Chopped salads
I’m a total salad girl, making what I call a “Big Fat Salad” most days of the week for lunch. I typically throw cooked protein (chicken, salmon, ground beef) over half of a bag of mixed salad greens, and whatever other goodies I have in the kitchen - cherry tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, fresh herbs, shredded parmesan, bread and butter pickles, and random leftover beans or grilled veggies from dinner. I love that salads can be varied just by switching up the base, protein, herbs or dressing. My dressing can be anything from a balsamic glaze to a dijon mustard and lemon juice blend. Sometimes all I have time for is a sprinkling of flaky maldon salt (which always goes on all of my salads forever and ever) and a drizzle of olive oil. However, the only way I will eat salad is if it is chopped. A lot.
By chopping ingredients into micro-bite-sized pieces, each bite tends to have all of the salad components in it, making each bite that much more flavorful. Chopping also allows you to incorporate ingredients that might otherwise overpower a salad in their whole form, like a big raw broccoli floret or raw kale. Sometimes it feels a bit like you’re a dinosaur eating tree leaves when trying to shove big lettuce leaves from your salad in your mouth, but not with a chopped salad! In fact, one way my kiddos will actually eat salad is thoroughly chopped, dressed, and then scooped with tortilla chips or bits of pita bread.
While you can chop each ingredient on a cutting board with a large chef knife, my preferred method is to put all ingredients in a large, flat bowl and use kitchen scissors to cut through your salad, chopping it into tiny bits.
Lately I can’t stop watching Baked by Melissa instagram videos, as she is also a huge chopped salad lover! She so effortlessly combines ingredients for her salad base and oftentimes makes a quick dressing heavy on the garlic, lemon, and nutritional yeast and I’ve loved incorporating her ideas into our salad rotations. If you're on the fence about salads, try the chop method and pair it with a fantastic homemade dressing.
