Customized Chopped Salad (vegan)

A fully customizable, extremely versatile, and completely satisfying chopped salad featuring nutrient-dense greens, vegetables, and fruit. Each bite is full of flavor, color, and texture! Get a jump start on nutrient absorption by finely chopping this super digestible salad!

This salad recipe isn’t like any other recipe I’ve posted before. This is a fully Customizable Chopped Salad. You may be wondering what this means. And hopefully, I’ll do a good job explaining. If not, please ask for clarification in the comments below. It’s fairly straight-forward and simple.

Have you ever read one of those choose your own adventure chapter books? You know, the kind where you get to choose from two different scenarios at the end of each chapter? This is kind of what this recipe is like. The mechanics, method, or process remains the same; but you get to choose precisely what you put in each salad group (the metaphorical chapter).

To make a chopped salad, you need a few kitchen tools. Since we all have different gadgets and prefer one over another, I’ll focus on the things I enjoy using to make a chopped salad. Then I’ll give you the tried-and-true standby. You’ll need a large bowl or cutting board, a large sharp knife or mezzaluna, and a large salad fork and/or spoon.

First up is the bowl. This may seem like an obvious tool since most salads are served in a bowl. But there are a few important things that you should consider. It may surprise you, but I chop my chopped salad in a large bowl. The bowl should be rather large and must be made of a durable material that won’t flake or peel. I use a beech wood bowl from Holland Bowl Company. You can use a large plastic or stainless steel bowl. Whatever you have works. Just know that some may be louder than others and some bowls can dull your mezzaluna.

A what? A mezzaluna is a really cool curved chopping blade that makes chopped salads a breeze. A mezzaluna allows you to chop across all of your ingredients using up-and-down and rolling motions to finely chop everything up rather quickly. It’s also how I’m able to make a chopped salad in a bowl. Instead of chopping with a knife on a cutting board and then scooping up your chopped greens and vegetables to transfer them to the bowl, a mezzaluna allows you to chop all of your crisp salad options in the bowl itself. Who doesn’t like less dishes to wash?

The curved blade of a mezzaluna rolls up and down the sides of the bowl with ease. I love that it allows you to chop vertically, using an up and down motion. It’s also safer since my fingers aren’t anywhere close to the blade. Whether you use a mezzaluna or sharp knife, the idea is to chop all of your ingredients until they are relatively fine and uniform in size.

I purchased mine from the Holland Bowl Company as a set several years ago. Like a Vitamix, it might be a little more expensive than a regular bowl you can pick up on Amazon or Wal-Mart, but they’re very durable and meant to last a really long time.

So now that we’ve covered the tools, let’s talk about the process.

The idea is to create a unique and flavorful salad every single time. It should be different – in color, ingredients, and nutrition. And it’s a lot of fun to make. I almost called this “Make it your Way Chopped Salad” because you can successfully create and customize your salad so that you never have the same salad twice, all while using only ingredients you love.

I’ll explain how and why – and it won’t cost you a fortune, I promise! In fact, you may save money by using up those things in your vegetable drawer that you never seem to get around to using. I know, I have some of those same snippets in there.

First, let’s look at the main Customized Chopped Salad Components:

• Dark leafy greens
• Vegetables
• Fruit
• Optional Add-ins
• Toppings
• Salad dressing

To make your very own Customized Chopped Salad, you’re going to combine a bunch of Dark Leafy Greens and Vegetables in a large bowl or on your cutting board. Please note that these measurements are just proposed recommendations. You can absolutely increase or decrease any of these quantities. They’re just for reference as a guide, just in case you’re the type of person who prefers more structure.

Also, please note that this recipe is for two large meal servings where the salad is the main course or it successfully provides four side salad servings. So, if you only want to make enough for one person with a regular appetite, you’ll want to decrease everything in half. On the other hand, if you are making dinner for four, you should double your dark leafy greens and other ingredients. This may sound like a bunch, but you’re going to chop it down miniscule. You’ll be amazed at how fast greens down-size!!

Some Dark Leafy Green recommendations include kale, spinach, arugula, swiss chard, rainbow chard, romaine, oak leaf, beet greens, and so on. Feel free to throw in some fresh herbs like mint, basil, cilantro, or parsley. Each will impart a completely different aromatic experience.

As for Vegetables, you can pick as many or as few as you want, as many as you have hiding in your refrigerator, or popping out of your garden. Some recommendations include purple or green cabbage, onion, bell peppers, carrots, radish, cucumber, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, green beans, squash, onions, green onions, beets, jicama, and more.

