Eating a salad always sounds like a great idea—until it’s time to put it all together. For a dish composed of simple raw ingredients, it can take ages to prep your veggies, ready them, and toss them with a delicious dressing. And while you may be tempted to buy pre-cut foods to save you time, they often don’t keep for as long, making for more food wasted and less salad eaten.
Enter the salad chopper, an inexpensive kitchen tool that helps you pick up the pace in getting any kind of lettuce and other ingredients ready, whether that’s for salad or to cook into a meal. They’re available in many different forms, from classic mezzalunas to scissors that simultaneously cut and toss your ingredients together. There are even versions available that keep your hands away from the blade, making for family-friendly options that enable your kids to help.
Best Chopper
Mueller Pro-Series 10-in-1 Vegetable Chopper
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- Suitable for most vegetables
- Many shapes and sizes of cuts
- Storage container included
- Must disassemble to clean
- Instructions aren’t super helpful
For an all-in-one solution to your salad woes, the Mueller 10-in-1 vegetable chopper has every blade shape you need to slice, grate, and dice your day to an excellent salad. The different attachments make light work of romaine and iceberg as well as grated carrots, chopped onion, sliced cucumbers, minced garlic, and even sliced potatoes for homemade chips. A storage container and draining basket for washing foods are included.
Setup for this chopper isn’t difficult but is actually made more challenging by the instructions: They aren’t the clearest, and some parts it says to assemble come assembled already. It’s also unclear that to insert the grating and slicing disks, you need to slide them into the plastic holder from the side. Once you’re familiar with how to use the chopper, though, it’s an excellent time saver.
Dicing both small and large vegetables, such as a mirepoix for soup, is as easy as pressing down the lid. Grating and slicing will take longer than performing those tasks on a mandoline, as the blade is smaller, but it will be faster than using a microplane and safer than a box grater, thanks to the included guard. The result of all produce is even, tidy cuts every time, and while the blades won’t stay as sharp as those of a mandoline, we were very happy with how they held up over months of use.
Cleaning is simple, and you likely won’t even need to use the dishwasher because everything wipes up so quickly. We recommend giving it an especially good scrub when you cut darker vegetables, as the color can rub onto the light green plastic and stain.
Materials: Plastic and stainless steel | Weight: 2.83 pounds | Dishwasher-Safe: Yes
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Best Budget
Chef’n Salad Shears Lettuce Chopper
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- Needs little space for storage
- Easy to use
- Lightweight
- Material may scratch plastic bowls
The Chef’n Salad Shears are what you get when you combine a mezzaluna and a pair of salad scissors. It’s an interesting concept that not many brands make, but it works quickly and efficiently for chopping everything in your salad at once. The serrated blade is able to cut through tough foods, such as tomatoes, and the curved shape means that you can use it directly in the bowl you’ll serve your salad in—although it is sharp enough to scratch plastic bowls.
The rubber grips make it simple to hold this lightweight tool, and it can be used easily with just one hand. It’s a budget-conscious way to try out salad choppers, in case you’ve been on the fence about them.
Materials: Rubber, nylon | Weight: 5.6 ounces | Dimensions: 8.13 x 7 x 1.25 inches | Dishwasher-Safe: Yes
Best Scissors
Trudeau Toss and Chop Salad Tongs
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- Multifunctional design
- Convenient for storage
- Blade stays sharp
- Hard for some hands
Chop and toss your salad all at once with these Toss And Chop Salad Tongs. The two stainless steel blades have micro-serrated edges that stay sharp for years, and the chopper tongs can be used directly in your salad bowl.
Salad scissors are best used by those who have strong hands or at least don’t have any issues with hand pain. That’s because you’ll be using the strength of your hand to cut through entire produce items, such as tomatoes or cucumbers. The double blades make the process go twice as quickly as one blade would, though, so this isn’t an issue for most.
It can be difficult to clean scissors, but this pair is dishwasher-safe.
