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Our Family’s Favorite Salad

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Our Family's Favorite Salad is made with lots of artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, toasted pine nuts, and a zesty Parmesan vinaigrette. SO delicious, and always a crowd pleaser! | gimmesomeoven.com

Last week, I feel like Barclay and I took a very important step forward together in our relationship.

I introduced him to my family…

…’s favorite salad. ;)

Knowing his obsession already with big green salads (the guy amazingly chooses them more often than I do) and artichokes (hands-down one of his all-time favorite foods), I figured this one wouldn’t be a stretch. But still. This salad is a verrrrry important part of our family, showing up at nearly every extended family gathering, always being made in a huge batch so that everyone can return for seconds, and near and dear to every single family member’s heart. So I needed to know they would get along great.

Sure enough, it was a salad match made in heaven.

My original photo for this recipe, circa 2012, after our family made it for Christmas. :)

Of course, I knew it would be. ;)

Everyone loves this salad.

I think that my aunt is actually the one who came up with it years and years ago, and our entire family instantly fell in love with it. Either she or my mom would make it — and still make it to this day — for every just about every single holiday and occasion that the extended family gathers together. And anyone else who happens to be around almost always falls in love with it as well. I remember when my old band was on road trips together back in college, our bass player would request that we swing through Wichita at mealtime just so that he could have mom make this salad for us.

Again, everyone loves this salad.

Our Family's Favorite Salad is made with lots of artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, toasted pine nuts, and a zesty Parmesan vinaigrette. SO delicious, and always a crowd pleaser! | gimmesomeoven.com

And really, why wouldn’t they? The ingredients are pretty much a guaranteed slam-dunk. (And they’re also naturally gluten-free too!)

Our Family's Favorite Salad is made with lots of artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, toasted pine nuts, and a zesty Parmesan vinaigrette. SO delicious, and always a crowd pleaser! | gimmesomeoven.com

The classic family version calls for one head of red-leaf lettuce and one head of Romaine (or a few Romaine hearts)…

Our Family's Favorite Salad is made with lots of artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, toasted pine nuts, and a zesty Parmesan vinaigrette. SO delicious, and always a crowd pleaser! | gimmesomeoven.com

…artichoke hearts (one can, or two if you really want more), chopped roasted red peppers (or my mom used to use pimientos), toasted pine nuts (such a treat!), sliced red onions…
Our Family's Favorite Salad is made with lots of artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, toasted pine nuts, and a zesty Parmesan vinaigrette. SO delicious, and always a crowd pleaser! | gimmesomeoven.com

…and this heavenly Parmesan red wine vinaigrette.

Mom and Aunt Donna used to make this with that classic “Zesty Italian Dressing Mix” from Good Seasons, which we all used to love. But over the years, I’ve nixed the processed seasoning packet in favor of the copycat recipe I’ve included below, which includes 100% pronounceable ingredients and lots of fresh Parmesan. Mmmm.

Our Family's Favorite Salad is made with lots of artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, toasted pine nuts, and a zesty Parmesan vinaigrette. SO delicious, and always a crowd pleaser! | gimmesomeoven.com

Toss it all together…

Our Family's Favorite Salad is made with lots of artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, toasted pine nuts, and a zesty Parmesan vinaigrette. SO delicious, and always a crowd pleaser! | gimmesomeoven.com

…and give it a good mix…
Our Family's Favorite Salad is made with lots of artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, toasted pine nuts, and a zesty Parmesan vinaigrette. SO delicious, and always a crowd pleaser! | gimmesomeoven.com

…and within minutes, this big bowl of happiness will be yours to share.

So from my family to yours, enjoy.

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Our Family’s Favorite Salad

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.9 from 64 reviews
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Total Time: 15 minutes
  • Yield: 4 -6 servings 1x

Description

You will love this bright and colorful favorite family salad. This healthy goodness can be prepared in less than 10 minutes!


Ingredients

Scale

Salad Ingredients:

  • 1 head red-leaf lettuce, chopped into bite-sized pieces
  • 1 head Romaine lettuce, chopped into bite-sized pieces
  • half of a small red onion, peeled and thinly-sliced
  • 2 (14 ounce) jars quartered artichoke hearts, drained and roughly chopped
  • 1 (12 ounce) jar roasted red peppers, drained and diced
  • 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
  • 1 batch zesty red wine vinaigrette
  • optional garnish: extra freshly-grated Parmesan cheese

Zesty Red Wine Vinaigrette Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 cup red-wine vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, store-bought or homemade
  • 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly-cracked black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Instructions

To Make The Salad:

  1. Add all ingredients together in a large bowl, and toss until evenly combined.  Serve immediately, garnished with extra Parmesan cheese if desired.

To Make The Vinaigrette:

  1. Whisk all ingredients together until combined.  (Or add them together in a mason jar, and shake until combined.)  Use immediately.

