I love chopped salads. When several ingredients with different flavors, textures are combined it makes a winning side dish or meal. Chop those ingredients so that you can have several elements on the fork and in your mouth at the same time and it’s perfection.
A good combination is something crunchy, something slightly sweet, something soft or creamy, and an assortment of flavors and colors. This salad has all of that along with the fresh flavors of spring. If it’s the season where you are, you can use peas, radishes, spinach and dill from the garden.
Spring Chopped Salad is a great side dish for rich meats like an Easter lamb or ham. If you’re serving it as a vegetarian side dish, it combines well with eggplant Parmigiana or mushroom cutlets. Should you want to serve this chopped salad as an entrée or as a luncheon dish, either add garlic croutons or a side of garlic bread to balance the light nature of the rest of the ingredients.
INGREDIENTS
Cucumber
Sugar Snap Peas (or snow peas)
Baby Spinach
Fresh Dill
Salata Ricotta
Radishes
Lemon
Olive Oil
Salt and pepper
Aim for equal amounts of the snow peas, spinach and cucumber once they are chopped. I used two cups of each. Then I used a one cup chopped radishes and cubed cheese, and about a third of a cup of chopped dill.
The snow peas get steamed for just one minute. Put them in the steamer once the water is already boiling and put the lid on the pot. Stir after thirty seconds and replace lid. The peas should be bright green but still crunchy. Pour them into a colander or sieve and immediately run cold water over them to stop their cooking.
Chop the peas, radishes, cucumbers, and cheese into pieces that are all about the same size.
Chop the baby spinach by gathering it in one hand and chopping the pile with the knife in your other hand…being careful not to chop your fingers, of course.
Chop the dill and combine all the ingredients in the bowl. Grate the lemon peel over the ingredients, then squeeze the juice of the lemon into a small bowl. Add an equal amount of olive oil and blend with a fork, adding fresh pepper and salt to taste.
Toss the dressing with the salad ingredients and serve. This salad is great with a good crusty bread.
