Quick and Easy Antipasto Salad

This Antipasto Salad recipe is bursting with flavors, beautiful colors, and packed with healthy ingredients in just 10 minutes. It’s perfect for adding some character to your plain old boring lunch!

🇮🇹 Why This Recipe Works

Simple ingredients come together for a tasty lunch, appetizer or even light dinner.

Keto approved, so you don’t have to worry about tons of carbs. Low carb and lots of flavor. Try my keto chicken casserole as well!

Nutrient rich, colorful and a salad you will want to make for any and every occasion.

Meal prep for lunches, whip up for serving guests, and more. It is such a versatile dish.

🥬 Ingredients

Quickly and easily throw the ingredients together in a matter of minutes. It’s great to eat for lunch, dinner, or as an appetizer to your favorite meal. Here are some of the ingredients in this antipasto salad.

Romaine Lettuce – The main ingredient is romaine lettuce. It’s light, refreshing, and it has lots of potassium, vitamin C, calcium, folate, and magnesium.

Use other varieties of lettuce too, but we tend to love romaine for this recipe.

Cheese – Use a combination of mozzarella and parmesan cheeses. It’s incredible and gives the salad tons of flavor.

Pepperoni and Salami – Adding different varieties of cured meats to the salad makes it even more delightful.

Because it has some protein from the cheese as well as the salami, this keeps you full.

🍽️ Instructions

You guys! This seriously couldn’t be any easier. There are two steps, and it tastes like you ordered it in a fancy restaurant. You’ll be so glad you tried this, and it is sure to become a household favorite. 

Step One: Chop the lettuce and artichoke hearts. Slice the pepperoni and salami. Combine the all of the ingredients into a large salad bowl. 

Step Two: Drizzle with your favorite Italian dressing to taste and dig in! 

See, I told you it was super simple to make this! This is a delicious appetizer to serve up.

Note: To make this vegetarian, skip the pepperoni and salami.  I added a few extra artichoke hearts and black olives as they are my favorites!

🥄 Meal Prep Instructions

If you are like me, you want to meal prep so you can save yourself time and energy later. Plus, it’s a great way to save money.

Because if you have food ready to go, you aren’t tempted to hit a fast-food drive-thru when you come home from work unexpectedly tired. Here are a few steps you can take to have everything prepped and ready:

1. Have the lettuce, artichoke hearts, salami, and pepperoni chopped and ready to go and stored in sealed containers in the fridge. 
2. Put the lettuce in a larger container that you can also fit the other ingredients in as well. 
3. Mix together the salami and pepperoni and place them in a small container with a lid, or put them in the bowl with the lettuce. 
4. Put the artichoke hearts, pepperoncini, and black olives in a small covered bowl. 
5. Mix the cheeses together. 
6. Put the dressing in a small container, so it’s ready to use and drizzle right before serving. 
7. This antipasto salad will last up to five days in the fridge assembled or unassembled.  Keep the dressing off of the salad to have it last a bit longer.

🥣 Can Salad Be Frozen?

While the lettuce and the Italian dressing can’t be frozen, many of the other ingredients can be. You can freeze the cheeses, salami, olives, artichoke hearts, pepperoncini, and pepperoni. 

When you are ready to assemble the salad, remove the ingredients from the freezer and place them in the fridge until they have thawed. Mix up the best antipasto salad and serve! 

🥬 Fresh Or Canned Artichoke Hearts?

I prefer to use canned artichoke hearts. They are easy to work with, and it doesn’t take any extra effort on your part. If you wanted to use fresh artichokes, that’s more than fine.

You would need to cut the heart out of the center and boil it for at least 15 minutes. Add a few lemon wedges to the water when you are boiling the artichoke hearts.

It gives them a bit more zesty flavor that is perfect for this Italian salad recipe. 

🌶️ Is It Spicy?

No, this recipe isn’t spicy at all. I would call it zesty with the cured meats and tangy black olives.

If you want to make it spicy, add in a few red pepper flakes to provide a little heat. 

🍴Is There Pasta?

I know when you read the word “antipasto,” it immediately makes you think of pasta salad, but there isn’t any pasta at all in this recipe.

Antipasto is served as a starter in Italian meals, and it’s known for its cured meats and tangy, flavorful ingredients. 

🍽️ Recipe Variations

One thing I love about this besides the flavor and how gorgeous it looks is how easy it is to customize it! Add in all your favorite veggies, and it will be perfect for your tastes! Here are a few variations and ideas for you to try:

• Onions – Chop up some red onions and add them to the salad. They add lots of flavor and make it look even better. 
• Prosciutto – If you are a fan of prosciutto, it just makes sense that you may want to add some to the dish! It’s easy to work with!
• Mushrooms – Using mushrooms in an Italian dish just makes sense. Use canned mushrooms that are plain or marinated. Fresh mushrooms work well too. 
• Tomatoes – I love adding fresh tomatoes, especially in the summer months, when they are in season. It adds a whole new element that I think you will enjoy. Tiny grape tomatoes are perfect for this dish.
• Pickled Red Pepper – My mouth is watering thinking about eating some pickled red pepper in my salad next time. Try it and see for yourself, but I think it’s delicious. 
• Provolone Cheese – I feel like you can never have too much cheese in a salad. Adding provolone gives it an extra scrumptious flavor that is undeniably incredible. 

🍱 Recipe FAQs

🍽️ More Salad Recipes

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