This hearty Italian Chopped Grinder Salad Recipe is the perfect high protein, no-cook lunch or dinner. With crunchy lettuce, fresh tomatoes and cucumbers, nitrate-free genoa salami, and a homemade Italian vinaigrette, this chopped salad tastes like your favorite Italian deli sandwich without the hoagie roll.
Grinder Salad
Confession. I have never used the word grinder to mean sandwich. I grew up on Long Island where we had the best Italian heroes. Then I went to college in Western New York and couldn’t get enough of the subs from Aunt Cookie’s Sub Shop (home of the best sub sandwich roll of all time). And now I live outside of Philadelphia and we love our hoagies.
And so I was prepared to call this recipe a hoagie salad, but if you live in the Philly area, a hoagie salad is actually a thing but it doesn’t contain lettuce. So then I was going to call it an Italian Chopped Salad.
Apparently, though, there was a viral recipe from tik tok few months ago for an Italian Grinder Salad, and when I was doing keyword research for this recipe, the term popped up (gotta love social media.) So I am going to run with it!
Anyway, call it what you want, this hearty salad is going to be a new favorite recipe!
Why I Love this Salad:
- It has all the ingredients of an Italian sub without the bread
- It’s totally customizable – follow the recipe exactly or use your favorite sandwich ingredients
- High protein – with the variety of cold cuts and the addition of chickpeas, this salad will keep you full and satisfied
- The best part – zero cooking!
Ingredients:
For full ingredient amounts, check out the recipe card below.
Salad ingredients:
- chopped romaine lettuce – the viral recipe uses shredded iceberg lettuce, but I am a romaine fan
- chopped cucumbers – I always add cucumbers to my hoagies for the crunch! I like to buy the small, Persian cucumbers because they are easy to just wash and chop
- cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes, halved – in the summer, I love slicing large garden tomatoes instead
- pepperoncini peppers or sliced banana peppers
- garbanzo beans/chickpeas – not a traditional grinder ingredient, but I love adding chickpeas to my chopped salads for extra plant based protein
- different Italian meats – a blend of salami, ham, or turkey are my favorites
- cheese – I am going with a creamy provolone here, but any variety of cheese would work great
Homemade Italian Dressing Ingredients:
Can’t have an Italian sandwich bowl without the dressing and this red wine vinaigrette tastes like JUST like my favorite deli’s hoagie dressing. You need:
- extra-virgin olive oil
- tangy red wine vinegar – but I also love it with balsamic vinegar
- dijon mustard
- honey
- Italian seasoning
- a little salt and black pepper
Substitutions and Additions
- For extra bite, add some chopped red onion or some sun-dried tomatoes
- Kalamata olives and artichoke hearts work great in this recipe – if I have them, I will sometimes add them in. Or chopped roasted red pepper.
- For a creamy dressing, add in some creamy mayo
- Substitute provolone cheese for parmesan cheese, fresh mozzarella cheese, or even Swiss cheese
- In the summer, I love to add chopped fresh basil from my garden
- Add some green bell peppers for extra crunch
- Use different types of meat – roast beef, turkey, ham, and salami are all favorites
Step by Step Instructions
- Mix ingredients for dressing, adding in a pinch of salt and pepper. Add in 1-2 Tablespoons of water. Mix well. Taste and adjust as needed.
2. Toss chopped romaine with cucumbers, tomatoes, chickpeas, and chopped deli meat into a large bowl.
3. When you are ready to eat, portion lettuce mixture onto plates. Top with banana peppers and provolone cheese.
4. Add homemade dressing right before serving and toss well.
Tips
- This colorful salad makes a great dish for a party! I love serving it on a large platter with the dressing on the side.
- If you have picky family members, you could turn this into a salad bar and everyone can choose their favorite toppings!
- I normally like very thin cold cuts, but for this salad, I ask for a sandwich cut, which is a little thicker and easier to chop into bite sized pieces, without being too crumbly.
What to Serve with Italian Chopped Salad
This salad is quite filling on it’s own, so it’s enough of a meal for me. But it would also be delicious as a side to Hot Honey Pizza with Ricotta or my Baked Eggplant Parmesan. I love it as a soup and salad combo – and would make a great addition to this Easy Instant Pot Tomato Soup.
You could also serve it with homemade gluten free garlic bread or your favorite whole grain roll.
Meal Prep and Storage
- For Meal Prepping this Salad, I prefer to mix the veggies with the lettuce, and then keeping the other salad ingredients separate using containers or ziplock baggies. This Bentgo salad container (affiliate) is awesome for this.
- You could also assemble this into a Mason Jar Salad by placing the dressing at the bottom of the jar, followed by cheese, meat, veggies, then finally the lettuce on top.
- Store leftover salad in an airtight refrigerator for up to 4 days. If you dress the salad, it will likely get soggy after one day, so plan accordingly.
More Salad Recipes to Try
Italian Chopped Grinder Salad
Ingredients
For the Salad
- 6 cups romaine chopped
- 1 cup cucumbers chopped
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes halved
- ¼ cup pepperoncini or sliced banana peppers
- 1 cup chickpeas
- 8 slices nitrate free salami chopped
- 16 slices ham, turkey or deli meat of choice chopped
- 4 slices provolone chopped
For the Homemade Hoagie Dressing
- ⅓ cup olive oil extra virgin
- ¼ cup red wine vinegar I also love it with balsamic vinegar
- 2 Tbsp water
- 1 tsp dijon
- 1 tsp honey
- 1 tsp italian seasoning
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
Instructions
- Mix ingredients for dressing, adding in a pinch of salt and pepper. Add in 1-2 tablespoons of water. Mix well. Taste and adjust as needed.
- Toss chopped romaine with cucumbers, tomatoes, chickpeas, and chopped deli meat into a large bowl. When you are ready to eat, portion lettuce mixture into plates. Top with banana peppers and provolone cheese.
- Add homemade dressing right before serving and toss well.
Notes
- For a Low Carb/2B Mindset Dinner version, omit chickpeas
- For Meal Prepping this Salad, I prefer to mix the veggies with the lettuce, and then keeping the other salad ingredients separate using containers or ziplock baggies. This Bentgo salad container (affiliate) is awesome for this.
- You could also assemble this into a Mason Jar Salad by placing the dressing at the bottom of the jar, followed by cheese, meat, veggies, then finally the lettuce on top.
- Store leftover salad in an airtight refrigerator for up to 4 days. If you dress the salad, it will likely get soggy after one day, so plan accordingly.
Pooja says
This may be a silly question, but the list of ingredients above is to be divided amongst 4 salads correct, versus those are the ingredients for each one of the 4 salads?
Thanks.
Amanda says
I’m obsessed with this!!!
Nancylynn says
Love!