Grinder Salad

A Grinder Salad is a light and fresh side salad made with all the flavors and ingredients of a grinder sandwich! Load it up with all of your deli sandwich favorites then you’ve got a delicious side dish to chicken, burgers, steaks and more! Whip this up in about 20 minutes and you’re ready to eat.

WHAT IS A GRINDER?

Some call it a sub, some call it a hoagie or a hero, and some call it a grinder! A grinder is essentially a long deli sandwich loaded with Italian meats and cheeses, some sort of zesty dressing, oil and vinegar, lettuce, tomatoes, and onions. Of course there can be variations but this is the core foundation of a decent grinder sandwich.

A little while back you might have seen the viral TikTok recipe of the grinder salad sandwich. Well this recipe is a different spin taking all the elements of that tasty sandwich and making into a chopped side dish salad. The best way I can describe this is like a loaded pasta salad met up with coleslaw and they combined and kicked the noodles out. It’s really like a loaded slaw!

INGREDIENTS

Here’s the thing, you can use whatever commination is your favorite or whatever you normally use on your sandwich! I really liked these flavor pairings below for this recipe!

FOR THE SALAD

• Chopped Iceberg lettuce, you can chop it yourself but I love how easy it is to use this shredded lettuce.
• Salami
• Canadian bacon or thick cut ham
• Swiss cheese
• Red onions
• Roma tomatoes

FOR THE DRESSING

Then you’ll make a dressing to bring this whole salad together! For the dressing the ingredients you’ll use are:

• Mayo
• Red wine vinegar
• Pickle juice, you can buy these little pickle packets since we’re only using a little juice here!
• Pepper
• Garlic powder
• Italian seasoning

FOR THE PANKO TOPPING

Lastly, let’s talk about the toasted Panko topping. It really adds a nice finishing crunch to the dish and adds welcomed texture. Here’s what you need:

• Panko breadcrumbs
• Cooking spray
• Garlic powder and salt

Once you’ve got everything sliced, diced, and mixed it’s as easy as throwing everything together in one big bowl and stirring to combine.

You might notice there’s no additional salt in the dressing. I found that the sodium in the pickle juice and the saltiness of the salami and ham give this enough added salt. When I tested the dressing the first time I added some salt and WHOA…too much. So skip it and just taste at the end and salt as needed!

PREPARATION AND STORAGE

This is best served right away after you combine everything together. Letting it sit too long or storing this in the fridge is going to lead to a soggy salad. No thanks.

So if you’re serving this at a party or bringing it to a party, just keep the lettuce in one bowl, the dressing in another, and the chopped fixings in another bowl. Right before you’re ready to eat just mix everything together then top with the Panko so you have a super fresh and super crisp grinder salad.

That also goes to say, this won’t be great as leftovers once it’s all combined. So again if you’re making this for make-ahead lunches of dinners during the week keep everything separate and then just combine before you want to eat some.

WHAT TO SERVE WITH A GRINDER SALAD

I think this could be the salad of the summer and pairs well with so many dishes because the flavors won’t overpower a main dish. Here’s a few ideas on what to serve with this!

• Beef burgers or chicken burgers
• Steaks
• Baked BBQ Chicken
• Kabobs
• Grilled chicken

Want more side dishes? Check out a few more of my favorites here on the blog!

Taco pasta salad
Mexican corn pasta salad
French dressing pasta salad
Buffalo chicken pasta salad
Chicken salad pasta salad

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