Delicious Spanish Chopped Salad Recipe

Have you ever found yourself not wanting to spend energy cooking and wishing you could simply chop everything, toss it in a bowl, and have a delicious dish ready? Well, we have some Spanish recipes that can help you do just that.

The Spanish chopped salad is the perfect solution, offering an amazing blend of fresh vegetables, with the classic meats from Andalusia and the traditional dressing, that is ready in a couple of minutes.

Here you will learn how to make Spanish salad step-by-step, and we will also show you the best ways to serve it, store it, and ingredients substitutions that you can follow.

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Pssst…!!?? You can’t get enough of Spanish salad recipes? Have a look at my other posts:

• Spanish seafood salad
• Spanish mixed green salad
• Murcia salad

Background of the Dish

You may be wondering what is a chopped salad, and well, the answer is pretty simple: it is a type of salad where the ingredients are chopped into small pieces (usually square-shaped) so that every bite guarantees a taste of everything.

The Spanish chopped salad highlights regional ingredients from southern Spain, including pitted olives, onion, garlic clove, tomatoes, and the traditional dressing.

Similar to other local salads, like the ensalada Malagueña and the ensalada campera, this one  became popular in the past years due to how simple it is to make, and how easy it is to customize the ingredients so that you get to taste the flavors that you enjoy the most in just one dish.

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Things You’ll Need for Spanish Chopped Salad

For the Spanish chopped salad, you will need lettuce, cherry tomatoes, olives, bell pepper, onion, garlic clove, chorizo, serrano ham, manchego cheese, olive oil, and vinegar as the main ingredients.

As you will see in the explanation of how to make a chopped salad, you won’t need any equipment or appliances to prepare it.

Ingredients

• 1 head of iceberg lettuce
• 1 cup (200gr) cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 cup (90gr) pitted olives (green or black)
• 300gr manchego cheese
• 200gr slices of Serrano ham
• 2 Spanish chorizos
• 1 cucumber
• 1 red onion
• 1 red bell pepper
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons Sherry vinegar
• 1 garlic clove
• Salt and pepper (to taste)

How to Make Spanish Chopped Salad – Step by Step Guide

1. To start making the Spanish salad recipe, you have to wash the vegetables and remove all of the dirt. Rinse the lettuce leaves so you don’t end up with a watery Spanish chopped salad.

2. After that, cut the cherry tomatoes and pitted olives in half. Chop the cucumber, onion, and bell pepper into small squares. Peel and mince the garlic clove.

3. Then, chop the slices of Serrano ham, Spanish chorizos, and manchego cheese into small squares too.

4. Now, to prepare the Spanish salad dressing, grab a small bowl and mix the vinegar, olive oil, minced garlic, and salt and pepper. 

5. Next, place the vegetables, meats, and cheese in a large salad bowl. Pour the dressing and gently toss to cover all of the ingredients. 

6. To finish making one of the best salad recipes from Spain, simply serve it right away. Optionally, you can store the Spanish chopped salad in the fridge for 30 minutes to cool down.

Substitution of Ingredients

The Spanish chopped salad is one of the best Spanish salads because you can make it with whatever you have on hand, and play with the amounts that you use.

You can prepare the Spanish chopped salad with your favorite mix of vegetables, including others like carrots, regular ripe tomatoes, avocado, kale, arugula, spinach, green or yellow bell peppers, etc.

When it comes to the dressing for this Spanish green salad, we encourage you to use the classic Andalusian one (vinegar and olive oil with salt and pepper), but you could use a balsamic vinaigrette or a lemony dressing.

Besides that, for heartier traditional Spanish salads that include more protein, we invite you to take a look at our Spanish lentil salad, tako salad recipe, or ensalada de bacalao.

Tips on Serving Spanish Chopped Salad

The dish is commonly served as a Spanish side salad, providing an amazing blend of fresh flavors and textures.

If you want to serve it as a main dish, then we recommend that you add some extra cheese and protein, even including a hard-boiled egg for a vegetarian alternative.

Apart from that, this dish calls for the traditional Spanish salad (which consists of a mix of vinegar, olive oil, and condiments), but feel free to use others, like a herby dressing or honey mustard dressing.

Lastly, if you have guests coming over, then you can prepare a table filled with salads from Spain, to have the perfect sides or appetizers, and you can mix this one with others such as the Spanish summer salad or the ensalada de repollo.

How to Store Spanish Chopped Salad

Easy Spanish salad recipes in general, like the Axarquia salad or the Spanish tomato salad, are supposed to be served as fresh as you can, and the Spanish chopped salad follows this rule.

That means that you can’t freeze it or store it in the fridge for too long, because otherwise the vegetables will become soggy, and the overall texture and flavors will deteriorate, making the salad less enjoyable.

To store it, prepare the Spanish chopped salad and place it covered in the fridge without adding the dressing, and then you can keep it for up to 24 hours.

Recipe Card: Spanish Chopped Salad

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