Italian Chopped Salad with Shaken Red-Wine Vinaigrette

By Sprig Originals ✓ · cooked up in Sprig

Every ingredient cut to the same small dice so each forkful tastes complete: crisp romaine and radicchio, chickpeas, provolone, tomatoes, peperoncini and toasted seeds, bound by a red-wine vinaigrette you shake in a jar. A little pearl couscous gives it enough body to eat as a meal, and the whole thing holds in the fridge for three days of genuinely good lunches — a coastal fine-dining chopped salad reworked for a Tuesday.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 clove garlic, grated on a microplane
• 1 tsp dried oregano, crumbled between your fingers
• 1/2 tsp honey
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

• 1/2 cup pearl (Israeli) couscous
• 1 small head romaine hearts
• 1/2 small head radicchio
• 2 cups baby arugula, loosely packed
• 1 can (15 oz) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 6 oz provolone, in one thick slab
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes
• 1 small English cucumber
• 1/3 cup jarred peperoncini, stemmed
• 1/3 cup pitted Castelvetrano olives
• 1/4 small red onion
• 1/4 cup raw pepitas
• 2 tbsp raw sunflower seeds
• 1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
• to taste freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Bring a small saucepan of well-salted water to a boil. Add the pearl couscous and cook at a lively simmer for 7 to 8 minutes, until tender with a slight chew. Drain in a fine-mesh sieve, rinse under cold water for 30 seconds to stop the cooking, and shake dry. Spread on a plate to cool completely.
2. Toast the seeds while the couscous cooks: put the pepitas and sunflower seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat and toast, shaking often, for 3 to 4 minutes, until they smell nutty and a few pepitas pop. Tip onto a plate immediately and season with a pinch of salt.
3. Make the vinaigrette: combine the vinegar, Dijon, grated garlic, oregano, honey, salt, and red pepper flakes in a jar with a tight lid. Shake hard for 10 seconds to dissolve the salt. Add the olive oil and Parmesan, seal, and shake for a full 30 seconds until thick and creamy-looking. Set aside so the garlic and oregano bloom.
4. Slice the red onion paper-thin and drop it into a small bowl with 2 tablespoons of the vinaigrette. Let it sit while you chop everything else — it softens the raw bite and turns the onion faintly pink.
5. Now the chopping, which is the whole point: aim for a consistent 1/2-inch dice on everything. Cut the romaine and radicchio into 1/2-inch ribbons, then cross-cut so no piece is longer than your thumbnail. Halve the cherry tomatoes and, if they are large, quarter them. Dice the cucumber, provolone, peperoncini, and olives to the same 1/2 inch. Leave the chickpeas whole and roughly chop the parsley.
6. Combine the romaine, radicchio, arugula, chickpeas, provolone, tomatoes, cucumber, peperoncini, olives, cooled couscous, parsley, and the marinated onion with its liquid in a large wide bowl.
7. Shake the vinaigrette again for 10 seconds, pour about three-quarters of it over the salad, and toss thoroughly with your hands or two big spoons for a full minute — chopped salads need more tossing than they look like they do. Taste and add the remaining dressing, salt, and plenty of black pepper as needed.
8. Scatter the toasted seeds over the top just before serving so they stay crunchy. Serve within 15 minutes for maximum crispness, or chill 20 minutes for a colder, more composed salad.

Chef's tips

Nutrition (per serving, estimated)

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