What Is A Spoon Salad, And Is It Worth The Extra Cutting?

Chances are you may have encountered a spoon salad at some point without knowing it — there isn't much difference between a chopped salad and a spoon salad. TikTok has sent spoon salads viral, so it's really just the latest way to describe a well-chopped salad. While the name might sound silly, it just means a salad that can be eaten with a spoon rather than a fork, since the ingredients are diced finely enough that you don't need to bother with the tines of a fork for retrieval. There are some salads, like this creamy ditalini pasta salad, that are already chopped finely enough to be eaten with a spoon. Other salads, like a grilled strawberry balsamic chicken and spinach salad, only need a bit of additional knifework to become a superstar spoon salad.

A dessert spoon is easier to scoop up food with rather than stabbing around with a fork repeatedly in your salad bowl, hoping to skewer a chunk of cheese or slice of meat. With a spoon salad, everything is cut up so well that you get consistent spoonfuls featuring every ingredient with every bite, which is the ideal salad eating experience. Take a steak salad, for example: Normally you'd find large leaves of lettuce and maybe a few other chunky vegetables underneath big slices of beef. With a steak spoon salad, everything is chopped into very small pieces, so that there's no need to deal with cutting the meat as you eat the salad, letting you enjoy every spoonful hassle-free.

A spoon salad differs from a standard salad because there's no need for a knife or fork to consume it. The extra cutting beforehand, though minimal, will give you a chance to improve your knife skills as you practice small cuts. If you're reluctant to do all that knifework, may we suggest the pizza cutter hack for simple chopped salad right in the bowl. The benefits of a spoon salad are that all the work is done ahead of the serving and eating, so all you have to do is scoop each bite rather than using a knife and fork to try to assemble each bite. 

In theory, every salad has the potential to be a spoon salad if you cut things small enough, and we firmly believe that it's worth taking the time to properly chop veggies for salad. You want to think past bite-sized and go smaller, cutting things about the size of a pinky nail so that many of the ingredients can all fit together easily on your spoon. For the best results, everything should be mixed up very thoroughly before serving, tossing the dressing well and ensuring that each bite will be well-seasoned and flavorful.

If it's not having a decent chopping knife that's stopping you from making a spoon salad, it may be time to invest in a set, like these Brewin Professional Kitchen Knives, not forgetting to read up on everything you need to know about keeping your knives sharp, too.