Chopped Salad
Submitted by Stuart Broz on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 6:30pm
Image by Arnold Gatilao (http://inuyaki.com)I like the idea of chopped salads. I really do. They're like solid soup: all the ingredients are blended together.
That may not have been the best comparison.
Anyway, I like the idea of chopped salads. I occasionally make things that might be considered chopped salads. This spring, I've been making a bunch of vinegared salads using some combination of chopped cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes, onions, carrots, and garlic. Still, I almost never order them in restaurants. When I do, I'm usually disappointed.
I was reading about chopped salads in The Kitchn when I realized why: they use iceberg lettuce.
I really don't like iceberg lettuce. I barely consider it a food. I tend not to use lettuce at all at home. On rare occasions, I will pick up some mixed greens, but when I want something green and leafy I will almost always turn to spinach or cabbage. Still, iceberg lettuce retains some structural integrity when chopped, which makes it a recommended choice for chopped salads. The article I was reading recommended endive as another option, and cabbage would clearly work well also.
Comments
Chopped salad reminds me of
Chopped salad reminds me of something that went through a wood chipper. No thanks, I want my big pieces.
Iceberg lettuce is wrong. So
Iceberg lettuce is wrong. So very, very wrong. Lettuce should not be chopped. It was barely acceptable as food when I had it back on the West Coast -- when it is fresh -- but in the midwest it's always had a disguisting, rubbery texture. I had a decent chopped salad with endive at Timpone's here in town, FWIW.
If you really want to include lettuce in a chopped salad, maybe you could make a non-lettuce chopped salad and wrap it in a nice lettuce leaf?
One of the problems with lettuce salads I've found is that the lettuce is there are filler, essentially, and it gets treated as such. This needn't be the case, though -- there are fantastic leafy green things that can add a lot to a dish. It bugs the hell out of me that many restaurants switch different lettuces and greens around as if they are all created equal.