an easy healthy salad for lunch or dinner, go Greek with this flavorful recipe. This chopped salad has all of our favorite Mediterranean components, from cucumbers and olives to feta cheese and pita crunch. Add some quinoa and chickpeas to make it an extra-nutritious high-protein vegetarian dish.
Gear up for the holidays with this special vegetable salad that’s going to be a showstopper at the table. Create your own healthy holiday treat by combining cucumbers, green peppers, radishes, red radicchio, and beans. Serve with feta cheese in strips and sprinkle with fresh mint. Its olive oil-lemon juice dressing will bind the veggies together for that truly festive flavor!
Need some more fully-loaded, flavorful salads? Check out these 8 Classic Chopped Salads to Try in 2021!