Chopped salad

Recipe linked. Looks like it's a good side salad to a sandwich, and can also be used as filling.

Fewer people are buying iceberg lettuce, this salad's main ingredient. Fast to make with a knife, cheap to make, attractive appearance.

This is the kind of salad I would make if I were clearing out the fridge.

Salad is gross and not filling.

Chopped is easier to eat

La Scala in Beverly Hills has a chopped salad that’s like crack to me. Every time I go to LA I go straight there from the airport. I find salads very filling when you add a protein. I usually can never finish the entire portion in one sitting whereas I have no problem polishing off a steak with mash and onion rings.

But which fork from the place settings thread do you use to eat it?

R5, Italian version of chopped salad, La Scala.

The lines in NYC to buy a $12 salad are insane

R8, Most of those salads include protein and some high fiber type carbs. Some are served warm. Will try to duplicate some of them soon, as we don't have those salad chains in Vegas.

R8 All these boring people wanting to be part of the latest 'thing', wanting to be seen whilst partaking in the 'thing'. I suppose lining up for the 'thing' fills up a lot of their time.

I suppose I must’ve been trendy since puberty because I love chopped salad. I make it just about every day. It’s quick, easy, tasty and healthy.

"Oh, I'll just have a salad."

Is this like "bowl food"?

Hell's bells, you can do the same thing @ the Kroger salad bar!

Select your greens, throw a spoonful of every topping on it, take it home, chop it up, and eat it with your favorite dressing. Cost $5.50.

Yeah R14, love those salad bars where 1000s of (sick ) people have coughed, touched and ogled my greens... Mary!

How the fuck do you know who is sick and who is not in the kitchen of any restaurant at any time, r15?

Ummm, R16, I would rather limit my exposure to the kitchen staff than thousands of people. It's logic Mary!

I firmly believe that this tread has reached it deserved end.

lol R18

I have a theory about this trend, though I could well be wrong. Two of my IL's had gastric band/bypass surgery and salad chopped into tiny pieces was their go to food. I think it was to aid digestion or something. I know at one point a lot if people were getting this kind of surgery, so besides the usual salad eating types there was a whole market for this type of salad.

It's been around for decades, OP.

R21 is right this is not a new thing I think these are good if you eat at your desk you can continue working with one hand as you shovel the salad in with your other hand.

What's this silly upstart chopped salad trying to pull. I've been the top dog in the salad world for many decades. Miss Chopped can kiss my ass!

[quote]romaine topped with grilled lemon-herb chicken breast, tricolor tortilla strips, cauliflower florets, blue cheese and kalamata olives.

God forbid they should pick up a pre-made salad made with the same greens that arrived on the truck that morning that only approximates their wants instead of being custom-made to their exact expectations.

I don't know why people complain about this; it's the logical extension that started in a big way with Starbucks. You cannot have fast service if every. single. goddamn. coffee has to be custom made and can't be made ahead. These two things are completely antithetical. It's even worse with salad because there are even more variables. If this is what people expect from every meal and every beverage, they really need to go ahead to the next step of hiring part-time domestic staff who can devote themselves exclusively to making everything exactly so for them and their brood.

It's like the old saying "Good. Cheap. Fast. Pick two of the three."

OP prefers people eat at McDonald's.

I thought it was made for women who don’t want to disturb their makeup while eating.

So you can eat it with a spoon.

seriously, r1, there are recipes for salad? Dear god, people have become so helpless. It's salad. People have been eating salads forever. Some prefer to cut it up into baby bites.

R29, Actually most of the salads served in the 3 restaurants (chains?) OP listed are far more complex and innovative and thus require recipes to duplicate. Ingredients include marinated kale, warm mixed grains, pickled red onions, chicken in a Spanish or Asian preparation. In other words they're selling salad by raising the game for those who are bored eating standard fare.

There were several chains here that centered around salads but all are closed now. Salad is a side dish, not a meal.

If they're so "innovative," r30, and they "raise the game," why the fuck did they have to [italic]chop[/italic] them?

The chopping of salad makes it so much easier to,eat - eliminating the need to use a knife to chop the components before eating which takes time and spills stuff out of the bowl and is never as evenly done as the choppers can do. It also ensures a more even distribution of ingredients so that each mouthful has all - or most - components of the salad. I think it’s brilliant - to the point that I hate having to eat regular salad when I’m not in NYC (more specifically when I’m not in midtown which seems to be where 90% of these places are)

But it lets too much liquid out of the leaves. Too soupy. You need a spoon. Or to not use dressing. They're disgusting.

r33 is SUCH a woman.

This is nothing more than a Cobb salad, which has been on every lunch menu for decades. They really think they're doing something with this "chopped salad" trend, don't they?

Because we're too fucking lazy to chew, that's how it became a thing.

r37, I think it's because people haven't learned decent table manners, and want to shovel it all into their mouths at once.

It's the same thing recently when NYC thought it'd invented big cupcakes.

It's called their "Center of the Universe" derangement.

R35 - I am an overweight middle aged gay man. Eating chopped salad is one of the few healthy things I do for myself - because it takes no effort and tastes good. But thanks for that - lol

Chopped salads are nothing new, certainly not to NYC. The proliferation is because only chain restaurants/stores can afford midtown rents these days.

R25, all of the salads at these places with long lines are custom made to your liking-- and you would be shocked how fast the lines go (I assume you don't live in NYC or why would you post such an ignorant comment-- and while I am at it, if I'm paying $5 at starbucks, you're damn right I'm going to make it how I want it!). Mary!!!

I am too cheap to pay $12 for a salad I can make at home for $3. But, if people are happy for the convenience and hit to their pocketbooks, more power to them.

