What is a Chopped Salad?

I'd love to try chopping my salad sometime.

I always like a bit of meat in my salad. I love those little cubes of ham that you see at salad bars, and I like real bacon bits, as opposed to the imitation kind that taste like burnt rubber!

If I order a grilled chicken salad, the strips of chicken usually come separately. At fast food restaurants, they put the chicken strips in a box and the salad in a plastic container. All of the veggies and the lettuce is chopped up inside the container, and you add some other stuff that has been packaged separately.

The croutons and slivered almonds or other nuts come in their own packages, as does the salad dressing. I believe this is so your salad doesn't get soggy if you have to drive for awhile before you get to eat it.

I love visiting the salad bars of restaurants. I can build my own chopped salad from pre-sliced ingredients.

There are always shredded carrots, cucumber slices, and strips of bell pepper at my favorite salad bar. My favorite item by far is the baby corn, though. It has been pickled, so it has a lot of flavor, and the whole little cobs are a nice contrast to the sliced and chopped veggies.

@summing – By far the best salad knife I've ever used is a ceramic knife. The blades are white and ultra sharp, so you have to be careful while handling them.

They make sharp cuts through everything from raw meat to lettuce. They are great for chopping up hard vegetables like carrots and potatoes.

Also, if you are chopping up a tomato with a ceramic knife, you won't make nearly as big of a mess as you would with a regular knife. The blade glides right through the skin to the flesh, so you aren't mashing it all up.

@ZsaZsa56 – I love raspberry vinaigrette dressing. It is really versatile, because it is just as good on a chopped tomato salad as it is on a fruit salad.

I first tried it on a salad with vegetables, and I was very impressed. The next time I had some was when I ordered a salad that contained lettuce, blueberries, strawberries, and grilled chicken, as well as sesame seeds and croutons. It brought all the flavors together in perfect harmony.

Can someone recommend a knife to me for making chopped salad? I have an old cooking knife, but it has gotten so old and dull that it cannot hold an edge no matter how often you sharpen it. I feel like every time I make chopped salad I just mash everything up. So I need to buy a new knife. What would you guys recommend that I buy, particularly for cutting up lettuce and veggies?

Sometimes I think I should switch it up more often, it is just too easy to get locked into what you know.

I like to make chopped salad as a quick, after work meal. I will basically chop up anything that I have in my fridge. Peppers, squash, eggplant, it doesn't matter. I will mix it with some light balsamic vinegar and eat it with a piece of crusty bread. It is delicious, filing, and most importantly, healthy.

@eidetic - I was just in the Midwest to visit my grandmother, and I saw a lot of chopped salads on the menu when we went out to eat. This trend really must be everywhere now.

I personally think it's great, because I really like to have some healthy options when I go out to eat.

@LoriCharlie - I usually like to add a sliced avocado to my chopped salads when I make them at home. Nothing tastes better on top of a chopped vegetable salad than a fresh avocado, and also, if you add an avocado you can leave out the meat. Avocados are very filling on their own.

I feel like most cold salad recipes are, in fact, recipes for a chopped salad. Most salads include various chopped fresh produce. Even if you're not going to chop the lettuce, most people cut up various kinds of vegetables like onions or tomatoes and add them to the salad.

I also usually add meat and some kind of cheese to my salads (goat cheese is my favorite) but everyone has different preferences.

For salads that have a lot of lettuce in them, it is a great idea to use a salad spinner to make sure that all of the excess water is removed. Lettuce holds a lot of water in it and can end up watering down your salad.

@stormyknight: There is no specific kind of lettuce that must be used. However, most Italian salads use romaine lettuce. I have a recipe for an Italian salad that uses romaine lettuce and iceberg lettuce. They taste really good together.

For this particular salad, you need 1 head iceberg lettuce, 2 heads romaine lettuce, 3 cups spring mix, 4 Roma tomatoes (chopped), 1 ½ cups gorgonzola (crumbled), 1 cup cooked bacon (crumbled), ½ red onion (finely chopped) and 3 avocados (chopped).

Chop all of your lettuce well and add the other ingredients. Toss well and serve.

I would like to make an Italian chopped salad for some guests this weekend. What kind of lettuce would I use for that?