In a previous post and YouTube video I showed you how to batch prep salads ahead for the work week. Today I am showing you how to take one of those batch prepped salads and turn it into a big beautiful chopped salad. Why take the time to chop a salad is a question I am frequently asked. You have to try one to taste the difference for yourself but, in the meantime let me try to explain the difference.
The salad has more incredible flavor when it is chopped verses being left in larger pieces. There is something magical that happens in that chopping bowl when those greens and raw vegetables are chopped into smaller pieces. It releases the natural flavors which makes each bite explode with all the flavors of the amazing ingredients! It tastes sweeter and is more moist which means you need less salad dressing or vinegar. Chopping reduces the overall volume of the salad too which makes it take a little less time to eat. Great if you are taking it to work with you and need to eat the salad within a certain amount of time. I have received so many emails from people telling me that they or their spouse were never salad lovers until they tried a chopped salad! Everyone that I have served a chopped salad to has loved it. It’s the perfect salad to serve to company because it’s unique and delicious.
Here is a video we made to show you how easy it is to chop a salad in a Holland Bowl Mill 15 inch handcrafted wood bowl. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. I have been eating a big beautiful salad for one meal a day since adopting a whole food plant based lifestyle. It helped me lose the weight and it helps me keep it off. The salads are low calorie density but are nutrient rich. If you are a volume eater you will appreciate the size of this salad! As a bonus the dark leafy greens contain thylakoids which help control the appetite. Who doesn’t need a dose of that everyday? Dr Fuhrman says, “Salad Is The Main Dish!”
Here is what my Holland Bowl looks like after being used every day for the past year. Yes it does have some cut marks and just a little bit of a green patina from all those healthy greens I eat! This is how my kitchen looks each morning as I am getting ready to chop a salad to take with me for my lunch. This is one of the batch prepped salads from the fridge. I chop the salad the same day I will be eating it.
A one pound salad from my Simple Salad Batch Prep Blog Post & Video. Click on the blue highlighted link to see how to batch prep the basic salad ahead for the work week! Then each day you take one of the batch prepped salads from the fridge and chop it the day you are going to eat it. Some people have told me they chop it the night before so it’s ready to grab and go the next morning for work and it’s still good chopped that far in advance. Experiment and see what works for you. My personal preference it to chop it and eat it the same day.
Here is how it looks after it is chopped using the mezzaluna knife in the 15 inch bowl. Notice how it is reduced in size and nicely chopped.
For this particular salad I decided to go with a Mexican – Southwest style. After chopping the basic salad I like to add some more cooked and raw ingredients to the salad. These add in items do not get chopped. They add flavor, texture and satiety. Each day I add some kind of starch or legumes to make the salad more filling. This day I went for a diced red bell pepper, frozen corn, Cooked Oat Groats, diced jicama. Juice of one lime and also not shown half of a plantain browned without oil in a ceramic non-stick Scanpan for a few minutes on each side. You can add fruit as well. Adding some fresh fruit either before or after chopping adds a nice sweet freshness. The fruit helps people to adjust to eating these larger amounts of greens. Fresh berries or apple are my favorite fruit to add to the salads. I like to add them after the salad is chopped. With the fruit added you need less salad dressing or vinegar. My Creamy Balsamic Dressing is very popular with the no oil crowd! Even non plant eaters love this dressing.
Jalapeno powder and ground cumin add a lot of flavor.
These are three of my favorite California Balsamic Vinegars. See my blog post to find out how to get 2 free sample size bottles with your order. Shown here are the 3 ounce travel sizes perfect for air travel!
Big Beautiful Chopped Salad Mexican – Southwest Style
one pound salad from Simple Salad Batch Prep
frozen corn – thawed
cooked * Oat Groats
red bell pepper diced
jicama- diced
1/2 plantain browned without oil in a dry skillet
juice of one lime
Jalapeno Powder and ground cumin to taste
California Balsamic Vinegars Sweet Heat, Blazin Habanero, Gilroy Garlic
Chop the one pound salad first. Then add in the rest of the ingredients and stir them in – no more chopping. It’s fun to stir in some cooked and raw ingredients and to use flavored vinegars, fresh citrus juice or no oil salad dressings like my Creamy Balsamic Dressing. *You can use brown rice in place of the oat groats. You can add beans to the salad. You can use salsa instead of the vinegar.
There are so many different combinations and flavors that you can create a different salad everyday of the week! Follow me on my Nutmeg Notebook Instagram and my Nutmeg Notebook Facebook page for many more ideas and different combinations for chopped salads. I post frequently what I am eating. Subscribe to my Nutmeg Notebook YouTube channel for more fun and informative no oil whole food plant based cooking videos.
