Gordon Ramsay’s chopped salad is from Ultimate Cookery Course (2012). Shredded romaine and red chicory go into a big bowl with cherry tomatoes, shallots, red peppers, chickpeas, Edam and salami. Then it all gets a sherry vinegar and Worcestershire dressing, with dried oregano on top. It takes about 25 minutes and serves 6 to 8.
It’s the salad for feeding a crowd without turning on the stove. In his easiest salads video on YouTube he sums it up as “if you can chop, you can make it”. He builds it piece by piece, so you get different tastes and textures as you go.
In that video it’s the first of three party salads. Next come his green bean mustard salad and his roasted red pepper lentil and herb salad, and all three come from the same cooking for crowds chapter.
Gordon Ramsay’s Chopped Salad
Course: SaladsCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy6
25
minutes730
Gordon Ramsay’s chopped salad recipe from Ultimate Cookery Course, with romaine, red chicory, chickpeas, Edam and salami. These amounts feed a crowd of 6 to 8.
Ingredients
- For the salad:
2 banana shallots, peeled and very finely sliced
250 g (9 oz) baby plum or cherry tomatoes, halved
olive oil, for drizzling
4 heads romaine lettuce, shredded
4 small heads red chicory (radicchio), shredded
2 Romano or regular red bell peppers, seeded and diced
2 cans (14 oz / 400 g each) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
300 g (10½ oz) Edam cheese, cut into matchsticks
250 g (9 oz) salami, sliced into strips
juice of about ½ lemon
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons dried oregano, to finish
- For the dressing:
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons superfine sugar
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
180 ml (¾ cup) olive oil
Directions
- Stand: Put the shallots and tomatoes in a large serving bowl. Season with salt and pepper, drizzle with a little olive oil, toss and leave them to stand.
- Dressing: Stir the sherry vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and sugar together until the sugar dissolves, then add the garlic. Slowly pour in the olive oil, whisking all the time, until thick and glossy. Taste and adjust the oil or vinegar.
- Toss: Add the lettuce, chicory, peppers, chickpeas, cheese and salami to the bowl with the tomatoes. Toss and season with a little more salt and pepper.
- Dress: When you’re ready to serve, squeeze over the lemon juice and add three-quarters of the dressing. Mix well, taste, and add more lemon or dressing if it needs it. Sprinkle over the oregano, toss once more and serve.
Notes
- Calories are about 730 a serving for 6, or about 545 for 8, with the cheese, salami and dressing bringing the most.
FAQs
Is it a side or a main?
A main, really. He calls it “pretty much a meal in itself”, and with salami, Edam and two cans of chickpeas it fills people up.
What is red chicory?
In US stores it’s sold as radicchio. He knows it’s “quite a bitter leaf”, but says it works “as a foil to the sweetness of the cheese and tomatoes”.
How much dressing should go on?
Start with three-quarters of it, plus the lemon juice, then mix and taste. Add the rest only if the salad needs it.
Wait until you’re ready to serve, though. Dress it any earlier and the lettuce will go limp.
How do I keep my cutting board from slipping?
Wet a dish towel and lay it under the board. It’s his own tip, printed right under this recipe, and with this much chopping it’s worth doing, because “an unstable chopping board is a dangerous one”.
Zaytouna Studio Team is the kitchen team behind Chef Ramsay Recipes. We cook Gordon Ramsay’s recipes from his cookbooks and videos in a home kitchen and write them up for yours, with US and metric measurements.