I have loved salads for as long as I can remember. I’ve been fortunate to hava a mom who has always taught me the importance of salad toppings, good dressing and a variety of ingredients.
Whenever we would go to family dinners, my mom was always responsible for bringing the salad. I remember getting excited to help her fill the gigantic bowl because it meant I got to put olives on each of my fingers and then slowly eat them, one-by-one, and nibble on the crunchy croutons as she generously poured them over the top.
To this day, whenever I go home, my mom will have a frige full of vegetables to make salads and an entire panty shelf dedicated to toppings like slivered almonds, croutons, sunflower seeds and more.
So it was actually a shock to me when I recently realized I have never made a chopped salad before. With a new shipment of veggies from our CSA, I decided I needed to change that!
A chopped salad literally means a salad where all the ingredients are chopped into relatively the same size. Having everything so small gives you the ability to get all the ingredients on the fork in one bite, which just makes this so much more fun and flavorful to eat!
You can definitely create this using your favorite ingredients. We used a mixture of ingredients (cucumber, radish, lettuce, pepper and cabbage) from our CSA, along with a few items lurking in the pantry. The honey roasted slivered almonds were definitely my favorite touch!
Please note: after I took these photos, I realized I forget to add the crumbled feta cheese. It is in the recipe below, just not pictured (and is a highly recommended component of the salad!).
Chopped Salad
Keywords: salad entree side vegetarian cabbage beans chickpeas leafy greens
Ingredients (serves 4)
- 1/4 head purple cabbage, cut into small pieces
- chopped lettuce, cut into small pieces
- 1/3 cucumber, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
- 1/2 can black olives, sliced
- 2 radishes, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
- 1 bell pepper, diced
- 1/2 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- 1/4 cup honey roasted slivered almonds
- 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
- Preferred dressing (I used a balsamic vinaigrette)
Instructions
1. Toss all ingredients together. Serve and enjoy!
If I’m eating salads as the main part of my meal, I always love to serve it with a small side like bread or chips. So it was perfect timing when I was contacted by Garden of Eatin’ to try their two new all-natural tortilla chip flavors: Sweet Potato and Sprouted Blues!
I was sent one bag of each flavor compliments of Garden of Eatin. The Sweet Potato Tortilla Chips are made with organic yellow corn and organic sweet potatoes. It definitely had a strong sweet potato flavor, which I really enjoyed! The Sprouted Blues are made with brown rice, lentils and quinoa (I think this is such an impressive combination of healthy foods!). They have a hearty texture and are nice and sturdy for holding things like guacamole and salsa!
I am definitely a fan of the quality ingredients they use to create these chips, along with their delicious flavors!
Don’t forget to enter to win Bulumu Granola!
