Barbecue Bacon Ranch Chopped Salad: A vibrant chopped salad of romaine, kale, red cabbage, peeled and julienned broccoli stalks, carrots, and fresh herbs, tossed with a barbecue-ranch dressing and finished with crispy bacon and crunchy tortilla strips or chips. Tip: undressed, this salad stores up to a week in the refrigerator.
I’m a devoted salad person — I genuinely need them in rotation. If I skip salads for a few days I feel out of sorts. It isn’t strictly about health; I admit I love to pile on crunchy, salty toppings. What keeps me coming back is the variety: endless dressings, textures, cultural twists, and ways to serve them hot, cold, or somewhere in between.
My favorite might be a massive bowl of spring greens loaded with Fritos and Bacos, but I’ll happily devour any salad that crosses my path. I also fall into phases where I make the same salad repeatedly until my family begs for a break.
Right now I can’t get enough of this Barbecue Bacon Ranch Chopped Salad. Chopped salads are having a moment — they’re simply all the salad ingredients finely cut, tossed together, and dressed before serving. Straightforward, but delicious.
Barbecue Bacon Ranch Chopped Salad
For a satisfying chopped salad I like to combine a variety of textures and flavors: crisp romaine, hearty kale, purple cabbage for color, and either iceberg or savoy for crunch. Fresh herbs add brightness, and peeled, julienned broccoli stalks and carrots give a pleasing tender-crisp bite. Don’t toss the broccoli stalks — once peeled and cut into matchstick-sized pieces they’re a tasty, underused addition.
These ingredients are deliberately hearty, which makes the salad hold up well if you want to prepare a large batch in advance.
Make a week’s worth of salad at once
If you combine the salad ingredients without dressing and store them in a zipper-top bag in the refrigerator, the mixture will stay fresh for up to a week. When you’re ready to eat, remove the amount you want, toss with dressing, add the bacon and tortilla chips, and serve.
Make sure ingredients are completely dry before storing
After washing greens, cabbage, herbs, or other vegetables, let them air-dry or use a salad spinner until thoroughly dry. Excess moisture will shorten storage life and make the salad soggy.
The ingredient quantities listed below are roughly what I would eat in two to three days on my own. For a family side dish, these amounts can serve as one meal. If you plan to eat salad all week or you’re a big salad fan, consider doubling the recipe.
Mmmmm — salad. What’s your favorite?
For other substantial side salads, try the Bresaola Parmesan Salad, Cranberry Brussels Salad with Bacon Vinaigrette, Melting Sweet Potato Salad with Candied Maple Pecans and Bacon, Fattoush with crumbled pita chips, Farro Salad with Kale, Marinated Chickpea Salad, Layered Chopped Taco Salad, Cucumber Scallion Salad (5-minute recipe), Mediterranean Tuna and White Bean Salad, or Grilled Mexican Street Corn Salad.
Barbecue Bacon Ranch Chopped Salad
Rebecca Lindamood
Ingredients
- 4 cups chopped romaine lettuce
- 2 cups chopped kale
- 1 cup chopped purple cabbage
- 1 cup chopped iceberg lettuce or savoy cabbage
- 3 broccoli stalks peeled, julienned
- 1 large or 2 small carrots peeled, julienned
- 1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro or parsley
- 1/2 cup chopped fully cooked crispy bacon
- 1/4 cup barbecue sauce homemade or store-bought
- 1/4 cup Ranch dressing homemade or store-bought
- Optional:
- Crispy tortilla strips or chips for garnish
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, toss romaine, kale, purple cabbage, iceberg or savoy cabbage, julienned broccoli stalks and carrots, and cilantro or parsley. If you plan to store part of the salad, transfer the portion you won’t eat immediately to a zipper-top bag and refrigerate up to a week.
To dress and serve the whole salad:
- Combine the barbecue sauce and Ranch dressing in a small bowl or measuring cup. Pour about half the dressing over the salad, add the chopped crispy bacon, and toss until evenly coated. Taste and add more dressing if desired. Top with crispy tortilla strips or chips and serve, or pass extra dressing on the side.
Notes
Nutritional information is an estimate. Calculate nutrition based on the exact ingredients you use with your preferred nutrition tool.
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