The Chopping Technique You Need For Scoopable Caesar Salad

Caesar salads are typically eaten with forks, but one way to liven up all that chomping is to scoop them up with some kind of edible vessel. To achieve that (and actually get salad into your mouth), you'll need to chop up your romaine lettuce into smaller bite-size pieces than is typical, but that's easy enough. To start, place the romaine head vertically on the cutting board and use a sharp chef's knife to slice down the middle of it. Then, cut out the tough core at the bottom of each half by making a triangle shape into it, and then toss that out.

Depending on how small you want your romaine to be, you can make two or three evenly spaced lengthwise cuts (if you do three, slice down the middle of the lettuce rib so you break that up to eliminate chunky bites). Rotate the pieces so that they're now horizontal on the cutting board, and cut through them vertically. How thin you make the strips is totally up to you and your bite preference, but if you really want to make the pieces scoopable, something closer to a chiffonade is best.

When it comes to dipping and scooping, tortilla chips are king. They're crunchy and salty but also tend to be sturdier than potato chips, making them the perfect vessel for your chopped up salad. Kettle chips are also more robust than your typical Lay's, and they provide a nice riff on the Caesar salad and fries trend (being that they're both made from potatoes). You could also use bagel chips, Texas toast, or even a slice of pizza, provided the crust is rigid enough to hold everything (again, riffing of an Internet trend, you could combine the two with the Caesar salad pizza with chicken crust).

Did you know that it's technically incorrect to eat Caesar salad with a fork? In its first iteration in the 1920s in Mexico, the lettuce leaves were dressed with the toppings and then picked up and eaten. You could totally replicate this with some lettuce-on-lettuce scooping. For more low-carb ideas, you might also use hollowed out cucumber boats, cucumber slices, or thick chunks of bell pepper. In keeping with the Caesar salad theme, you could also bake or air fry your own Parmesan cheese chips.