Recently, I have been in love with all things crunchy, and all things berries in my salads! This Crunchy Berry Chopped Salad HAS IT ALL! I’ve filled this salad with a variety of nutritious vegetables, and berries. Then, I have added some cashews, and local homemade tortilla chips to add texture and crunch to this delicious dish. Topped with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette, the flavors compliment each other so well, and will bring a colorful party to the dinner table and your tummy!
Tips for Crunchy Berry Chopped Salad:
Below I will list a few of the things that helped bring my salad to the next level. As with all salads, you can substitute, or add any ingredient of choice to make your salad perfect for you! These are merely suggestions that helped me find the desired outcome for my salad. Keep these simple tips in mind to end with a crunchy salad very similar to this one!
- KALE: When prepping kale, make sure to wash each individual leaf, and then pull the leafy green part from the thick stem. Discard the stem, and rip the kale into desired bite sized pieces. When you are ready to make your salad, add kale to the bowl. Drizzle a small amount of avocado oil (or olive oil) over your leaves, and then add a few sprinkles of sea salt. With both hands, knead your kale in the bowl to soften the leaves, and evenly coat each leaf with the small amount of oil, and salt.
- If you do not have kale on hand, no worries! You can easily use spinach, romaine, or living lettuce as a substitute. Just forgo the olive oil and salt method that you would use with the Kale, and simply add it to your bowl before the rest of your ingredients.
- VEGGIES AND BERRIES: With your veggies, and berries, it really doesn’t make a huge difference how you slice them. However, I prefer so slice them into smaller or thinner pieces. This helps to distribute the toppings more evenly throughout the salad, and to get a variety of flavors, and textures in each bite!
- GRILLED CHICKEN OPTION: Transform your crunchy berry chopped salad from a side dish, into a main course. I recommend adding chicken, or a higher protein source. Grilled, rotisserie, or canned chicken all work!
Assembling Your Salad:
First of all, find a salad bowl big enough to hold all of the deliciousness! Next, add your kale, or greens of choice and top with sliced veggies, and berries. Then, add your crunchy cashews, and crushed tortilla chips. If, you choose to add grilled chicken, add sliced grilled chicken on the top of your salad. Finally, drizzle with your homemade balsamic vinaigrette.
- PRO TIP: If you plan to prep this salad in advance, I would recommend leaving out the avocados, strawberries, and balsamic vinaigrette. The sliced or chunked avocado will brown if it is cut too soon. The strawberries, and balsamic dressing will leave your salad soggy if it sits for too long. Add these ingredients at the last minute for optimal looks, and taste of your salad!
Crunchy Berry Chopped Salad
Ingredients
Berry Chopped Salad Ingredients:
- Avocado Oil for drizzling *if using kale
- 1 head Kale
- 1 Grilled Chicken Breasts *if using
- 1/2 cup Salted or Unsalted Cashews chopped
- 1 cup Strawberries chopped
- 1 cup Blueberries
- 1 large Shallot sliced thinly
- 1 medium Cucumber sliced into halves
- 1 ripe Avocado cut into chunks, or sliced
- 1/2-1 cup Authentic or Homemade Tortilla Chips
- Salt+Pepper
Balsamic Vinaigrette
- 1/3 cup Balsamic Vinegar
- 1-2 tbsp Ranch Seasoning
- 3-4 tbsp Mayonaise *or full fat plain greek yogurt
- 1 tbsp Avocado Oil
- 1 tsp Garlic Salt
- 1/2 tsp Salt+Pepper *to taste
Instructions
Assembling Salad
- To begin, prepare kale as directed in the blog post above. Or add your greens of choice to a large bowl.
- Chop, slice, or crush all of your salad ingredients as desired.
- Then layer salad toppings one by one, on top of greens.
Preparing Balsamic Vinaigrette
- Add all ingredients to a mason jar with a lid, or a blender. Shake Well, until smooth, and creamy. **SEE NOTES**
- Drizzle dressing over salad as desired, and enjoy!
Notes
Looking for another salad recipe? Try this one!–> Fresh Kale Summer Salad w/ Raspberry Balsamic Vinaigrette
Oh hello! This is absolutely my kind of salad. Loads of healthy stuff, sweetness from the berries and crunch from the nuts. Perfect! Thank you so much for this great recipe.
This is a delicious and flavorful salad! I love all the great flavors, and the homemade tortilla chips on top give it a lovely crunch! YUM!
This salad is beautiful, full of great flavours and textures and so delicious.
such a great salad recipe! loving all the colors and taste is so good.
Can’t get enough of this chopped salad! I made a huge bowl and have been eating it for lunch every day!
This is one of the best salad recipes I have tried. Perfect combination of fruits, nuts and chicken. Love it!
I loved this salad so much! The flavors were perfectly balanced and the dressing was simple yet delicious!