Do you like salads with lots and LOTS of toppings and “extras”? If so, add this Easy Italian Chopped Salad to your menu plan and enjoy the fresh tastes of raw veggies paired with savory meats and cheese. All topped with a zesty red pepper Italian dressing. (Feel free to make your own homemade Italian dressing… or buy your favorite from the store)
Aside from the fantastic flavor combinations, my favorite thing about Italian Chopped Salad is that it is SO quick and easy to put together. In fact, it can be assembled several hours (or even a day) in advance without sacrificing freshness!
Easy Italian Chopped Salad
If you like salads with lots of toppings and "extras", this Easy Italian Chopped Salad is perfect for you!
Enjoy the fresh tastes of raw veggies paired with savory meats and cheese. All topped with a zesty red pepper Italian dressing!
Ingredients
- 6-8 c. crunchy lettuce; chopped
- 1 can (15.5 0z) Chickpeas (Garbanzo Beans), drained and rinsed
- 1/2 ofa medium red onion; diced
- 2-3 cucumbers; diced
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes; halved
- 4-6 oz. salami; diced
- 1 c. shredded Parmesan cheese (I usually serve this on the side)
- Italian dressing (store-bought or homemade)
Instructions
Chop lettuce into small, bite-size pieces and place in the bottom of a platter or a food storage container.
Layer with chickpeas, onion, cucumber, tomatoes, and salami.
Cover and refrigerate until ready to eat.
Serve with Parmesan cheese and Italian dressing on the side.
Refrigerate leftovers to enjoy the next day!
Notes
ALL ingredients should be chopped into fairly small, bite-size pieces... hence the name "Chopped Salad"!
Feel free to add or omit any veggies you have in the house -- green or red peppers would be good, canned or roasted artichokes, avocados, etc.
Just make sure you start with good crunchy lettuce (not spinach or fancier leaf lettuces) so the salad has a nice crunch to every bite!
Nutrition Information
Yield
6Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 576Total Fat 41gSaturated Fat 15gTrans Fat 1gUnsaturated Fat 24gCholesterol 131mgSodium 252mgCarbohydrates 20gFiber 9gSugar 9gProtein 34g
Nutritional information is approximate and does not account for additional ingredients or added toppings.
This Italian Chopped Salad is a really hearty salad, full of protein AND veggies.
It pairs especially well with pizza, and it’s also a fantastic main-dish salad all on its own.
And yes, you can easily make it ahead… just hold off adding the cheese and dressing.
As I mentioned above, I usually serve the cheese and dressing on the side, simply because I feel like it tastes better with fresh cheese and dressing added at the time of serving. I also think it helps the salad keep longer for leftovers.
If I’m taking the salad to a party, I’ll serve it in a pretty glass or decorative container. For our own consumption, I simply assemble it in a food storage container (see pictures above) to keep it fresher longer in our own fridge.
NOTE: If you’re looking for salad dressing recommendations…. the Roasted Red Pepper Italian dressing from Kraft tastes fantastic with Italian Chopped Salad.
I’ve also made my own Copycat Olive Garden Italian Dressing a few times with great results!
We enjoy this salad all year long as an easy way to integrate so much produce into our daily meals… I hope you love it as much as we do!
What are your favorite chopped salad ingredients?
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Liane says
Love this idea. Not that I’m not good at dreaming up good salad combos, although mine can be a little weird since I toss in leftovers or am out of something. This gives me a good starting place. All except the garbanzo beans which everyone hates here. In fact they hate all beans except chili and green beans. But the reason I write this is THE SALAD DRESSING! I’ve looked for an Olive Garden clone and it never occurred to me it had mayonnaise in it. It’s so hard to find affordable bottled dressing without canola or soy. My stomach, thyroid and husband thank you! Also I found a mayo with no solvent extracted oils called Sir Kensington. It’s not as good as my homemade but I buy it for camping since it has pasteurized eggs. My mayo has never ever made me or anyone ill but camping you don’t get good steady cold refrigeration. I learned from Gordon Ramsey (waaaaaay too much cussing, even on you tube to ever go back) that a bit of Dijon in the salad dressing with good whisking makes an emulsion. It will keep the oil from rising on the top. I think this Olive Garden recipe uses the same concept. THANK YOU!!!
Andrea says
haha — you’re welcome! Glad to help 🙂
Carrie says
I add zucchini to this sometimes. Another change is substituting the salami, Italian dressing and Parmesan cheese with grilled chicken chunks, cheddar cheese and ranch dressing…yum!
Andrea says
oh yum… the grilled chicken and ranch sounds amazing!
Jackie says
And bacon.