Stratta (Vegas) Chopped Salad: Recreated

Not only was Vegas a blast, but I don’t think I ever had a bad meal.  In particular, there were some very delicious salads eaten throughout the weekend and I found myself writing down their ingredients so that I could re-create them when I got home.

Our plane got into Boston around 9:30AM Tuesday morning and later that day I went grocery shopping, then spend a good chuck of my afternoon chopping veggies for this guy:

On Saturday evening, after checking into the Wynn, Jocy and I wanted to eat a not-so-big dinner before getting ready for our big night out at Pure (green dress night…p.s. that dress is from Nordstrom juniors dept.). 

We grabbed two seats at the bar in Stratta and proceeded to split a salad and a pizza.

First up was the Stratta Chopped salad which was described as:

CHOPPED SALAD. . .
Escarole, Beans, Salami, Crisp Vegetables, Mustard Vinaigrette

The best part about this salad was that all the veggies were diced up so small!!   Even the olives were small!

As we kept “mmm”ing about this salad, I whipped out my phone and jotted down every veggie and bean I could identify. 

Next came our pizza

The crust was SUPER thin…almost like a tortilla, so thin.  I love a good thin crust. 

Toppings were sausage, green peppers, onions, and buffalo mozzarella.

Using some will power we were able to leave 2 slices to pack up.  We then proceeded to fill one of the sinks in our hotel room with ice and leave the leftovers on ice for a late night snack….Best Idea Ever.  Although the bar at Stratta is open until 6am.  The bartender did tempt us with the knowledge that we could get a fresh pizza after our night out, but we resisted. 

Re-creating that chopped salad was fun, although it did involve a LOT of chopping.

However, it made a big batch and I had it for lunch the next 2 days.

Chopped Veggie Salad with Salami
inspired by Stratta, serves 5-6

The key here is to chop all the veggies at a uniform size.  The smaller the better.

• mixed greens or baby spinach for your salad base
• 1 can kidney beans or black beans (or both!)
• 1 can chickpeas
• 1/2 med. red onion, diced
• carrot, diced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
• 1 red or orange bell pepper, diced
• 3 stalks celery, diced
• 1/2 large cucumber, diced
• kalamata olives, small ones if you can find them
• 4oz salami, diced from a larger piece, or from slices

Mustard Vinaigrette:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3 T white wine vinegar
• 1 T Dijon mustard
• salt and pepper

Drain and rinse beans and chickpeas.  In a large bowl combine all diced veggies (onion through cucumber).  Add in beans, olives, and salami. 

Make vinaigrette:  combine ingredients into a bowl or mason jar with lid.  Whisk or shake until combined.

Toss veggie mixture with salad.  Serve over a small layer of greens. 

As long as you keep the greens separated until ready to serve, the leftovers will keep for a day or 2 even with dressing already tossed in.  Just serve over fresh greens.

For lunch I added extra slices of salami and provolone cheese.

 

Does anyone else have a good mustard vinaigrette recipe?  I really enjoyed how this came out, but it wasn’t quite what we had at the restaurant. 

Do you ever “take notes” at restaurants??