Lisa, I'm not momj, but I've made chopped salads for years. I think everyone does it a bit differently, but I use green and red peppers, carrots, tomatoes, scallions, cucumber squared, sliced mushrooms, and small squares of cheese. These ingredients are tossed with a vinaigrette and served. The ingredients change with the season to include whatever is fresh. Plus, you can add hard-cooked eggs, dried cranberries, nuts ... nearly anything you would normally put in a salad. Very flexible and tasty!

Thanks, Lily. That's what I figured it was, but was just curious what momj47 puts in hers. It is so hard for me to make salads because my DH can't eat bell pepper or cucumber raw and I always have to put those separate. It gets annoying after awhile.
Lisa

You can use anything. I use lettuce (small chop, 1/4" to 1/2"), and like bleu cheese, cukes, marinated artichoke hearts, 1/2 cherry tomatoes, green onions. Just add whatever else you like. This is another dish that had no recipe, there is no right or wrong.

Question #1: can you chop lettuce ahead a day or two of consuming, will it turn brown on the edges or how can you prevent it from turning brown along the edges?

Question #2: could the other elements of the salad be chopped ahead also? would you keep each item in the salad in a separate container?

I'd like to eat more salads, but don't because of the time consuming prep each time. Any help is appreciated!

*we now return to the previously scheduled topic*

Teresa, I haven't tried this but they say there is a plastic knife make just to cut lettuce so that it won't turn brown on the edges. Maybe someone else will chime in here that has tried it. I do chop other things ahead and keep them in separate containers. I don't do tomatoes ahead though.

Beverly

I won't chop lettuce ahead of time. Maybe others will, but I think it deteriorates. Now, if you tear lettuce, it keeps much better. But I don't like it chopped ahead of time.

One of my very favorite salads is the Blue Cheese Chopped Salad at Outback Steakhouse. This is a pretty fair knockoff of it:

OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE CHOPPED BLUE CHEESE SALAD COPYCAT

Candied cinnamon pecans:
1/3 cup pecans sliced-lengthwise
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 Tblsp. dark brown sugar
1-1/2 tsp. butter, melted

Salad:
3 cups chopped Butter or Bibb lettuce
3 cups chopped red leaf lettuce
3 cups chopped iceberg lettuce
1 green onion, chopped

Blue cheese vinaigrette dressing:
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 tsp. balsamic vinegar
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
2 Tblsp. sour cream
2 Tblsp. honey
1 Tblsp. chopped fresh basil
Salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese

Preheat oven to 375� F. Slice each pecan half into at least three lengthwise pieces. Combine the cinnamon and brown sugar. Toss the pecans with the melted butter, then with the cinnamon/sugar mixture, making sure to coat them all evenly. Put the nuts on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 5 to 8 minutes, until sugar is caramelized. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and slide the pecans off of the parchment to cool.

Chop all of the lettuce into small bite-sized pieces; and rinse them with cool water. Slice the green onion.

Whisk together the vinaigrette ingredients.

Place the chopped lettuce into a serving bowl large enough to allow you to toss the salad. Add the vinaigrette and toss thoroughly. Sprinkle with the chopped onion. Break the cooled pecan slices apart and sprinkle them over the salad.

Chopped salad is one of my favorite salads. You can use any fresh vegetable. I've used cauliflower, broccoli, cukes, peppers, scallions, red onions, radishes, celery, pea pods and grape tomatoes. The ideas is really crunchy veggies. Carrots are a little TOO crunchy for my taste but I use them coarse grated. Other types of tomatoes are OK too, drain first. The secret is a really good marinade--quality EVOO and I use either balsamic vinegar or fresh squeezed lemon or lime juice. Fresh herbs too, like dill, mint, oregano, chives, parsely or cilantro and basil or thyme, which I can get from the garden. I think it is good to let it marinade for an hour or so, and it can be kept overnight. But not with lettuce. I have kept it overnight with romaine lettuce hearts and it is OK, still yummy tasting but the texture of the lettuce does suffer. Of course some people LIKE that texture, in fact if I'm not mistaken, this type of over marinated lettuce salad is served on day old toast as panzanella.

