Our Italian salad is fresh, crunchy, tasty, and easy to make. Serve it as a starter, side dish, or light lunch with a slice of bread or warm homemade focaccia.

Customize the salad by choosing your favorite add-ins, and season it with our homemade Italian dressing to add a bright and tangy taste. Let’s see how!

Italian salad with homemade Italian dressing

Check out our best vegan salad recipe collection!

Our Italian salad is a versatile recipe you can make all year round to serve as a starter or as a side dish with most mains.

We make this recipe at least twice a week to boost the intake of fresh raw greens in our diet, and also make it because it tastes delicious, and we often eat it for lunch with a thick slice of sourdough bread.

Use our Italian salad recipe as a guideline, customizing it based on your tastes and preferences.

Here we will show you how to make a big one, with plenty of add-ins. Of course, you don’t have to use all the ingredients, although you can if you want to make the best biggest Italian salad ever.

To season it, you can use a simple Italian vinaigrette made with olive oil, salt, and vinegar, or you can make our delicious homemade Italian dressing.

Either way, we are sure you are going to love this recipe. It’s tasty, crunchy, fresh, and nutritious!

Italian salad in a large bowl

Ingredients

Ingredients for Italian salad
Main Ingredients: romaine lettuce, arugula, radicchio, celery, onion, carrot, and tomatoes. Add-ins: olives, pepperoncini, croutons, seeds, iceberg lettuce, sun-dried tomatoes, and shaved parmesan.

Romaine Lettuce

You can use romaine lettuce or replace it with other non-bitter green lettuce varieties such as iceberg lettuce, Batavia lettuce, little gems lettuce, butter lettuce, and oak leaf lettuce, and frisée or curly endive.

Radicchio

Radicchio is the purple-colored lettuce with a slightly bitter taste. It’s a common ingredient in Italian salads; however, if you are not a fan of bitter flavors, you can keep it out.

Arugula

Arugula is another popular green you can add to your Italian salad. If you don’t like its slightly bitter and spicy taste, you can replace it with Lamb’s lettuce, purslane, or watercress.

Celery

Celery adds a fresh, crunchy, slightly sweet flavor to the salad, and it’s a staple in most Italian salad recipes.

Carrot

We grate the carrot with the large holes of a box grater. It adds crunch, color, and a sweet taste.

Red Onion

Thinly sliced red onion adds a tangy and mildly sweet flavor that lifts all the other ingredients. For a milder flavor, use green or spring onions.

Tomatoes

Pick your favorite tomatoes, as long as they are not overripe. We like to use Roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, vine tomatoes, and when we can find it, fresh San Marzano tomatoes.

Add-ins

Pick from homemade croutons, black olives, shaved parmesan cheese (for non-vegans), pepperoncini, sundried tomatoes, and mixed seeds or pumpkin seeds.

Homemade Italian Dressing

We make our Italian salad dressing with extra virgin olive oil, white wine or red wine vinegar, lemon juice, dried oregano, dried basil, garlic powder (or one clove of crushed garlic), pepper, salt, and optionally maple syrup.

Italian dressing

Instructions

Make the dressing

To a small mason jar, add the extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, dried oregano, dried basil, garlic powder (or a peeled and crushed garlic clove), salt, pepper, and maple syrup.

Close the lid tight and shake the jar to emulsify the ingredients.

making the Italian dressing in a jar

Mix the salad

Add chopped Romaine lettuce, chopped radicchio, arugula, halved cherry tomatoes, finely sliced red onion, grated carrots, and chopped celery to a large bowl.

Next, add your add-ins. We use black olives, peperoncini (jalapeños work too), homemade croutons, pumpkin seeds, and chopped sun-dried tomatoes.

Italian Salad

Drizzle with the dressing, toss, and you are ready to serve it.

Italian salad with risotto cakes
Italian salad served with our risotto cakes and marinara sauce.

Serving suggestions

Serve this big Italian salad as an appetizer with a slice of our homemade focaccia.

Alternatively, you can serve it as a side dish with many of our plant-based dinners. For example, try serving it with protein, pasta, or risotto:

chickpea tuna salad in a bowl
Vegan tuna

Want more dinner ideas? Check out our best 65 Italian vegan recipes with plenty of pasta, pizza, and protein-rich dinners.

Variations

Simple side salad

simple side salad

If you want a lighter and simpler salad, try removing all the add-ins. This way, you’ll get a simple side salad that is still crunchy, delicious, and full of veggies but a lot lighter, with fewer calories.

Also, instead of the Italian dressing, season this simpler salad with extra virgin olive oil, vinegar, and a pinch of salt. This is what Italians actually eat as a side salad.

Italian salad with Shaved Parmesan

Italian salad with shaved parmesan

For omnivores and flexitarians, adding shaved parmesan cheese is a great way to make this Italian chopped salad even tastier.

