This Italian chopped salad is an incredible lunch or side dish that's packed with sweet and salty ingredients all cut into the perfect bite-sized pieces. Serve your chopped salad with a simple and hearty Italian salad dressing for the salad of the summer. As a bonus, it's ready in less than 15 minutes and truly feels like you're eating a rainbow when you dig into this!

This Italian chopped salad is a healthy but flavorful lunch or dinner idea, perfect served as is or with some crusty garlic bread on the side to scoop up your salad!

Other salads you might like include this chickpea salad, Greek pasta salad, or this amazing vegetarian Caesar salad. You might also like to try this arancini ball recipe to pair with this salad!

Ingredients & Notes

Scroll down to the recipe card for the exact quantities you'll need for this recipe - below I've added some notes on each ingredient plus a few potential swaps in case you can't have a certain ingredient.

• Lettuce: For this Italian chopped salad, I love the crunch romaine lettuce provides. I use a whole head, thinly shredded, which serves about two people. You could also use iceberg lettuce, radicchio, or whatever lettuce you prefer.
  
• Roasted Red Peppers: Roasted red peppers (I used jarred to save time!) add a lovely element of sweetness to the salad.
  
• Sun-Dried Tomatoes: Sun-dried tomatoes deliver a real punch in this recipe, and are great at providing some of the similar notes that salami adds to this salad in the non-vegetarian version.
  
• Chickpeas: Chickpeas add flavor and protein to this recipe. I use them straight from the can (rinsed), but you could roast them for some added crunch if you prefer. I also love the Bold Bean Co organic jarred chickpeas - they're gigantic compared to tinned chickpeas and so, so good!
  
• Olives: I love the addition of large green olives in this recipe. You could also use kalamata olives or another variety if you prefer.
  
• Cheese: Every salad needs some fat! I added mozzarella pearls and hard cheese (like Parmesan, but vegetarian-friendly - I often use Pecorino) here.
  
• Red Onion: Finely diced for that acidic, crunchy touch.
  
• Tomatoes: I love the way mixed-color cherry tomatoes add vibrancy and flavor to this recipe. Go for a mix of red, yellow, and orange tomatoes if you can. Simple cherry tomatoes will also work.
  
• Dressing: You could use any dressing you prefer for this recipe, like a creamy one with mayonnaise or Greek yogurt as a base, such as in a Caesar salad, or a lighter vinaigrette like I've used in this recipe.

Making Your Italian Chopped Salad

The instructions for this recipe are ridiculously simple! Scroll down to the recipe card at the bottom of the page for the exact ingredients and instructions - it's simply a case of chopping your ingredients and mixing up the dressing.

1) Chop Your Ingredients

I always recommend chopping all your ingredients before you start assembling - it's almost like timeblocking your cooking activities to make the whole process simpler.

2) Assemble

Next, assemble your salad. You could arrange it like in the photos included in this post for aesthetics, or just chuck it all in together!

3) Make the Dressing

Make your dressing in a small jar and mix together well. Drizzle it over your salad and let the salad sit for 10 minutes so the dressing can really meld with the ingredients.

Chef's Notes / Top Tips

• Taking the time to cut your ingredients into even bite-sized pieces is worth the effort for this salad, allowing you to scoop up a perfect bite every single time.
  
• Keep in mind that the sun-dried tomatoes, olives, and mozzarella are already quite "wet" ingredients, so you don't need to add huge amounts of olive oil to dress your salad.
  
• If you want some crunch to your salad, you could add some croutons, or you could roast your chickpeas. Adding some diced almonds would also be lovely!
  
• Many Italian chopped salads have salami or other cured meat in them. Being vegetarian, this doesn't feature in this recipe - but you could opt to add some plant-based salami if you still want that protein and flavor addition!

Storage

Once dressed, this salad should last for 1-2 days stored in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

If you're planning on meal-prepping, I'd advise only adding your dressing once you're ready to eat it to avoid the ingredients going soggy!