This hearty Italian chopped salad is a flavorful dish that’s perfect for packable lunches since it’s made without lettuce. Our dairy-free salad is easy to make and colorful, so it’s a great option for picnics and potlucks, too!
One of my favorite recipes for summer is a fresh chopped salad, especially our yummy Greek salad with dairy-free feta cheese. Now this Italian chopped salad is a new favorite of mine as well for summer lunches!
This salad is a bit different from popular Italian grinder salads because our recipe doesn’t include lettuce like some other recipes, so it doesn’t risk wilting if you make it ahead for packed lunches or summer BBQs (it makes a generous-sized salad for sharing, too!).
Why we love this recipe
This salad is versatile and can be adjusted to suit your tastes: if you want more spice, you can use pepperoni instead of salami and add some spicy pepperoncini slices as well. This salad would also be delicious with allergy-friendly pasta added to it!
We also made this recipe quick and easy to prepare by using a vegetable chopper to quickly dice the cucumber and red onion (if you use it), resulting in more consistent pieces for your salad as well.
If you make a lot of chopped salads, I highly recommend getting a vegetable chopper to make it fast and easy.
Ingredient notes
Since this recipe is pretty straightforward, we aren’t doing our usual “how to make this” section, so here are our notes and things to keep in mind for some of the salad ingredients.
Olives: I used pitted olives marinated in herbs and oil, so the herbed oil doubles as a dressing for our salad. If you have severe dairy allergies, make sure to check with olive companies about potential cross-contact with cheese-stuffed olives in their facilities.
Salami: Make sure to use salami that does not have dairy in it. Some salamis have milk powder added to them as a binder and fermentation aid, so make sure your salami is dairy-free.
I’ve tried this salad with both regular hard salami and Genoa salami, and both taste great, so you can use either. If you want a bit of spice, you can also use pepperoni instead of the salami as well.
Natural salami is also normally gluten-free, but some salami brands may use gluten-containing ingredients as fillers, so watch for that as well if you have celiac disease.
Onions: In the photos for our salad in this post, I used chopped green onions instead of the chopped purple onions because I don’t like strong-tasting fresh onions. But you can use purple/red onion for some extra color in this salad if you like, instead of the green onion. You can pick the onion type depending on your preferences. Purple onions add a really nice color to the salad, but green onions add a milder onion flavor.
Optional add-ins: This salad would be great with some cooked gluten-free pasta mixed in as well!
Making this salad portable for lunches
This salad works perfectly for scaling down and mixing in a deli container for lunches! I tried this recipe out by mixing it up in a quart-sized deli container, and it works great.
Our recipe makes 6 cups of salad, so if you want to shake this salad in a deli container, you’d need to halve the recipe to 3 cups to fit into a quart (4-cup) sized container. You can add all the ingredients to the container, close the lid tightly, and shake it up to mix everything.
Dairy Free Italian Chopped Salad
Ingredients
- 2 cups chopped cucumber
- 1 ½ cups cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
- 12 ounce jar marinated quartered artichoke hearts (save some of the liquid)
- 7 ounces oil and herb marinated olives (save some of the oil)
- 3 ounces dairy free salami, sliced or chopped*
- ⅔ cup jarred roasted red peppers, chopped
- ¼ cup chopped red onion OR sliced green onion
- 1 clove garlic, pressed OR 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon all purpose Cajun spice
- ½ teaspoon dried Italian herb mix
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- ⅓ to ½ cup grated dairy free parmesan cheese divided
- Optional: pickled pepperoncini peppers
Instructions
- Chop the cucumbers (with the skin on) and add to a large bowl.2 cups chopped cucumber
- Halve the cherry or grape tomatoes and add to the bowl.1 ½ cups cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
- Add the marinated artichoke hearts and olives to the bowl, setting aside the liquid from each for later.12 ounce jar marinated quartered artichoke hearts, 7 ounces oil and herb marinated olives
- Slice or chop the salami, chop the roasted red peppers, and chop the onion (either the red onion or the green onion), adding it to the large bowl.3 ounces dairy free salami, sliced or chopped*, 2/3 cup jarred roasted red peppers, chopped, 1/4 cup chopped red onion OR sliced green onion
- Add the garlic, the all-purpose Cajun/Creole spice, the dried Italian herbs, half of the grated dairy-free Parmesan, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir the salad to combine everything.1 clove garlic, pressed, 1 teaspoon all purpose Cajun spice, 1/2 teaspoon dried Italian herb mix, Salt and pepper, to taste, 1/3 to 1/2 cup grated dairy free parmesan cheese
- Add the salad to a serving bowl and top with the remaining dairy-free Parmesan cheese and serve.
- If you'd like to make this ahead, I'd still recommend making this salad the same day for the best texture. Store leftovers in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
Notes
Nutrition
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Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie which she founded in 2011. Sarah is based in Wyoming and has been managing food allergies for herself and her 2 children for over 20 years. Sarah was also a certified personal trainer for 12 years, as well as a group fitness instructor, health coach, running coach, and fitness nutrition specialist.