Materials: Plastic and stainless steel | Weight: 9.6 ounces | Dishwasher-Safe: Yes
Best Wheel
Oxo Good Grips Salad Chopper With Bowl
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- Non-slip handle
- Can slice tough foods
- Comes with 5.5-quart bowl
- Blades can get clogged
For fans of using pizza wheels to slice pizza, consider the OXO Good Grips Salad Chopper the kitchen tool you didn’t know you needed. It functions similarly to a pizza slicer, only thanks to the double blades, it works to cut up all kinds of lettuce and vegetables. The bowl it comes with is suitable for the chopper to cut directly in, which is helpful if you dislike making messes on the cutting board. We also love that the no-slip handle in OXO’s is in the iconic Good Grips fashion.
Once everything is cut to your satisfaction, you can toss and serve your salad directly in the bowl. We love that the soft handle on the chopper makes it less difficult for hands to hold. One tricky part about this salad chopper—the blades can get clogged and that requires a bit more attention and patience when cleaning. Luckily this tool is dishwasher-safe.
Materials: Plastic and stainless steel | Weight: 1 pound | Dishwasher-Safe: Yes
Best Mezzaluna
Fante’s Mamma Maria’s Rocking Mezzaluna Chopper
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- Made in Italy
- Classic appearance
- Ergonomic design
- Not family-friendly
Most of us aren’t equipped to make salad like an Italian grandma would, but Fante’s Double Mezzaluna will help you get as close as possible to a taste of the old world. The two rocking blades allow you to slice and dice your vegetables, as well as chop your lettuce, all on one cutting board. You can also use a mezzaluna directly in a salad bowl, provided the shape matches the curve of the bowl.
Because the blades of a mezzaluna are sharp and not too far away from your hands, always hold both handles of the device. Treat it as you would a sharp knife, and don’t consider it suitable for children.
Materials: Beechwood and stainless steel | Weight: 5.9 ounces | Dishwasher-Safe: No
Final Verdict
The Mueller Pro-Series 10-in-1 Vegetable Chopper is a great addition to any kitchen because it’s well-suited for every salad ingredient you’ll need to prep whether you want grated carrots or shredded lettuce. We also love the budget-friendly nature of the Chef’n SaladShears Lettuce Chopper, which functions somewhere between a mezzaluna and salad scissors.
What to Look for in a Salad Chopper
Blade Longevity
Most salad choppers involve a curved blade, and most are stainless steel. Many claim that the blade will last for years without issue, which is necessary because most aren’t a shape that can easily be sharpened. When selecting one, products that have reviewers agreeing with the longevity of the blade are a great bet.
Safety
For talented home chefs, a mezzaluna or slicing wheel can be safely navigated, but that may prove more challenging for beginner and younger cooks. If you’re opting for a salad chopper in part so that you don’t have to use a knife, pick one of the options that slices and dices with a push or scissor motion, so that you won’t have to come in close contact with a blade. Those are also the safer choices for older children who want to help in the kitchen.
Suitability
If all you need for chopping is something that can handle iceberg, nearly any chopper can be right for you. On the other hand, if you like numerous other ingredients in your salad and you want to be able to use one tool for all of them, be sure to select a salad chopper that can cut through tomatoes and zucchini as quickly and seamlessly as it can through romaine.
FAQs
How do you use a salad chopper?
There are some exceptions, but for most models, a salad chopper is used by taking the tool and moving it through the food you want to cut. You do this in the salad bowl directly or on a cutting board, depending on the type of device you’re using. For free-flowing tools (not the box style that you press), a salad chopper can be used repeatedly, back and forth, until your ingredients are as small as you want them.
How do you sharpen a salad chopper?
Some salad choppers can’t be sharpened. Those that can be, such as a mezzaluna, can be sharpened the same way you would sharpen a knife: with a steel or knife sharpener. You can also take them to a professional sharpener. Other salad choppers have micro-serrated blades that don’t need sharpening for several years.
What else can you use a salad chopper for?
You can use a salad chopper for many other culinary prep needs. Examples include making salsa, chopping vegetables for soup, mincing herbs, and preparing vegetables for sauces.