Our Family's Favorite Salad is made with lots of artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, toasted pine nuts, and a zesty Parmesan vinaigrette. SO delicious, and always a crowd pleaser! | gimmesomeoven.com

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172 comments on “Our Family’s Favorite Salad”

  1. Forgot to take picture as we were too hungry. Have been making a similar version for many years as it was a favorite in St. Louis. Your version adds pine nuts – love it. We boycot palm products so I sub canned white asparagus pieces. I tweeked the dressing by adding 1/4 t. Dijon mustard and 1/4 c. orange juice and 1/4 t. Italian herb mix. Thanks for sharing. Love your recipes.






  2. Perfect for a warm evening






  3. Loved the salad!! I plan to make it again! Can you save the leftover dressing in the frig to use later in the week?

  4. It had really good flavor. Definitely a do again.






  5. This is now my family’s favorite salad too! We even love it the next day when it’s a little soggy.






  6. I haven’t made the salad yet. My crush and I are going on a picnic in a couple of days and I’m trying to find a yummy salad to make and the comments have won me over! Looking forward to making it!!






  7. Can you make the dressing in advance?

  8. You are so right…this salad starts out as yum and the next thing you know, you’re hooked and making it 3x in one week…and then buying the ingredients to do it again.






  9. Time on my hands during quarantine is being directed toward cooking dinner for my family. Something I never had time to do. After a huge hit with gimme some oven chicken enchiladas, and many, many fails using other recipe searches, I’m sticking with gimme some oven! Always great! Thank you!






  10. Just fabulous!! I added kalamata olives but otherwise followed exactly It’s a great salad






  11. I honestly have not made any other salad since I found this. I have done slight variations such as using kale and/or spring mixed greens, topping with blue cheese crumbles and dried cranberries. The dressing NEVER changes. Thank you so much for sharing.






  12. I made this last weekend for guests and they loved it. I will definitely make it again!






  13. I made this salad yesterday for dinner, it is by far the best salad that I have eaten ! I can’t wait to make it again tonight !! Thank you for the recipe it is delicious! I plan on serving this for Father’s Day will lots of grilled meats!! Thank you , judy Royal






  14. This salad is completely irresistible! Since discovering this recipe I have made it weekly and devour it all by myself usually within a day. The proportions and flavor combination is perfect.






  15. This recipe was absolutely amazing. Made it last night for my son and daughter in law and she said “don’t forget about this recipe, it was amazing”. I just made it again tonight for my husband and I. We ate the same amount we made for the four of us. Exceptional! The flavors combined so very well.






  16. Needed to use up the peppers I’d roasted and found this recipe. I also added feta crumbles. Absolutely delicious salad.






  17. I am making this today for a birthday party. I made the dressing, but are the amounts correct? I feel like it was so thick, no pourable like in your picture. I added more vinegar and oil to try and offset the parmesan, b/c it just all soaked up. Anybody else have this trouble? Regardless, I can’t wait to try the salad!! Love all your recipes, thanks for all you do!

  18. My daughter makes this all of the time. I love it and have decided to make it for my ladies night out party.






  19. When ever we have company over, this is the salad I make. The roasted red peppers and artichoke hearts are ingredients people don’t expect. Everyone’s face lights up with satisfaction when eating this salad.

    It’s our favorite as well.






  20. delicious salad for the husband and I. seriously simple but so yummy! paired well with our pasta dish! definitely will be a go to when we have guest over! thank you






  21. That’s it! A salad is a salad. yummy! Lauren

  22. this salad is absolutely amazing, i eat it at least a few times a week and i’m so glad i found this recipe! this is the ultimate salad !!






  23. I made the potato soup today and it turned out perfectly and it was oh my goodness delicious. I had been craving it for a while but, had never made it before. Thank you very much for this great recipe.

  24. This was SO GOOD! I can see why this is your family’s favorite salad. Thank you for sharing it with us.






  25. Loved this recipe. Will make it again. Thank you

  26. Love this salad! I have used it now as a side dish at our holiday party because it looks so nice in a glass salad bowl. Made for teacher appreciation luncheon and was asked for link to your recipe. This salad gets compliments each time I make it and I continually send people your way – thank you so much!






  27. My question is, are we using canned or marinated jarred artichokes? One time you say 2-12oz. Jars. When telling us about this salad you said 1 can 2 if you like more.

  28. I made this salad today for a lady’s lunch at church. It was very well received. It was easy to put together.

  29. This has become my go-to “party trick”. I bring it to every dinner, party and potluck and people just RAVE about how good it is! My 15-year old neighbor just asked me to make it for her birthday, so it’s so good even the kids love it! This has a permanent spot on my favorite recipes list!

  30. This looks delicious! I plan on making this for my Bunco party.
    Do you use marinated artichoke hearts in recipe?

  31. Would it work to add shrimp to the salad? I need a pescatarian protein option :-)

  32. Delicious and easy to put together!






  33. Delicious! I had to substitute avocado oil for the olive oil, but otherwise made it exactly as written. I ate it for dinner and it was very filling, but I also think it would make a perfect meal with a piece of grilled fish on top. Thanks!






  34. Excellent, make this all the time, especially when having guests.






  35. Great salad!






  36. I love this salad and the dressing which I prefer on most of my salads. Anytime I serve this to guests, they want the recipe. I serve many of your salads. Love them. Thank you.