The garden is overflowing with salad fixins so it is time to head inside the kitchen and use the fresh greens to make my current favorite salad.
My favorite right now is a Chopped Salad. Some call it a New York Chopped Salad. Some call it a Garbage Salad. I call it easy!
I top it all off with my fresh made salad dressing. Let's get choppin!
This is so easy to do. Use whatever you have available and of course use your favorite salad fixins. All that is required is chop, chop, choppin!
Make your selections of what you want in your salad and you can change it up any time.
Chop your salad greens similar in size to what you see in this picture.
If you are serving more people than yourself put the additional ingredients into small bowls so everyone can choose what they like in their personal salad. It is easy to get carried away chopping, if this is the case for you alone, store each ingredient separately, make sure the greens are dry using a spinner and you will have a great lunch for work the next day!
My ingredients I chose for this salad, starting in the lower left corner and going clockwise are chives,
steamed red and striped beets and beet greens, chopped lettuce, pears (use raisins or apples if you like), steamed broccoli (from the night before) red cabbage, roasted chicken breast (use any meat you like or keep it vegetarian), white onion, croutons, orange and green pepper and cilantro.
If you don't want to use bottled salad dressing try this easy mix. You can also change this up using herbs and spices you like. I mix the dressing in one of those salad dressing bottles.
I love garlic and add roughly a 1/2 teaspoon of minced garlic.
I fill my vinegar to the vinegar line and the oil to the water line to keep it lower fat. You can mix it the way you would like it to taste.
I add about 1-2 Tablespoons of water.
Fresh oregano and thyme.
Put a fine mince on these.
Add the herbs to the bottle.
Grind some pepper to your taste.
Add that to the bottle.
Add salt to the bottle to your taste.
Mmm, honey for sweetness. Have to balance the vinegar.
Again, I add roughly a tablespoon and more if needed.
This is the emulsifier. Stone ground mustard. You can use Dijon also.
A generous squeeze to the bottle.
Eww, what's that? Just kidding, we have to shake it up baby!
Shake it up and dab some on your finger or into a spoon and taste and adjust if needed.
Would you like a creamier texture? Keep it healthy and lower calorie by adding hummus!
Plain or flavored will do.
Put a dollop or 2 into the bottle. Shake it up again!
The Chopped Salad put into a serving bowl. Wait it gets better!
Uh huh, we have to add the dressing.
Time to dig in!
What better way to take it from inside to the outside! Enjoy!!
We don't need a melting pot in this country, folks. We need a salad bowl. In a salad bowl, you put in the different things. You want the vegetables-the lettuce, the cucumbers, the onions, the green peppers-to maintain their identity. You appreciate differences.
-Jane Elliot
