Chopped Salad with Crunchy JSP Croutons!

If you know me or have followed my blog for any length of time you know how much I love my chopped salads. This new one may very well be my favorite version of a chopped salad yet! I have been making this for my lunch every day for weeks and I look forward to it every single day. All the yummy salad ingredients are chopped and then topped with a diced crisp sweet apple, sweet juicy mandarin orange segments, beautiful ruby red pomagranate seeds and the crowning touch are these crispy Japanese Sweet Potato Croutons! No need for dressing just a drizzle of your favorite sweet balsamic vinegar. Everyone who has tried this salad has loved, loved, loved it. I can’t even adequately express to you how delicious this combination of flavors is. You can enjoy it any day of the week and it’s special enough for a holiday table.

On a recent visit with my parents I made this salad every day that I was at their house and they loved it! They are not plant based but, delicious food is delicious, even if it’s healthy! My mom even continued to make this salad after I left.

The Crispy Japanese Sweet Potato Croutons make this salad extra special. They are all nice and crispy on the outside and ooey – gooey sweet on the inside! I take an already baked, cold JSP (Japanese Sweet Potato) from the fridge, cut it up and place it in a cold air fryer set to 400 degrees and air fry it for 20 minutes or until lightly brown. The air frying brings out even more of the natural sweetness in the JSP and makes it infinitely more flavorful. If you don’t have an air fryer you can use your broiler. Just watch them very closely because they can burn easily.

If you want to kick the croutons up a notch try pressing the JSP potato wedges into a shallow dish filled with the Salt Free Well Your World Everything Bagel Seasoning before air frying them. Watch them closely so the seasoning doesn’t burn. These are amazing as croutons in a salad or as a snack or appetizer. Yum!

Use your favorite salad ingredients. For this one I had a persimmon, oven roasted Brussels Sprouts, garbanzo beans, pomegranate seeds and fresh basil. Use your favorite no oil salad dressing – I like the oil free Well Your World Sweet Heat or Italian but you can choose any of the delicious no oil dressings they offer. You can also use California Balsamic Simply Lemon or your favorite flavored vinegar.

We are Well Your World affiliates because we love this line of SOS free whole food plant based products.

This is one of those salads that you can make and take to a pot luck or serve to company when entertaining in your home. It’s special enough to serve at the holidays too! Use whatever fruit is in season. To see how to batch prep the salads in advance so you will always have salads ready to eat read this post and watch the video – Simple Salad Batch Prep.

I hope you enjoy the video!

It is such a beautiful salad – it will add so much to a buffet table with it’s color, beauty and let’s not forget amazing flavor! You can change up the fruit as the seasons change. Blueberries, strawberries, garbanzo beans and JSP croutons make a wonderful Spring salad.

Here is a video on how to easily open a pomegranate.

This is a simple recipe with just a few ingredients. But don’t let that fool you – it’s big on flavor. Each and every bite is an explosion of deliciousness in your mouth.

This salad goes together quickly if you have batch prepped salads – (see video below) and batch baked JSP’s in the fridge.

See how I make 14 salads in 30 minutes.

Choose your favorite sweet and syrupy Balsamic Vinegar – this is all you need to dress the salad. I like either the Napa Valley Naturals Grand Reserve Balsamic or California Balsamic Simply Lemon vinegar in this salad. To learn more about California Balsamic read my blog post and find out how to get two free samples with your order!

Use code “NUTMEG15” for a 15% discount

Chopped Salad with Japanese Sweet Potato Croutons

All the yummy salad ingredients are chopped and then topped with a diced crisp sweet apple, sweet juicy mandarin orange segments, beautiful ruby red pomagranate seeds and the crowning touch are the crispy Japanese Sweet Potato Croutons! Just a little sweet Balsamic vinegar is all the dressing it needs.

5 from 3 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Course Main Course, Salad

Cuisine American

Equipment

• Holland Bowl, Mezzaluna Knife, Cutting Board, Sharp Knife

Ingredients

  

• 1 pound salad mixture including greens and vegetables of your choice
• 1 each crisp sweet apple, cored and diced
• 2 each mandarin oranges, peeled, segemented & cut in half
• 1/3 cup pomagranate seeds
• 1 8-12 ounce baked Japanese Sweet Potato cold, cut into pieces with skin on
• 2 tbsp Sweet Balasamic Vinegar 4% acidity Napapa Valley Naturals Grand Reserve or California Balsamic Simply Lemon are two of my favorites for this salad.

Instructions

 

• To make the JSP croutons, place the cold diced sweet potato pieces in a cold air fryer set to 400 degrees. Air fry for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. If You don't have an air fryer you can crisp them up under the broiler. Watch them carefully as they go from lightly brown to burnt in a hurry.
• While the croutons are in the air fryer, chop the salad with a mezzaluna knife in a wood bowl or you can use a large knife and a large cutting board or one of the other methods I show in my video on how to chop a salad without a wood bowl.
• Add the diced apple, mandarin oranges, pomagranate seeds, JSP croutons and the balsamic vinegar of your choice. Gently stir all of the ingredients together and place it in a pretty bowl to serve. Many different flavors would work well with this salad. Don't add the vinegar until your are ready to serve the salad as it is best served freshly tossed.

Notes

This  salad can be a meal for one person or served as a side dish for several people. If making for a large group I would double the recipe.

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

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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.