This Italian Antipasto Salad Recipe is the perfect flavorful salad - it's got all your favorite antipasto ingredients but in a yummy salad - kale, olives, artichokes, marinated vegetables, cucumber, tomato, salami, and cheeses, tossed with a tangy antipasto dressing. Oh my, it's so good.
This low-carb keto antipasto salad recipe has only 4g net carbs, tastes amazing, and tons of flavor! Bonus: it's also gluten-free and has no added sugar. What's not to love? 🙂
Watch Antipasto Salad Recipe Video
If you love Italian-style salads be sure to give Easy Caprese Salad with Cherry Tomatoes a try. Zesty Italian Pasta Salad is another really delicious one to try! You can make it with pasta or make it low carb with cauliflower.
Why You'll Love This Antipasto Salad Platter
Loaded with flavor! This salad is LOADED with flavor - iIt reminds me of all the good parts of an Italian sub sandwich, minus the bread. 🙂 Like a chopped Italian salad with homemade vinaigrette! So delicious.
It's Beautiful. This is a gorgeous salad and makes a great presentation when laid out on a platter. Take this to a party and people will ooh and aah! 🙂
So Easy. Antipasto salad is an easy salad to put together. Really it's just some chopping involved and you can add a little more or less of certain ingredients, or you can sub out for things you don't like for ingredients you do!
It's Healthy. Like, gluten-free, low carb and keto. Why not call it the anti-pasta antipasto salad? 🙂 It fits, right? No pasta is used in this version, and with 19 grams of fat and only 4 grams of net carbs - you've got the perfect keto antipasto salad recipe!
Ingredients in Antipasto Salad
Here's what you'll need to make this delicious Italian antipasto salad recipe:
Antipasto Salad Ingredients
- Kale: regular kale can be thinly sliced (stems removed) or romaine lettuce can be used.
- Roasted Red Peppers - buy jarred roasted red peppers for convenience!
- Artichoke Hearts
- Cucumber
- Grape Tomatoes: use whole diced or cherry tomatoes.
- Red Onion
- Olives: I like pitted green olives such as castelvetrano or kalamata olives.
- Sliced Pepperoncini Peppers
- Genoa Salami: use can use any favorite Italian-style cured meats, genoa is one of my favorites! It can be sliced or cubed.
- Fresh Mozzarella Pearls: if you can't find the small pearls (or small round balls of mozzarella, cube regular whole milk mozzarella). Cubed provolone or feta cheese may also be added.
- Shredded Parmesan Cheese
- Fresh Basil
Dressing For Antipasto Salad
You'll love this delicious Italian vinaigrette! Use it on any green salad - not just this recipe! 😉
- Extra Virgin Olive oil
- Red Wine Vinegar: lemon juice can be substitute for the red wine vinegar.
- Fresh Garlic
- Italian Seasoning
- Sweetener: use regular sugar, or a 1:1 sugar substitute such as granulated monk fruit sweetener
- Kosher Salt
- Ground Black Pepper
How To Make Italian Antipasto Salad
1. In a small bowl add olive oil, red wine vinegar, minced garlic, Italian seasoning, sweetener, salt, and pepper. Whisk together and set aside.
2. Layer kale, roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, red onion, green olives, pepperoncini, salami, mozzarella, parmesan, and fresh basil in a large bowl.
3. Pour dressing over the salad and toss ingredients until coated.
Hint: Did you know you can make it an antipasto pasta salad? Cook cheese tortellini until al dente, rinse and cool. Add the cooked and cooled pasta to the salad and toss to coat.
4. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate for a few hours to blend flavors.
What to Serve With Antipasto Salad
Italian antipasto salad can really be a meal unto itself, but if halved or serving a crowd, here are some delicious recipes to serve with it:
Garnish with fresh basil and extra parmesan cheese.
Serve with breadsticks, crusty bread, or rolls.
Meal idea! If serving a crowd, serve your salad alongside Dry Rub Grilled Chicken, Juicy Grilled Ribeye Steaks or these super easy baby back ribs. If you don't feel like getting out the grill, serve with this Italian stuffed meatloaf.
Top Tips
Here are some great tips for making this salad perfect!
- If possible serve salad on a platter with sides for easy serving.
- Use sturdy lettuce, not one prone to wilting. Romaine lettuce is a great option. Even though it's not lettuce, I used kale in this salad. If you are serving right away use romaine. If you want to make this salad ahead of time use kale. Kale lasts longer and can easily handle the dressing without wilting.
- If you use kale, I found that tossing the salad with dressing and refrigerating for a bit allows the flavors to blend together perfectly! Kale is "stiffer" it can hold up to the heavy ingredients and the dressing without wilting! Perfect make-ahead salad!
