How To Make Chopped Salad Like Your Favorite Place

If you are someone who loves to get chopped salads for lunch, maybe from chains such as Chopt or FreshCo or maybe even Subway, and you’d like to figure out how to make it at home then you have undoubtedly searched online for recipes and ideas about how to make it yourself. It seems simple enough: salad. Chopped. But in reality if you don’t have the right tools it can be quite difficult.

It’s similar to when you want to make pie crust or zoodles or fresh pasta. It’s not the ingredients that make or break the recipe, it’s the tools you have to work with. If you don’t have a spiralizer, for instance, when you go to make zucchini noodles then you are going to be in a tough spot. Likewise, when you try and make chopped salad and you don’t have the right chopping tool or the right bowl, then you will probably end up with a messy kitchen and a salad that isn’t chopped in the same way that you have come to expect and love.

So, with that in mind this is going to break down the dos and the don’t and the shortcuts (making a chopped salad without the right tools as you will see mentioned alot).

Making A Chopped Salad Without A Bowl and Mezzaluna

Yes, it can be done. No, it won’t be the same. What you will end up doing is using cutting board and then using a knife to dice the salad. It’s not as easy and it is certainly more messy. If you have a larger knife, then there is some play you have. A small knife is just not going to cut it. You will be making a mess as well as spending way too much time messing around with the salad.

The best thing to do is to just get a dedicated salad bowl for chopped salads and then purchase something that is called a messaluna. This is a curved blade that will let you cut things that are inside the bowl. It’s done by either cutting in a rocking motion or else stomping down on the salad like you might see some of the counter people do at one of your favorite salad chains.

Mezzaluna Salad Chopper

Even if you decide you don’t need to buy a separate  bowl for chopping salads, you really should but a messaluna. These are just designed better for your needs. The ability to perform a rocking motion is something that is just perfect for making chopped salads.

You should get one that fits comfortably in your hand. You want to be able to grip it in one hand. The mezzaluna shown below is great because it has a few cool features. First, it’s stainless steel which means you don’t have to worry about rust and other things. Second, it’s one large design and you don’t have to worry about a part of the design being plastic or rubber and cracking off and falling into the salad that you are chopping up.

Salad Bowl For Chopped Salads

I do recommend that you get a salad that is designed for chopping salads. You can make a chopped salad without a bowl, and in fact some salad franchises do this (Just Salad) but a bowl is going to make it much easier and neater and remember that your kitchen is not designed like the kitchen in a commercial establishment and won’t stand up to the splatter that you are going to make if you just try and make a chopped salad on a cutting board in your kitchen. As a side note, if you are looking to replace your old cutting board and are looking to buy a new one, I have an article that covers the best material for cutting boards.

So, get a salad bowl. But, make sure you get a salad bowl that is made from the correct material. You don’t want to get a salad bowl that is made from any sort of plastic. Even if it’s made from a plastic that doesn’t have BPA or some other type of harmful chemical, plastics don’t stand up to the chopping as well as stainless steel. You should just get a decent sized salad bowl that is made from stainless steel. You can order them online and they are super cheap and probably last forever.