A plastic knife does nothing to keep lettuce from browning....that's oxidation and nothing short of one of those soaks...or chlorine will stop that. Even torn lettuce browns.
Linda C

Yeah Linda, but does it brown as soon as when chopped by a stainless knife? Everything will turn brown eventually, no matter what.

Here is a link that might be useful: Plastic Lettuce Knife

I know this is no answer to your question Lisa. It is funny to watch Al Roaker murder a chopped salad though. Don't watch if you don't want to hear the short advertising first.

Here is a link that might be useful: Making A Chopped Salad

I've got one of those plastic knives, so I'll do a trial this weekend and report my findings!

Also plan to make a chopped salad just as soon as I can get some ingredients and find some time.
Teresa

more ingredients that are yummy in a chop salad: bacon, olives, ham, beets, marinated green beans, garbanzo beans, black beans.

Lisa, you might also want to try an Israeli salad, which can be served in a bowl or as the filling for a pita.

I don't have a T&T recipe, but I'll bet Jessy does. Here's an example I found online.

Sue

Here is a link that might be useful: example of Israeli chopped salad

I love Israeli salad! Wish we had a heart symbol on these danged keyboards!

Teresa

Oh, and some croutons, of course!

An infinitely variable and adaptable style of salad, all is good. ;-)

I got an alligator chopper last summer to help with making salsa - 100 jars or so for my son's wedding.

It made chopping tomato, onion and peppers a breeze. And I've used it a lot since, not only for veggies, but potatoes for hash and fruit for salad.

My DD and grandchildren spent the summer with me, they are 2 and 4, so keeping food bite-sized is important. I started chopping lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers (red, yellow or orange), eggs and anything else interesting, to make a bite-sized salad. They eat it with a spoon and put their favorite dressing on it - ranch this year. Mary, the two year old, would actually eat salad this way, and Chris, the 4 year old, would eat two bowls of salad. And they love fruit salad chopped small, too.

My DD and I discovered we like salad chopped like this, too, easier to eat, all our favorite veggies and much less lettuce.

this post was so inspiring that I made a chopped salad for my dinner tonite. Took me abt 20 mins to chop a lot of romaine, added nuked chicken breast, green onion, cuke, heritage tomato and Maggiano's dressing. Yum, thanks for the prompt. Leftovers for tomorrow, too.

Thank you all for the wonderful ideas. This has helped a lot.
Momj, those choppers really work? Even with tomatoes? Do you slice in slices first to get even dice?
Lisa

Yes, they do work, and it chops so fast. Someone posted about using one a year or so ago, so I got one at Target for the "salsa-fest" we had last summer. I peel the cukes and make big slices, slice the tomatoes, clean the peppers and cut them into big pieces, same for the onions. That's the easy part - for me, chopping it all up into smaller pieces is very tedious and messy and I hate doing it.

When we made salsa a couple of years ago, I had veggies everywhere when I was chopping them, with tomato juice running all over the cutting boards onto the counters, this thing kept the mess much more contained. I'd plunge and peel and line up the tomatoes, and we had 8 cups in no time at all. Same for the onions and peppers.

With tomatoes, you have to "sharply" close the top quickly so they don't just get smashed through the cutters. My grandson loves to help with the tomatoes. Peppers can be a bit resistant, so we slam the top down on them too.

Mine just has two blades, medium and fine, but this one has three and I like the option of slicing, too.

It's really useful for chopping veggies to freeze, I keep a few bags of onions and peppers in the freezer now.

My daughter and I were thinking this would be good for fruit cobblers, too. While the kids were here, I finally managed to peel an apple with one long peel - where they ever impressed! I sliced and chopped it. The kids just scooped up the pieces and ate them.

I've used it on left over boiled potatoes, chopped with the fine blade and fried for breakfast, too. Very good with bacon and eggs.