- Feel free to substitute any marinated vegetables, olives, cheeses, salami, or fresh vegetables that you like. Make sure to balance marinated vegetables with fresh vegetables, so the marinated taste does not overpower the salad.
- Because there is so much variation in seasoning and taste with marinated vegetables, you may need to adjust your sweetener up or down. If the salad is too tangy, add sweetener to offset the tanginess. In addition, adjust a little at a time as it is always easy to add, but not so easy to take out! Is the Salad is too vinegary for your liking? Add a little sweetener or add more fresh vegetables.
- If you're not following a low carb or keto diet, feel free to add 2 to 3 cups of pre-cooked (and cooled) tortellini.
FAQs
Yes! For sure. I recommend that you add about 2 to 3 cups of al dente cook spiral pasta, tortellini, or other favorite pasta. Make sure to cool before adding. Also, you make need to make extra dressing or adjust your seasonings. Add enough dressing to coat, even if you don't use all the dressing - you can save some for a green salad later.
Antipasto is a traditional first course meal in Italy, which usually includes marinated vegetables, salami, cheese, olives, etc. This salad on a platter version is made using similar ingredients to the platter, but the ingredients are chopped, mixed with lettuce, and tossed with dressing.
You can substitute more of the marinated vegetables and reduce the amount of cheese and salami in this recipe. Besides, using leaner meat instead of salami will lower the fat in this recipe too.
Yes! For every teaspoon of dried herbs the rule of thumb is 1 tablespoon of fresh herbs. While the recipe calls for 3 teaspoons of dried, so use approximately 3 tablespoons of fresh.
Italian seasoning typically consists of rosemary, thyme, oregano, sage, basil, marjoram, and savory. To make it easy, I use 1 tablespoon each of 3 of those herbs (usually basil, thyme, oregano, or rosemary - cause I grow them in my garden).
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📖 The recipe.
Italian Antipasto Salad
Ingredients
Salad
- 4 to 5 cups kale thinly sliced (or romaine)
- 1 cup roasted red peppers drained
- 1 cup artichoke hearts drained and cut into bite-size pieces
- 1 cup cucumber peeled and cut into bite-size pieces
- 1 cup tomatoes diced or cherry
- ½ cup red onion halved and then thinly sliced
- 1 cup pitted olives green olives or kalamata olives
- ¼ cup pepperoncini drained and sliced
- 8 ounces genoa salami cut into 1/4 to 1/2" cubes
- 8 ounces mozzarella pearls
- ¼ cup parmesan cheese grated
- ¼ cup basil fresh (torn or chiffonade)
Dressing For Antipasto Salad
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- 3½ tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons garlic minced
- 3 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1 tablespoon sweetener Sugar or a 1:1 sugar substitute such as granulated monk fruit sweetener
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper pepper
Instructions
- In a small bowl add olive oil, red wine vinegar, minced garlic, Italian seasoning, sweetener, salt, and pepper. Whisk together and set aside.
- In a large bowl layer kale, roasted bell pepper, artichoke hearts, cucumber, tomatoes, red onion, green olives (or kalamata olives), pepperoncini, salami, mozzarella, parmesan, and fresh basil.
- Pour dressing over the salad and toss ingredients until coated.
- Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate for a few hours to blend flavors.
Video
Kori's Tips
- Feel free to substitute any marinated vegetables, olives, cheeses, salami, or fresh vegetables that you like. Make sure to balance marinated vegetables with fresh vegetables, so the marinated taste does not overpower the salad.
- Because there is so much variation in seasoning and taste with marinated vegetables, you may need to adjust your sweetener up or down. If the salad is too tangy, add sweetener to offset the tanginess.
- If you're not following a low-carb diet, feel free to add in 2 to 3 cups of pre-cooked (and cooled) tortellini! You may need to make extra dressing or adjust seasonings to accommodate the pasta, however.
- Don't miss our other helpful tips and serving ideas in our post!
Nutrition
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More Salad Recipes
Here are some more delicious salad recipes I think you'll LOVE:
- Italian Dressing Recipe
- Grilled Shrimp Salad Recipe
- Thai Peanut Salad
- Blue Cheese Wedge Salad Recipe
- Best Greek Salad Recipe
- Hawaiian Chicken Salad
- Layered Salad
- Grilled Romaine Hearts
- Pickle Pasta Salad
- Feta Watermelon Arugula Salad
The best Antipasto salad! All your favorite antipasto ingredients - but in a yummy salad! Made with both fresh and marinated vegetables, salami, cheese over a bed of kale tossed with a tangy antipasto salad dressing - YUM. A perfect salad for a crowd or a main dish meal. Antipasto platter salad is a low carb keto salad. It is a healthy salad recipe that everyone can enjoy.
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