Easy Chopped Salad
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Start with bags of veggie slaw and lettuce to make several restaurant quality chopped salads at home. The base salad is easy to customize and enjoy throughout the week.
This easy salad blends well with a variety of proteins and is my favorite way to actually enjoy eating more vegetables. Our favorite mix-in is these Juicy Chicken Breasts.
What Is A Chopped Salad?
A chopped salad blends a variety of finely chopped vegetables into every bite to feature a diversity of flavors.
When veggies are enjoyable to eat, it is easier to eat a bigger volume of fresh produce.
Several restaurants like the Cheesecake Factory have a delicious Skinny Chop Salad and Chop 5 Salad Kitchen has an entire menu of enjoyable chopped salads. These meals inspired me to create my own budget friendly versions at home.
Pro tip – Chop up all ingredients well ahead of meal time and store in tightly sealed glass or metal containers in the refrigerator.
Easy Salad Ideas Starting with Bags of Salad
The base mix of our chopped salads is one bag of broccoli slaw, a bag of cabbage salad mix and romaine lettuce. A bell pepper, red onion and tomato are classic veggies to add in.
We always add a high quality, thicker shredded blend of cheddar cheeses before mixing ranch and Olive Garden Italian dressing. This combination of dressings can be a hang up for some people, but try mixing it in a small portion of salad as a test before knocking it!
Crumbled bacon is great when serving as a side salad. Our favorite variation is chopping up a whole chicken breast and mixing in each bowl of greens to make protein and fiber filled meal.
Ingredients For The Base Salad
- Romaine lettuce – 1/2 of the base mix
- Broccoli slaw – 1/4 of the base mix
- Cabbage salad mix – 1/4 of the base mix – We like the very veggie medley, salad starter from Kroger.
- Red, yellow or orange bell pepper
- Red onion
- Tomatoes
- Cheddar cheese – we like Kraft Signature cheddar blend with thicker pieces of shredded cheese.
- Hidden Valley Ranch
- Olive Garden Italian dressing with parmesan cheese
Add-Ins for More Combinations of Tasty Salads
- Bacon – the friend who shared this recipe “garnished her salad” with a pound of bacon!
- Chicken – a 3/4 pound tender chicken breast mixes in great with about 3 cups of salad
- Steak – is wonderful with blue cheese
- Turkey and Ham – 1/2″ thick slices of deli meat creates a chef salad with Swiss cheese
- Eggs – hard boiled eggs are a great stand alone protein or pair well in a chef salad or with fried chicken tenders.
- Sweet Corn – I freeze small bags of corn that my son grows to mix in salads.
- Cucumber
- Avocado – amazing when you get one that’s perfectly ripe
- Chick peas
- Sunflower or pumpkin seeds
- Pecans or walnuts – 1 to 2 tablespoons go a long way!
- Dried cranberries
Important Steps For Success
Everything in the salad must be chopped finely! This step makes these salads special. Otherwise it is just a simple green salad!
Store in a metal bowl with a tightly sealing lid or tightly sealing glass containers. We like these Cuisinart metal bowls or Ello food storage containers. This will extend the shelf life of the salad by 3 to 5 days because it will get cold faster and hold at a colder temperature.
Always prep the components ahead of time! It is less stressful to plan ahead, so you can do a better job chopping and remembering all of the ingredients.
How To Make Chopped Salad
Pour broccoli slaw into a large metal bowl. Using clean kitchen scissors or shears chop up any broccoli florets. Toss and continue chopping.
Repeat with cabbage mix if there are large pieces.
Chop up romaine lettuce and toss all of the broccoli, cabbage and lettuce mixes together to create a base mix.
Firm bell peppers, onions, chicken and bacon can easily be tossed in the base mix too.
Wait to add cheese, chopped tomatoes and dressing until ready to serve.
We only add these ingredients to the portion that we plan to eat. Extra base mix will last longer with less liquid, in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Toss again with long handled tongs or a salad server.
Store tightly covered in the refrigerator and enjoy for up to 5 days!
Recipe Tips and Tricks
- Chopping lettuce and everything else fine makes it easier to eat and enjoy salad. I like romaine, so I keep extra romaine to stir in to vary the flavor a bit.
- When chopping, the ingredients will be more dense, thus a smaller volume of 2 to 3 cups will fill most people up when mixed with a protein.
- Chopping more ingredients does take more time, but we’ve found that chopping a big bowl of the base mix and customizing it throughout the week is a time saver.
- I use a sharp chef knife, large cutting board and OXO salad spinner. I had a vegetable chopper in the past that didn’t work very efficiently, but I’m hoping to try this veg chopper soon.
- Look around the refrigerator and consider adding a couple tablespoons up to 1/3 of a cup of any cooked meat or veggies that you have on hand.
- Serve with robustly flavored homemade croutons!
More Easy Salad Recipes To Enjoy:
- Black Bean Salad is great for dipping with tortilla chips or eating alone.
- Cucumber Salad is light, creamy and popular in the summer.
- Fruit Salad for a Crowd is one of our most popular salads all year around.
Easy Chopped Salad
Author: JenniferIngredients
- 12 ounce bag broccoli slaw about 4 cups
- 10 ounce bag cabbage salad mix about 4 cups
- 20 ounces romaine lettuce about 6-8 cups after chopping
- 2 cups cheddar cheese
- 1 cup red pepper chopped
- 1 cup tomato chopped
- 1/2 cup red onion finely chopped, optional
- 1/2 cup Olive Garden italian dressing
- 1/2 cup Hidden Valley ranch dressing
Instructions
- Pour one bag of salad at a time in a large mixing bowl and use clean kitchen scissors to chop contents.
- Use a knife and cutting board or food chopper to chop remaining ingredients.
- Toss together and store in an airtight metal bowl or glass dish in the refrigerator until chilled through.
- Just before serving mix salad dressing into the amount of salad that you plan to eat at that meal. Enjoy!
Notes
- Everything in the salad must be chopped finely! This step makes these salads special.
- Store in a metal bowl with a tightly sealing lid or tightly sealing glass containers. We like these Cuisinart metal bowls or Ello food storage containers. This will extend the shelf life of the salad by 3 to 5 days because it will get cold faster and hold at a colder temperature.
- Always prep the components ahead of time and chill thoroughly!