Chopped Salad in Lettuce Cups

Now, I can make many different versions of salads to put into these lettuce cups. From ... Cobb, Mediterranean, chopped, traditional, lettuce tomato, onion ... or you can make a all vegetable salad, a Mexican black bean and corn salad, fruit salad, chicken, shrimp or crab salad. The method is the same. But I love serving these at dinner parties. My last one I served a version of a caesar salad and put them in lettuce cups and served at a dinner party. They were a big hit. So, my favorite is a simple chopped salad, I love the traditional version for this.

• Ready In: 15 mins
• Serves: 8-10
• Yields: 8-10 Lettuce Cups

Ingredients

• 8  lettuce leaves (you can use radicchio, bibb, boston, or anything you like)

• Salad

• 2  cups  chopped iceberg lettuce
• 2  plum tomatoes, diced (slightly seeded)
• 2  hard-boiled eggs, diced
• 1⁄4 cup  chopped bacon
• 1  small red onion, diced
• 1⁄2 cup cucumber, diced (skin on)
• 1⁄4  sup sliced black olives

• Dressing

• 1⁄4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1⁄2 cup olive oil
• 1 1⁄2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1⁄2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1⁄2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1⁄4 teaspoon  minced garlic
•  salt
•  pepper

Directions

1. Dressing -- Add all the ingredients and mix well. Just set to the side.
2. Salad -- In a large bowl add all the ingredients and toss well. Now remember -- you can add anything, these are just my favorites. Make IT YOUR salad. I just like to chop well so it is easy to fit into the lettuce leaves.
3. Toss and Fill -- I just like to toss the chopped salad with a little of the dressing, not too heavy and then fill into the lettuce leaves. My favorite is radicchio or bibb, but you can use any type of leaf you want. You can also secure the leaf with a tooth pic too which is fun and then serve small cups of extra dressing on the side.
4. Now if you are a buttermilk type dressing by all means, or a balsamic dressing. You can really use your favorites here. It is more the method and the technique which just makes it really fun to serve at parties. Just have fun with them.