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You definitely won’t miss the bread in this Italian sub salad recipe with pepperoni, salami, tomatoes, red onion, and pepperoncini. It combines all the classic flavors of an Italian grinder sandwich🥪 but serves them on romaine lettuce🥬 instead of bread🥖. The homemade Italian dressing ties it all together for a flavor-packed lunch or dinner.
❤️ Why You’ll Love This Italian Sub Salad Recipe
This Italian hoagie salad recipe is a lighter take on a sub that doesn’t skimp on flavor. It’s delicious and visually appealing, with the vibrant colors of the vegetables and meat. The balance of textures, from the crisp lettuce to the tender meats and juicy tomatoes, makes every bite a pleasure. Plus, this chopped sub salad is perfect for entertaining since it’s simple to customize to meet different dietary needs.
🥗 Italian Sub Salad Ingredients
- 🥬Lettuce: Crunchy, chopped romaine lettuce is the base of this salad.
- 🥓Meat: Salami and pepperoni add protein.
- 🧀Cheese: Slice provolone cheese for a soft, creamy element.
- 🍅Vegetables: I used cherry tomatoes and red onion.
- 🫑Pepperoncini Peppers for a tangy cruch
- 🧄Italian Sub Salad Dressing: Olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, grated parmesan, dried Italian herbs, Dijon mustard, honey, salt, and pepper
👩🍳 How to Make an Italian Sub Salad
This easy chopped sub salad takes only minutes to make.
- Prep all your ingredients.
- Mix them in a bowl.
- Make the Italian dressing and drizzle over the salad.
🪄 Tips and Tricks
Here’s how to make this chopped grinder salad for meal prep:
- Double or triple the ingredients and slice them.
- Store the lettuce and dressing separately. Put the remaining ingredients in one container.
- Add the salad ingredients to the lettuce and toss with the vinaigrette before serving.
🍅Tomato Tip: For the freshest tomatoes, store them at room temperature and wait to cut them until you’re ready to eat.
🗒 Variations
- Add More Vegetables, like cucumber, bell pepper, or avocado.
- Add Croutons, like these homemade pizza croutons, for more crunch.
- Italian Sub Pasta Salad: Swap lettuce with any short pasta shape, like farfalle or rotini.
🗒 Substitutions
- Lettuce: Substitute iceberg or little gem lettuce.
- Meat: If you don’t have pepperoni or salami, omit it or add prosciutto or diced deli turkey or ham.
- Vegetarian Italian Sub Salad: Skip the meat and add a can of drained chickpeas for protein and fiber. To make it vegan (or dairy-free), don’t use any cheese or replace it with a vegan alternative.
- Cheese: Swap provolone with parmesan or mozzarella.
- Tomatoes: Use grape tomatoes or dice a large tomato.
- Red Onion: Sub shallot or green onion.
- Tangy Ingredients: Add kalamata, black, or green olives, canned artichoke hearts, or capers.
- Italian Dressing: Making homemade salad dressings is quick and cost-effective, but I get that sometimes you just don’t have the time. Primal Kitchen’s Italian Vinaigrette is a fantastic shortcut.
🍽️ Best served with
Since this Italian sub salad is high in protein, it’s great for lunch or a light dinner. You could also serve it as a side dish with pasta or soup.
👝 How to Store
Once you put the dressing on the lettuce, it’s best to eat the salad immediately. If you do have leftovers, you can save it for one day. If you store the lettuce, dressing, and other ingredients separately, they should all last for three to five days.
🤔 Common Questions
An Italian sub is a sandwich served on Italian bread with various cured meats, Italian cheeses, and veggies and drizzled with Italian dressing or oil and vinegar. It’s also known as a hero, hoagie, or grinder.
Yes! That’s one of the best things about a chopped Italian sub salad–Swapping out ingredients to suit your tastes is easy.
Italian Sub Salad
Ingredients
Salad
- 2 cups chopped romaine lettuce
- ½ cup sliced salami
- ½ cup sliced pepperoni
- ¼ cup sliced provolone cheese
- ¼ cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- ¼ cup sliced red onion
- ¼ cup pepperoncini peppers, sliced
Italian Dressing
- ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup red wine vinegar
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
- 1 tbsp dried Italian herbs, basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp honey, optional, for a touch of sweetness
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Salad
- In a large bowl, combine romaine lettuce, salami, pepperoni, provolone cheese, cherry tomatoes, red onion, and pepperoncini.
- Toss with Italian dressing to taste and serve chilled.
Italian Dressing
- In a bowl or a jar, combine the red wine vinegar, minced garlic, parmesan cheese, Italian herbs, Dijon mustard, and honey. Mix well to blend the flavors together.
- Slowly add the olive oil to the mixture while whisking continuously. This helps to emulsify the dressing, making it thick and well-blended
