Antipasto Chopped Salad
I love this low-carb Antipasto Chopped Salad, and this post has ingredient suggestions and tips for making restaurant-quality salads at home! And this is a recipe where you can vary the ingredients based on what’s in the fridge!
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My favorite Antipasto Chopped Salad is on the menu today; doesn’t that look good? This favorite salad is like the kind you might order in an Italian restaurant, loaded with tasty ingredients like olives, hearts of palm, pepperoni, marinated mushrooms, Peperoncini, slices of Mozzarella and capers.
Some people might look at all that’s going on in this salad and decide to skip it because it will take too long to chop up all those antipasto ingredients. But truthfully, interesting salads like this can be easy to pull together once you master a few tricks for satisfying salads. I’m giving you an antipasto salad template here; you can assemble the salad from the ingredients you prefer. And don’t miss my tips for prepping ingredients and suggestions for creating satisfying salads at home!
What ingredients do you need?
- chopped romaine lettuce
- black olives
- pepperoni
- Hearts of Palm (affiliate link)
- marinated mushrooms
- Sliced Peperoncini Peppers (affiliate link)
- string cheese
- Capers (affiliate link)
- Newman’s Own Classic Oil and Vinegar Dressing (affiliate link) or use your favorite garlicky Italian dressing
- See additional ingredient options in the recipe below
Prepping salad additions to keep in the fridge for Antipasto Chopped Salad:
- Drain a can of regular black olives, and cut all the olives in half.
- Chop up a generous amount of pepperoni or salami. (Use turkey or regular pepperoni, your choice.)
- I love hearts of palm in my salad. (They can be quite pricey, but Costco sometimes sells them in big jars that are reasonable.)
- Marinated mushrooms are also a bit of a splurge, but it only takes a small handful of them to really bump up the flavor in the salad.
- I always have jars of Peperoncini in the fridge, and a small handful of these also adds a lot of flavor.
- I use string cheese sliced into little rounds for the cheese in my salad.
Assembling Antipasto Chopped Salad:
- Here’s a photo that shows you how much of each ingredient I prep at once. These little containers are about 5 inches across, and they stack up nicely in the fridge.
- Lettuce is a personal choice, but I mostly use romaine lettuce, chopped or torn and washed in a salad spinner.
- And one final ingredient I would never skip in a salad like this is capers, those briny little morsels that add so much flavor. (And that well-used measuring spoon isn’t too suitable for photos, oops.)
- To make a salad, toss desired amount of lettuce with a couple of tablespoons of your favorite dressing. Then toss in all the other ingredients of your choice and toss again. I like a generous amount of freshly-ground black pepper on this!
More Tips for Satisfying Salads at Home:
- Always keep lettuce that’s chopped or torn, washed, and ready to eat in the fridge. You can even seal prepped lettuce in jars with a FoodSaver Vacuum Sealer (affiliate link) but when I’m eating salad often I just keep it in a plastic container with a snap-tight lid. When I’m prepping lettuce I do enough for at least 3-4 salads so that I’ll always have prepared lettuce in the fridge.
- For a satisfying salad it’s important to have a dressing that’s really flavorful, and tasty dressings with healthy oils like olive oil and not much sugar are abundant if check the label. For my antipasto salads, I sometimes buy my favorite dressings from a couple of restaurants, but Newman’s Own Olive Oil and Vinegar Dressing (affiliate link) is one low-sugar dressing I use often.
- Finally, my main tip for making satisfying salads like this in a flash is to prep generous amounts of all the special ingredients each time you’re doing it, so that it’s easy to just pull the prepared ingredients out of the fridge and throw together a salad. All the things I use in this favorite salad will last in the fridge for more than a week, and I can eat this salad often without being tired of it. Even if you only use a few of these things, your salad will be pretty tasty, and there are other things you could also use if I’ve missed some of your own favorite salad additions.
More Satisfying Low-Carb Green Salads from Kalyn:
American Greek Salad
Chopped Chicken Salad with Cafe Rio Salad Dressing
Warm Scallop Caesar Salad
Fattoush Lebanese Salad
Caesar Salad with Kale, Romaine, and Shaved Parmesan
Ottolenghi’s Perfect Lettuce Salad
Weekend Food Prep:
This recipe has been added to a category called Weekend Food Prep where you will find recipes you can prep or cook on the weekend and eat during the week!
Antipasto Chopped Salad
This master recipe can show you how to make Antipasto Chopped Salad at home, using ingredients of your choice.
Ingredients
- chopped romaine lettuce, washed and spun dry in a salad spinner
- black olives, drained and cut in half
- pepperoni or turkey pepperoni, cut in halves or quarters
- hearts of palm, cut into slices
- marinated mushrooms, cut into halves or quarters
- peperoncini, stem cut off, drained, seeds removed, and cut into slices
- string cheese, cut into small rounds
- capers, 2-3 tsp. per salad
- your favorite garlicky Italian dressing (see notes)
- see notes for other ingredient options
Instructions
- Chop several heads of romaine lettuce, then wash and spin dry in a salad spinner (or wash by hand and dry with paper towels or a clean kitchen towel.
