Marinated Chopped Salad

This is a great recipe that takes an ordinary salad and transforms it into something totally different. So...chopped salad is not just for ordering in restaurants anymore!

This recipe is highly flexible to the produce that you have on hand. So feel free to experiment. Also don't rule out the option to throw in any leftover proteins, cold cuts, nuts, hard boiled egg, cooked beans or hard cheeses.

One factor that might seem obvious is the chopped part. While you might be tempted to just make a salad and put on the marinade, you are short changing your salad immensely. The marinating process is key to this salad. The almost equal cuts for each ingredient allow for the marinade to coat more of the salad giving it a much richer taste and excellent mouth feel.

Exercise patience. You need to allow the salad to absorb the marinade. So make sure to use all 30 minutes (or more) and resist the urge to eat sooner.

Ingredients:

Marinade

• 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 1/2 Tbsp celery salt **
• 1 1/2 Tbsp sugar or sugar substitute
• Fresh ground pepper

Salad

• 3 tomatoes
• 2 carrots
• 2 cucumbers
• 2 stalks celery
• 1 green or red bell pepper
• 1 sweet onion
• 1/2 head green cabbage

Process:

1. Finely chop all salad ingredients
   
   
2. Add all salad ingredients to a large bowl and toss to mix
   
   
3. Combine all salad ingredients in a container with a lid and shake well to mix
   
   
4. Pour marinade over salad and toss to coat
   
   
5. Place salad in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before serving to allow flavors to set

** If you can substitute the celery salt with Italian seasoning mix or Greek seasoning mix if you desire - season to taste