Using a mezzaluna or sharp knife, you’re going to chop through all of the dark leafy greens and vegetables until all of the bits are fine and uniform in size. To be more specific, only you will know how large or fine you prefer your salad. You can make it super fine or you can leave it rather rough and chunky. Just like the ingredients you incorporate into your Customized Chopped Salad, the texture your salad possesses is completely up to you.

Next up are the Fruit. This can be a bit tricky since the fruit category doesn’t always look or taste like fruit. This includes tomatoes, cucumbers, apples, blueberries, strawberries, grapes, mandarin, oranges or clementines, mango, pineapple, peach, kiwi, artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, hearts of palm. So, even though some of these recommendations aren’t necessarily fruit, they truly remain in this category because they need to be chopped separately from the greens and vegetables.

This is because the “fruit” items tend to be more wet and can get mushy, losing all of their moisture and structure if they’re chopped with the rest of the greens and vegetables. It’s just the way it is. So, if you want to include juicy red tomatoes or cucumbers, you should definitely do so. Just dice them up separately and stir them in with the toppings and dressing. Some of these fruit items don’t need to be chopped or cut at all. This may include blueberries, grapes, and clementine segments. Hopefully this makes sense.

The next two categories normally don’t require any prep or chopping at all. This may include Optional Add-ins like brown or white rice, sorghum, quinoa, millet, very small pasta, corn, beans, edamame, sprouts, micrograms, and peas. It also includes what I call Toppings, which is a huge array fo things like sunflower seeds, pepitas, sesame seeds, chia seeds, hemp hearts, raw or roasted nuts, dried fruit, vegan cheese, capers, olives. It can also include vegan cheese and croutons.

The key here and throughout this Customized Chopped Salad experience is to use whatever you have on hand or whatever you enjoy most in your salad. It is then done in two phases – the actual chopped phase and the stir-in phase. Once you have everything chopped, you have the option to drizzle on your favorite dressing or glaze or toss your salad in your chosen vinegar or salad dressing. Some delicious salad dressing recommendations include my Creamy Caesar Salad Dressing, Cilantro Lime Dressing, Apple Hemp Heart Vinaigrette, Mango and Poppy Seed Vinaigrette, balsamic vinegar glaze, vinaigrette, or thinned hummus.

Once tossed, you should serve and enjoy this Customized Chopped Salad immediately. If you do have any leftover salad, it’s important that you store it in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for no more than 24 hours. This is because the greens and vegetables are chopped rather fine and will release moisture, causing them to deteriorate rather quickly.

And that’s all there is to it.

I hope you enjoy this Customized Chopped Salad as much as I do.  

I would love to see your results! Please leave a comment and rate it down below, tag a picture @pebblesandtoast and #pebblesandtoast on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook!   Enjoy!!   

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Ingredients

• 4 cups Dark leafy greens (kale, spinach, arugula, swiss chard, rainbow chard, romaine, beet greens)
• 2-3 cups Vegetables (cabbage, onion, bell peppers, carrots, radish, cucumber, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, green beans, squash)
• 1-2 cups Fruit (tomatoes, apples, blueberries, strawberries, grapes, mandarin, oranges, mango, pineapple, peach, kiwi, artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, hearts of palm)
• 1 cup optional add-ins (brown or white rice, sorghum, quinoa, millet, very small pasta, croutons, corn, beans/peas)
• ½ cup Toppings (seeds (sunflower/pepitas), hemp hearts, raw or roasted nuts, dried fruit, vegan cheese, capers, olives)
• ¼ cup Salad dressing*, vinegar, or thinned hummus

Instructions

1. In a large bowl or cutting board, combine the dark leafy greens and vegetables.  Using a mezzaluna or sharp knife, chop all until fine and uniform in size.

1. Stir in the Fruit and Toppings.
2. Toss in your vinegar or salad dressing* and Serve immediately.
3. Store any remaining salad in an air-tight jar or container in the refrigerator for no more than 24 hours.  Because the greens are chopped, they will release moisture and deteriorate rather quickly.

Notes

* Salad dressing Recommendations – Creamy Caesar Salad Dressing, Cilantro Lime Dressing, Apple Hemp Heart Vinaigrette, Mango and Poppy Seed Vinaigrette, balsamic glaze, or vinegar.