I’ve misplaced depend of the variety of instances I’ve gone out for lunch simply because I used to be craving this salad. Impressed by my deep love for the easy home chop served at Harvest Pizza, it was well beyond time for me to determine the right way to make their salad at house.
Crunchy greens, tangy pepperoncini, and hearty chickpeas are tossed with a candy Italian dressing after which sprinkled with crumbles of creamy cheese to recreate Harvest’s Home Chop Salad.
Candy Italian Dressing
The bottom taste for this salad is the candy Italian dressing. It’s a clean, candy cousin to the zesty Italian dressing that may be a staple in my kitchen. It’s shiny, candy, and tangy with lemon, Dijon, and garlic flavors in every chew and only a tiny trace of warmth from the purple pepper.
Salad Happiness

I’m thrilled to let you know that this salad is a spot-on match for the salad we take pleasure in a lot at Harvest Pizza. And I’m capable of make it day-after-day at house now. It feels a bit like my salad-loving coronary heart has discovered an early Christmas current.

What’s a Chopped Salad?
The concept behind the favored chopped salads is that every chew will embody somewhat little bit of all the things, without having to chop something additional whereas consuming. The important thing to an incredible chopped salad is to chop, slice, or chop each ingredient roughly the identical dimension. The greens are often reduce to roughly the identical dimension as the opposite components.
On this explicit salad’s case, the greens aren’t reduce fairly as small because the chickpeas, however they’re reduce sufficiently small to be bite-sized and simply mixed with the opposite components in a easy forkful.
Home Chop Salad
My household goes a bit loopy over chopped salads, and once I serve one, they typically touch upon how nice it’s to have a bit of every taste in each chew. One among my boys insists on consuming his chopped salads with a spoon, and seeing him accomplish that by no means fails to make me snicker.
I’m prepared to guess that after your first chew, you’ll agree that it’s nicely definitely worth the couple of minutes of additional effort to cut issues small for this salad. And if you need a shortcut to salad happiness, take a look at this salad chopping bowl. I hardly ever choose up single-task kitchen instruments, however this salad chopper has been making me grin for a number of weeks now.

What’s Ricotta Salata?
Earlier than tasting this salad a number of years in the past, I’d by no means even heard of ricotta salata. I really googled it as one of many salad components once I first noticed it on the menu. I had no thought then, simply how a lot I’d develop to like this explicit cheese.
Whereas common ricotta is a delicate, spreadable cheese, ricotta salata has a crumbly, sliceable texture and a barely sharper, salty taste. It has a clear, creamy style, someplace in between feta and Parmesan, however way more delicate and delicate. I completely love this new-to-me cheese, and I prime all of my salads with it every time it’s in the home.
Sadly, this less-than-common cheese is usually a bit difficult to search out. I’ve had the very best luck merely asking for it, repeatedly, at totally different shops. It’s virtually at all times accessible at Entire Meals, although, so I’ll run in simply to choose up a little bit of the cheese after we are close by.
When you can’t discover ricotta salata, don’t stress it an excessive amount of. I’ve additionally made this salad with crumbled goat cheese and with crumbled feta, and it was a success with each cheeses. It will even be nice with freshly shredded Parmesan if that’s your best choice.

Recipe Tip
When making this salad prematurely (and you understand how a lot I really like having salads available for straightforward lunches), I prep and retailer the lettuce and cabbage (or radicchio) in an hermetic bag or container with a paper towel. The greens will keep recent this manner for a number of days.
The marinated chickpeas will hold properly within the fridge for as much as per week. Simply add them to the salad together with a little bit of the dressing from the jar when able to serve.
Radicchio vs Pink Cabbage
When you discover radicchio somewhat too bitter on your style, purple cabbage makes an incredible substitute. Pink cabbage provides an identical crunch and exquisite coloration, with a milder, barely candy taste that works nicely in salads. It’s a straightforward swap that retains the look and texture of your dish.
Radicchio has a daring, distinctive taste that’s each sharply bitter and barely spicy, with a touch of nuttiness. Radicchio can actually get up a dish with its punchy taste, however in case you are leery of it, purple cabbage is a terrific alternative as a substitute. My boys aren’t the most important followers of radicchio, so I often make this with purple cabbage for my household.

Chopped Salad Recipes
It isn’t typically {that a} salad manages to qualify as a full meal for my crew, however these salads examine all of the bins for us. The Italian chopped salad is at all times a success, with loads of meat and cheese, crunchy recent greens, tangy olives and pepperoncini, tossed in a zesty Italian dressing. And the Bacon, Bleu Cheese, and Shrimp Chopped Salad combines crunchy bacon, garlicky shrimp, ripe avocado, juicy tomatoes, candy corn, and creamy cheese, together with a beneficiant handful of recent parsley to brighten the entire flavors.
As quickly as I tasted an Italian Grinder Sandwich, I knew {that a} grinder-inspired salad wanted to occur. The tangy slaw combination topping the sandwiches was my favourite half, so I needed to profit from that taste mixture in a loaded salad. Fortunately, I had loads of further components available, so I used to be capable of make this Italian Grinder Salad the very subsequent day. The entire household provides it two thumbs up.
Candy Italian Dressing Elements
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Mix all of the dressing components in a pint-size or bigger glass jar or bottle. Seal with lid and shake to mix. Add the rinsed chickpeas to the jar with the dressing and seal with lid. Shake to coat. Enable the chickpeas to marinate within the dressing whereas making the salad.
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Mix the lettuce, radicchio, and pepperoncini in a mixing bowl. High with chickpeas, and as a lot dressing as you want. Toss to coat all the things with the dressing. Sprinkle the salad with crumbled cheese earlier than serving.
You seemingly received’t want the entire dressing on this recipe for the salad, however I are likely to err on the aspect of additional dressing. I prefer to have it available for future salads, too.
Energy: 316 kcal | Carbohydrates: 23 g | Protein: 8 g | Fats: 22 g | Saturated Fats: 4 g | Polyunsaturated Fats: 3 g | Monounsaturated Fats: 14 g | Ldl cholesterol: 8 mg | Sodium: 653 mg | Potassium: 351 mg | Fiber: 7 g | Sugar: 5 g | Vitamin A: 551 IU | Vitamin C: 22 mg | Calcium: 102 mg | Iron: 2 mg
Diet data is mechanically calculated, so ought to solely be used as an approximation.