To shave a block of parmesan, we recommend using a vegetable peeler. Then, add the shaved cheese on top just before serving the salad.

Add some protein

pa fried tofu
Pan-fried tofu cubes, perfect for adding to salads.

There are a lot of recipes online that add chicken, salmon, and salami to Italian salad to increase its protein content.

However, we recommend using plant-based protein sources instead to keep the salad light and healthy. Try our pan-fried tofu cubes, air fryer tofu, roasted chickpeas, air-fried chickpeas, or white beans.

Make Ahead Tip

To make this recipe ahead of time, you can mix all the ingredients in a large bowl without adding the dressing.

This way, the salad will stay crunchy for about 12 hours in the fridge. Then, before serving it, add the Italian dressing and eat it right away.

The dressing contains vinegar and lemon juices, which makes the salad leaves soft and less crunchy. That’s why you want to add it at the last moment.

Storage

This Italian salad is best eaten soon after you add the dressing. Leftovers keep in the fridge for about 24 hours, but the salad will lose its crunch after about 2 hours.

Don’t add the dressing to store the salad for longer.

More Salad Recipes

If you love fresh and vibrant salads, check out these refreshing salad recipes:

Or take your pick from our 25 best vegan salad recipes, including grain bowls and raw salads.

For many more side dish ideas, check out our sides category page.

Italian Salad

Italian Salad

By: Nico Pallotta
5 from 3 votes
Our Italian salad is freshcrunchy, tasty, and easy to make. Serve it as a starter, side dish, or light lunch with a slice of bread or warm homemade focaccia.
Customize the salad by choosing your favorite add-ins, and season it with our homemade Italian dressing to add a bright and tangy taste. Let's see how!
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 0 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes
Servings: 4 people
Course: salad
Cuisine: American Italian

Ingredients

BASE SALAD

  • 1 large head romaine lettuce chopped
  • 2 cups iceberg lettuce chopped
  • 2 cups radicchio chopped
  • 2 cups arugula
  • 1 carrot grated
  • 1 stalk celery chopped
  • 1 small red onion sliced finely
  • 10 cherry tomatoes halved

ADD-INS (pick one or more)

  • 1 cup homemade croutons
  • ½ cup black olives pitted
  • cup pepperoncini chopped
  • cup sun dried tomatoes chopped
  • cup parmesan shaved
  • 1 tablespoon pumpkin seeds

ITALIAN DRESSING

  • ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons vinegar any
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup
  • ½ teaspoon dried oregano
  • ½ teaspoon dried basil
  • ½ teaspoon garlic powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon black pepper

Instructions 

MAKE THE DRESSING

  • To a small mason jar, add the extra virgin olive oillemon juicevinegardried oreganodried basilgarlic powder (or a peeled and crushed garlic clove), saltpepper, and maple syrup.
    Close the lid tight and shake the jar to emulsify the ingredients.
    Making dressing in a jar

MIX THE SALAD

  • Add chopped Romaine lettuce, chopped radicchioarugula, halved cherry tomatoes, finely sliced red onion, grated carrots, and chopped celery to a large bowl.
    Next, add your add-ins. We use black olivespeperoncini (jalapeños work too), homemade croutonspumpkin seeds, and chopped sun-dried tomatoes.
    Italian Salad
  • Drizzle with the dressingtoss, and you are ready to serve it.
    Italian salad in a large bowl
  • For omnivores and flexitarians, adding shaved parmesan cheese is a great way to make this Italian chopped salad even tastier.
    To shave a block of parmesan, we recommend using a vegetable peeler. Then, add the shaved cheese on top just before serving the salad.
    Italian salad with shaved parmesan

Notes

Nutrition information is for 1 portion of Italian salad out of 4 with all ingredients listed in the recipe.
To reduce calories, cut out the cheese, some of the olive oil, maple syrup, and olives.

Nutrition

Calories: 320kcal, Carbohydrates: 28g, Protein: 10g, Fat: 21g, Saturated Fat: 4g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g, Monounsaturated Fat: 13g, Trans Fat: 0g, Cholesterol: 6mg, Potassium: 1116mg, Dietary Fiber: 8g, Sugar: 12g, Vitamin A: 17108IU, Vitamin B6: 0.3mg, Vitamin C: 35mg, Vitamin E: 4mg, Vitamin K: 255µg, Calcium: 232mg, Folate: 281µg, Iron: 4mg, Manganese: 1mg, Magnesium: 84mg, Zinc: 1mg
Tried this recipe?Leave a comment below or mention @nicoandlouise on Instagram. We are also on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and TikTok.

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Nico and Louise in the kitchen

Hi! We are Nico & Louise

Welcome to The Plant-Based School, a food blog with easy, tasty, and wholesome recipes.

Our aim is to help you and your family eat more veggies through delicious recipes with simple ingredients.

Easy right?

5 from 3 votes (3 ratings without comment)

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