NYC here. Upper Manhattan. Our neighboorhood salad joint charges $6.95 for a protein and 5 other ingredients. Cheapest healthiest option around.

[quote] I am too cheap to pay $12 for a salad I can make at home for $3. But, if people are happy for the convenience and hit to their pocketbooks, more power to them.

In NYC the best I've been able to do when making it on my own is $6 or $7 if I'm including a meat. It's also a lot of prep work and I'm lazy.

The salads at Chopt are really good. I'm not sure that their super healthy though. I always have to ask them to not puree my salad. They chop too much.

And people working in corporate slavery in midtown need their 15 minutes of escape from their cubicle hell. Getting food away from the office is a justifiable escape. Of course, you then return to your cubicle to eat it - and read DL - before continuing your “life” of misery.

I’ve always thought the extra $5 was justified. Anything that gives a little hint of pleasure in an otherwise stress-filled miserable day is worth it.

What's the derangement called when you care or are that invested in what other people are eating?

I don't think that's anything new. I usualy chop my salad because it's easier to eat. Calling it a fad is kinda pushing it.

We used to call those “salad bars.” I ate a different salad every day in my hospital’s cafeteria. Lots of greens, lots of toppings, weigh it at the register & you’re done.

What used to bug the crap out of me was waiting to make my salad because of the artistes. The artistes were almost 100% female (as I am) and they insisted not on just making a salad, but mak8 g an art work of their salad. Orange carrot shreds to the right, chick peas in the middle, raisins at the top, pasta at the left and cheese on the bottom. A big white styrofoam bowl for a canvas and a 10 minute stop in front of the salad bar blocking everyone else’s way with a “wide stance” and two sets of tongs, one in each hand, swirling colors across the canvas.

No....wait. I don’t want the feta there. It’s too close to the lump if cottage cheese. I’ll have too much white in one part of my salad! I’ll move the feta to the middle, then put some vinegar-y three bean salad next to the cottage cheese. Yes, that’s better! Now for the tri colored tortellini.....”

By the time I finally got my turn I only had 10 minutes left to my lunch, so I grabbed big plastic spoons and just threw random ingredients onto my greens.

Yes, the salads at the hospital salad bar — the greens & non greens — were chopped. This was 20 years ago.

Chopped salads used to be made from harder-to-chew items like cabbage and maybe raw carrots. It was a way of making the salad easier to eat. The dressing is important, of course. I like the trend of chopping up vegetables and making them easier to eat.

The first time I ordered a "chopped" salad was in 1999. I had just moved to Pittsburgh, and thought it was another Three Rivers culinary weirdness. It arrived, and was this nearly pureed mess. I never ordered one again. Ugh.

A salad is meant to be made of discrete, distinguishable ingredients, not a multicolored, cold vegetable slop.

Just a bunch of douche nozzles pretending to eat healthy in front of coworkers.... 97% of the time they eat McDonald's.

Plus, you rarely see a skinny/normal weight person eating salad.....

R46 The salads are healthy and low fat it's the dressing that is loaded with fat and calories. The guys who assemble the salads squirt a lots of dressing on. When I used too order these I always told the salad guy to put the dressing on the side.

[quote]I always told the salad guy to put the dressing on the side.

Well, you showed them, Princess.

R54 I work around the corner from a Just Salad and there is a Chopt a few blocks away. There are plenty of normal weight folks eating here.

R55 they post the calorie content of the dressing so people can choose from a few low-calorie options. But you can still get it on the side if you are fussy.

Definitely get your dressing on the side if you are trying to cut calories. Then pour half of the dressing from the little container into the bowl, put the lid back on and shake it up to spread the dressing evenly. You can save about 100 calories. Here's a link to the calorie count for Chopt, but they always put way more dressing than what I think is the right amount.

[quote}Well, you showed them, Princess.

I showed you too cunt.

R57 Well excuse me Missy!

[quote]I showed you too cunt.

Nothing other than that you are "too cunt," cunt.

This seems like worthy fodder for your cuntfights: the Brown Derby’s Cobb predates LaScala’s Leon, but can the Cobb truly be considered a chopped salad? If you agree that the Cobb is, what about the Chinese chicken salad?

[quote]Though the Cobb predates La Scala's salad, there are those who maintain that the version originally served at the Brown Derby rested on a foundation of unchopped lettuce leaves, thereby disqualifying it as a chopped salad. Still, the Cobb as we know it today tends to be a thoroughly chopped affair. Others insist that the Cobb belongs in another category altogether, that of the composed salad, in which the various ingredients are arranged in an artful pattern on the plate. I'm inclined, however, to agree with Leslie Brenner, the former food editor of the Los Angeles Times, who pointed out in a 2005 article on the dearth of composed salads on LA menus, "You don't want to eat [a Cobb salad] until you toss it—at which point, it loses its composure."

I can't stand vinaigrettes. I need my ranch, blue cheese, roquefort, French, thousand island, or green goddess dressings. Vinaigrettes are not filling enough.

The LaScala salad looks nothing like the photo in the link way above. It has no tomatoes, nothing with much color at all. It is delicious and simple with garbanzo beans and salami and cheese. It’s nothing to write home about and I fucking love to go there and have it in Beverly Hills. Yes, I could have it for FAR less, at home sitting in my small apartment watching TV alone as I am almost all the time. I choose to spend the money to eat in a red leather banquette with white linen table cloth and some wine and a waiter or waitress in uniform serving me, surrounded by manly people chatting and having a lovely lunch out. I do it once a month. Sue me for not living on coupons.

Why so testy, r64. Enjoy!

LOL @ R64's manly salami salad

R36 has obviously never seen a properly prepared Cobb salad. See the image at R23 for a prime example.