- Cut up the olives, pepperoni, hearts of palm, mushrooms, peperoncini, and string cheese as described above. (For the peperoncini, I cut the stem off with kitchen shears and put them in a colander to drain before I remove the seeds and cut them into strips, otherwise it's a rather juicy job!)
- To make each salad, put desired amount of lettuce into a bowl that's big enough to toss ingredients.
- Add salad dressing and toss until the lettuce is well-coated with dressing.
- Add other ingredients as desired and toss again. (Please don't skip the capers, which I think are one of the best things about this salad.)
- Season salad with a generous amount of freshly-ground black pepper and serve on individual serving plates.
Notes
- Other Antipasto Ingredients You Could Use:
-roasted red peppers from a jar
-marinated asparagus
-green olives
-artichoke hearts
-roasted garlic
-chopped pickles
-thinly sliced smoked ham or turkey
-boiled eggs
I love Newman's Own Olive Oil and Vinegar Dressing for this salad.
It's not possible to calculate nutritional information for a recipe like this that doesn't give specific amounts, but all the ingredients here are in in carbs and Keto-Friendly.
This low-carb Antipasto Chopped Salad is suitable for any low-carb or Keto diet, and with the right choices on ingredients it can be adapted for any phase of the original South Beach Diet as well as Paleo and Whole 30 diets.
Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Salad Recipes to find more recipes like this one. Use the Recipes by Diet Type photo index pages to find more recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You can also Follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there.
Historical Notes for this Recipe:
This recipe was posted in 2012. It was last updated with more information in 2022.
21 Comments on “Antipasto Chopped Salad”
Forgot to say. I couldn't find marinated mushrooms that were reasonable in price or volume, so I bought a jar of non-marinated mushrooms, emptied the liquid and refilled it with Kraft Zesty Italian and let them soak for a day. Perfect and very reasonable cost.
Good idea!
Took this salad to a potluck/domino party and it went way faster than the main entree – lots of compliments! I used a TJ turkey summer sausage I had on hand, and Wishbone Ristorante Italian Signature Dressing. Added some of the optional ingredients you listed as well. What a great main entree salad! Thanks so much.
So glad to hear you enjoyed it!
Made this as a side for a birthday dinner and it was well received. Got several complements about the salad. I featured the recipe on my blog where I write about trying out ideas I find on Pinterest. Check it out! https://iampinderella.wordpress.com/2016/03/01/antipasto-salad/
Glad to hear the salad was a hit!
Thanks CJ!
Lori, your salad sounds good. I wish Salt Lake had Trader Joe's!
This has inspired me to prepare a big salad for lunch tomorrow — I added deli turkey, black olives, artichoke hearts, hearts of palm and shredded swiss chese (from Trader Joe's — all their cheeses are so good). Thanks!
Oh my. You must know how I love a chopped salad. A little bit of everything in each bite. Perfection. This one looks especially good.
Instead of lamenting carb depravation I can sing the joys of flavor and satisfaction. Kalyn- You did it again!
Yes they're from Costco.
Kalyn did you find the marinated mushrooms at Costco as well?
What a lovely looking salad, Kalyn! I have never even tried marinated mushrooms… they kind of scare me!
One of Josh's favorite salads. I better make it for him:)
Cheryl, so glad it's helpful!
Thanks for such an inspiring post, Kalyn! I've resolved to eat more salads in 2012 and this sure is a winner. I think I could eat it every single day.
Kelley, we were writing comments at the same time! I adore hearts of palm, and for dieting they are such a win. (String cheese is kind of a food group at my house too!)
Heidi, we should try Cinegrill sometime (although I admit I love their salad but I'm not crazy about their pasta dishes.)
Joanne, I love all those ingredients!
Lydia, chicken would be great in this too.
I, too, love hearts of palm. I agree that having greens washed and chopped ready to go make salad eating so much easier. This salad looks great. Great idea for chopped string cheese. We buy it in bulk from Costco as I have two boys that think string cheese is a food group. 🙂
I can just imagine the amount of flavor packed into this salad! I'd probably substitute some chopped rotisserie chicken for the pepperoni; I like to buy a chicken every week, chop up all of the meat to use for salads, and make soup stock with the rest.
All of those salty delicious antipasto treats make for some great salad mix-ins! Definitely a great way to keep a salad interesting!
Oh my laws! You have two of my favorite ingredients, pepperocini and hearts of palm. Oh and capers and olives. Okay its all good. I still haven't made it to Cinegrill, guess I'll have to give it a try for lunch. (hint, hint)