CHOPPED!!

So, a few weeks back, my cute mother in law made a great casual Sunday dinner. It was was called a Chopped Salad. There was chicken, mozzarella cheese (the good kind), tomatoes, lettuce, kalmata olives etc. So I decided I wanted to try it. It took a couple tries of what I liked, until TODAY, I finally figured out what exactly I like in it, and how I wanted it to taste. I'll give you the original recipe, and then I'll give you my version so you can decide just how YOU like it.

Mediterranean Chopped Salad (Cook's Illustrated July 1, 2009)

Serves 4 as a light entree and 6 as a side dish

1 medium cucumber, peeled, halved lengthwise, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch dice (about 1 1/4 C)

1 pint grape tomatoes quartered (about 1 1/12 C)

Salt

3 T EVOO

3 T Red Wine Vinegar

1 medium garlic clove, minced or pressed through garlic press (about 1 teaspoon)

1 14 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1/2 C Kalamata olives

1/2 C small minced red onion (about 1/4 c)

1/2 C roughly chopped fresh parsley

1 Romaine heart cut into 1/2 inch pieces

4 oz feta cheese

1. Combine cucumber, tomatoes and 1 teaspoon salt in colander set over bowl and let stand 15 min. (yes, this is necessary)

2. whisk oil, vinegar, and garlic together in large bowl. Add drained cucumber and tomatoes, chickpeas, olives, onion, and parsley; toss and let stand at room temperature to blend flavors, 5 min. 

3. Add romaine and feta; toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper and serve. 

NOW.......my version is different, but both versions are great. 

Tomatoes 1 1/2 C

(grape are great, but ANY kind will do. I used yellow, orange, green and roma for mine. I like the color that the different kinds of tomatoes give and also the flavor. you get sweet and tart...yum!)

Sea Salt 1 teaspoon (I didn't ever need to salt my dish anymore due to the salt flavor left over from letting the tomatoes sit. 

3 T EVOO (extra virgin Olive Oil)

3 T Red Wine Vinegar

1 clove of garlic, minced

1/2 C marinated mushrooms (plain won't cut it...you'll need to do marinated mushrooms or Kalamata olives)

Chicken/turkey etc. I recently purchased sandwich meat (turkey) at Costco and had an abundance of that. I just took 4-6 pieces of that (it was pretty thick, not this 

Parsley; a generous sprinkle of dried will be just fine (I didn't use fresh cause if you read this blog or my cooking blog at all, you know I use what I have on hand. I tried to grow my own Parsley, but alas, it only started growing when I threw the pot of dirt into my planter bed...go figure)

1 Romaine heart, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (I'm sure any kind will do, but I like the crunch that goes with the romaine heart. I didn't like spinach with this...no crunch!)

Fresh mozzarella cheese (I just eyeball it. I'm sure I throw in a bit more cause I'm a lover of cheese. I just break the mozzarella into small pieces.)

INSTRUCTIONS: 

1. Combine tomatoes with 1 teaspoon salt in colander set over bowl and let stand 15 min. (again, THIS IS NECESSARY!)

2. Whisk oil, vinegar, and garlic together in large bowl. Add drained tomatoes, mushrooms, parsley, and meat choice. Let stand 5 min. 

3. Add romaine, and mozzarella; toss to combine. Serve, knowing you are serving a wonderful meal that is decently healthy. CHEERS!