Storing Leftovers
If left undressed, chopped salad leftovers will keep in the refrigerator for about three to four days. As with all recipes, use your best discretion when it comes to leftovers. I do not recommend freezing this recipe. In general, raw vegetables do not freeze well. Whenever I link to recipes that would make good side dishes, I always want to mention to you that a simple side salad, like this one, is my go to side dish. For so long I was reluctant to add a side salad to our dinner table. I anticipated fights with my kids and who has the energy for that at the end of the day. But one day, when our whole family was sick, a good friend dropped off dinner for us and she included a huge fantastic chopped salad. My kids ate a ton of it. And then they asked for leftovers the next day. Since then, I regularly include a salad on our dinner table, and my kids devour it. And then I get to feel like a super hero.
Chop the vegetables. The goal of any chopped salad is to have all of the vegetables relatively small and uniform in size. This applies to the romaine hearts as well as the other vegetables.Whisk the vinegar and mayonnaise. This is an important step when making the dressing to prevent it from separating. See more on this below.Mix the rest of the dressing ingredients. We are using my Italian Dressing recipe for this salad. Whisk together all of the dressing ingredients. Many other homemade salad dressings would also be delicious with this chopped salad recipe, including my Balsamic Dressing. For best results make the dressing the day before.Toss the salad ingredients. The salad is ready to serve! I like to serve the dressing on the side so that everyone can decide how much they’d like on their salad.
Additionally, and I cannot stress this enough, you will love this dressing so much more if you make it the night before. Think about olive oil that has been infused with herbs. That is similar to what is happening here, and so it needs time to sit. In fact, I would even go so far to say that if you don’t have time to make this one the night before, pick a different salad dressing recipe.
Cut the whole heart down the middle.Turn the head and make another cut up the middle so that the heart is cut into four equal parts. (If your Romaine heart is really big, the quarters may also need to be cut in half.)Working from the top of the Romaine heart down to the stem, chop it into small pieces.
AvocadoFeta CheeseHard Boiled EggsCroutonsSwitch up the dressing. Swap the Italian for Balsamic Dressing or The Best Ranch Dressing Recipe.
Strawberry SaladAsian Cucumber SaladGreek Salad with Chicken