Holland Bowl Mill
The Holland Bowl Mill is now the best and largest solid wood bowl production facility in the world, making beautiful solid hardwood bowls of the highest quality, the same way they were made over 150 years ago. All of their bowls are sculpted from a solid block of wood using a lathe and a series of specialized knives that have been individually designed and forged at Holland Bowl Mill. Before smoothing and finishing, the bowls are steamed to help prevent the wood from cracking and splitting while air drying. After drying, sanding, and smoothing, the wooden bowls are bathed in food-safe mineral oil or their own bees oil wood preserver that nourishes the wood and brings out the beautiful wood grains unique to each bowl. If you prefer not to have the beeswax solution you can ask for your bowl to be sent to you unfinished. No two bowls are exactly alike. The wood bowls do have a lifetime guarantee. You need to continue to oil and care for your bowl to prevent it from cracking. You will get a little instruction card telling you how to care for it.
Get A Free Mezzaluna Knife
If you use my Holland Bowl Affiliate Link to purchase products from Holland Bowl Mill and have a minimum $140.00 order you will receive a free mezzaluna knife with your order! When you place your order on their website using my affiliate link the free knife isn’t going to show on your order when you check out. However when Holland Bowl gets your order and sees that it came through my affiliate link with a minimum order of $140.00 they will automatically include a free Mezzaluna knife when they ship your order. They have excellent customer service and everyone has received the free knife with their order. If you want to put in the comments section that you are ordering through Nutmeg Notebook and understand that your $140.oo order qualifies you for a free Mezzaluna knife that’s ok too! Thank you for your support.
Free Engraving
One of the special services that Holland Bowl Mill offers is to engrave the bottom of your bowl for free! I could have it say Tami’s Kitchen for instance. If giving one as a wedding or anniversary gift you can have it engraved with the couples name and the date. or you could choose a favorite quote. It’s a lovely personal touch. I have found that the 15 inch Solid Beechwood bowl is just the right size to chop my one pound of salad ingredients. The Holland Bowl Mill offers a variety of different wood to choose from. Any of them will work great but I don’t recommend anything smaller than the 15 inch to chop one pound salads like I do.
How To Order A Holland Bowl
When you are on the Holland Bowl Mill website, click on the Shop tab at the top of the page, from the drop down menu choose the type of wood you would prefer there is beechwood (this is what I have), cherry, maple, red oak and walnut. Scroll down the page until you come to the 15 inch bowl. Remember the mezzaluna knife won’t show up on your order but if you use my Holland Bowl Mill Affiliate Link they will include it in your shipment. Be sure to have the bottom of your bowl engraved for free. Happy Chopping!
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A Nutmeg Notebook Online Course. Beautiful Chopped Salad Course Link
Tami Kramer’s Beautiful Chopped Salad Course includes a complete full color 40+ page recipe PDF eBook and 12 instructional videos. In the course Tami will teach you how to batch prep salads, what to shop for, and tips to ensure that your stored salads will last for a week. She will share different methods for chopping salads, and all the details about how she tops these beauties. Included are 25 different ways to top a chopped salad, 5 oil free salad dressings, gluten free croutons and crunchy toppings, hummus, salsa’s and more! Please enjoy the course videos at your own pace. There are approximately 2 1/2 hours of instruction spread over the 12 individual topic videos. When completed you will be well on your way to enjoying these beautiful, chopped salads as often as you wish, perhaps even daily as Tami does.
We are also Holland Bowl Mill Affiliates. The 15 inch Holland Bowl Mill Cherry fruit bowl has a permanent home on our kitchen island. It’s beautiful and useful. The heart shaped bowl makes me happy – I love everything heart shaped! We use our 15 inch Beechwood & cherry bowl (his and her’s) to chop our salads everyday. Eating a salad for one meal every day helped me lose weight and become a size 4. I still eat a salad for one meal a day but now it’s a Big Beautiful Chopped salad and it helps me stay a size 4! See the Chopped Salad Blog Post to find out how you can incorporate a chopped salad into your daily food plan and how you can get a free mezzaluna knife with your Holland Bowl salad bowl order when you use our Holland Bowl affiliate link as well as free engraving and free shipping.
If I am chopping a salad for 2 people, what size bowl should I order? Thanks.
We use the 15 inch bowl and we each chop our own salads. It will hold 1 pound of salad ingredients. Hope that helps!
Hi Tami! I was so inspired by this post that I went and bought a bowl and mezzaluna so that I too could have a salad every day! I live in Germany, so sadly they’re not from Holland Wood, though quite similar I think.
However, I have run into a problem: despite drying everything before it goes into the bowl, my salads are just soggy. The greens in particular are getting mashed more than chopped. I wondered if this was a problem you might have encountered before, or maybe have some tips.
HI Lisa,
I have not had that problem. I am wondering if your mezzaluna knife is sharp enough. If it doesn’t have a sharp blad it would just mash your greens instead of chopping them. If you have other vegetables in the bowl that have a lot of water content they also might make your salad soggy. I don’t chop things like cucumbers, bell peppers, berries, citrus etc. They are too wet and make the salad wet. I add them to the salad after it is chopped. I only chop the greens, broccoli slaw, cabbage, carrots, red onion and the little salad tomatoes as long as they aren’t real big – they can have a lot of water too. I hope this helps. Happy Chopping!
That’s super helpful, thank you so much!
You are welcome!