Italian Chopped Salad
This flavorful and filling meal will convince you to never making a boring salad again. Based off a Portillo’s favorite, my Italian Chopped Salad is chock full of nutritious vegetables but gets a pop of flavor from bacon, GF pasta, and feta!
August 7, 2020
These perfect summer days have me craving salads. But not just any ol’ salad, lacking in flavor and made with the same ingredients every time. Exciting salads with bursts of citrus, cheese and most importantly, bacon. I swear there is always someone frying up bacon on my daily walks.
So here we are. Inspired partially by Portillo’s, I give you a delicious meal full of vegetables so we can still consider it a salad, but with the minimum requirement of goodies to keep it fun. I promise it’ll be a joy to eat down to the last bite.
From start to finish, this whole meal takes 20 minutes to prepare — including chopping time!
How to Make It
Begin by cooking your gluten free pasta in boiling salted water, being careful not to overcook it.
I used Trader Joe’s Red Lentil Pasta for my salad, and I really enjoyed the flavor and texture. I chose to carefully chop my pasta after cooking so that it was in smaller bites.
You could, of course, opt for a gluten-filled ditalini, or just avoid the extra step of chopping your pasta. However, I did find a well-reviewed gluten free ditalini which I plan to try soon!
use your time well
After starting the pasta, start cooking up your bacon (the most important ingredient)!
Since I didn’t want to overwhelm the salad, I only cooked up 2 strips of bacon. I also didn’t have that much on hand and was happy that a small amount still packed a punch and a good crunch, Shockingly, this only adds about 90 calories to the entire salad! If you feel like adding extra bacon, I won’t tell.
I like super crunchy bacon, so I cut it up into small chunks while raw. I find this really speeds up the process of even cooking for optimal crunch.
Let's talk Vegetables
While the pasta and bacon finishes up, start chopping all the veggies. Anything will work here. I used my favorites: arugula, lettuce, red and green cabbage, cucumber, red pepper, avocado, and green onion.
I also added cilantro (fresh from the garden!) because I love the brightness of fresh herbs in salad.
Be sure to wait on adding the avocado until right before serving if you plan on making the rest of the salad in advance.
Serve
Chop up the pasta and combine it with the chopped vegetables, bacon, and feta in a big bowl. Add the avocado last so that it doesn’t get smashed.
Top with a light vinaigrette, like my Lemon Dressing shown below.
I hope you enjoy this nutritious meal that will leave your stomach full and your tastebuds happy!
Italian Chopped Salad
Ingredients
Salad
- 2 oz red lentil or gluten free pasta
- 2 strips bacon
- 2 cups iceberg lettuce
- 2 cups green cabbage
- 1 cup red cabbage
- 1 cup arugula
- 2/3 cup red bell pepper
- 1/2 cup cucumber
- 2 chives or green onion
- small handful fresh cilantro
- 1 small avocado
Lemon Vinaigrette
- 1/2 lemon, juiced (about 2 tbsp)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbsp dijon mustard
- 1/2 tsp garlic salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tbsp Italian seasoning blend
Instructions
- Begin by cooking gluten free pasta in boiling salted water, being careful not to overcook.
- While the pasta boils, cook 2 strips of bacon. To speed things up, cut your bacon into small pieces while raw. It'll cook faster and get evenly crispy.
- While the bacon cooks, chop all the vegetables and herbs into bite-size pieces. Add vegetables (minus the avocado), herbs, and feta to a large serving bowl.
- Once the pasta finishes cooking, drain and let cool slightly. If desired, cut into smaller pieces.
- Crumble cooked bacon to the desired size.
- Add pasta, bacon, and avocado to the large bowl. Whisk together vinaigrette ingredients and pour over the salad. Serve immediately.
Notes
- Calorie count includes dressing.
- I chopped my Trader Joe's red lentil pasta into small pieces (like ditalini) to make it a similar size to the rest of the ingredients. This is optional.
- If making the salad in advance, wait to add bacon, avocado, and dressing until right before serving.