This keto antipasto salad piles salty salami, pepperoni, smoked gouda, and mozzarella over roasted asparagus in a tangy red wine vinegar and dijon dressing. 3.6g net carbs, 19.6g protein. It's my Italian charcuterie board turned weekday lunch.
I started making this when I realized I was spending too much time arranging charcuterie boards for myself at lunch. Same ingredients, just spread across a cutting board instead of tossed in a bowl. Once I combined everything with a red wine vinegar and dijon dressing, it became the keto lunch I come back to more than almost anything else on this site.
The thing that sets this apart is the smoked gouda. I’ve tested it with regular gouda, with aged provolone, with fresh mozzarella alone. The smoked gouda is what makes the dressing cling to everything and gives the whole bowl a warm, almost smoky depth. The mozzarella is there for texture (those soft cubes between bites of salami), but the gouda is what carries the whole flavor.
I roast the asparagus separately at 350 for about 15 minutes, then let it cool completely before tossing it in. Warm asparagus dropped into cold salami and cheese makes everything sweat, and nobody wants that. Once cooled, it adds this snappy, slightly charred bite that cuts through all the rich meat and cheese. If you like that roasted vegetable angle, my bacon wrapped asparagus kebabs use a similar technique.
This is one of those low carb salads that actually fills you up. At around 3.6 net carbs per serving, you’re getting serious protein and fat from the cured meats and cheeses, which means I’m not starving an hour later. It keeps well for 3-4 days in the fridge. If you’re building a rotation of keto salads, pair this with my caprese salad for another Italian option.
I won’t pretend this is the cheapest salad I make. Quality salami, pepperoni, smoked gouda, and fresh mozzarella add up. But this recipe makes 8 servings, which means I get 3-4 lunches out of one batch for roughly what I’d spend on a single restaurant salad. That math works for me every time. To trim the cost, I buy salami and pepperoni by weight at the deli counter and look for mozzarella in larger blocks. The one place I don't cut corners is the smoked gouda.
One of my readers told me she used to eat Italian meat-and-cheese platters constantly before going keto and thought that chapter of her life was just over. She made this on a whim, had it three days in a row, and said it made her realize she hadn’t actually given anything up. That stuck with me. That’s the whole point of what I do here. The food has to taste like the real thing, not like a compromise.
If you used to make traditional Italian antipasto with pasta on the side, this is the version that replaced it for me. For an Italian-themed spread, I like serving this alongside my hearts of palm pasta, which scratches the pasta itch without the carbs. For potlucks, I bring this with my keto macaroni salad so there are a couple of options on the table.
The salami, pepperoni, smoked gouda, mozzarella, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, roasted red pepper, olives, and roasted asparagus, ready to toss together.
Swap the Meats or Add Extras
The salami and pepperoni are easy to swap. I have used prosciutto, capicola, and sopressata in their place. Prosciutto is more delicate than salami, so I slice it into ribbons instead of cubes, and capicola brings a peppery kick.
Prepare the asparagus by tossing it in olive oil and salt and pepper in a ziplock bag. Spread on a baking tray and bake or grill at 350 for 15 minutes. Set aside to cool.
3
Mix it all together
Prepare the salad ingredients and mix together in a bowl. Add dressing. Stir to combine.
Nutrition
Per serving: 1/8 of recipe
Calories
412
Fat
37.1g
Protein
19.6g
Total carbs
7.3g
Net carbs
3.6g
Nutrition is an estimate calculated from the ingredients listed. Brands vary, so check labels if you track closely.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is antipasto salad keto?
This one is. Antipasto salads start from a good place for keto since they are built on cured meats, cheeses, and olives, but a lot of versions add pasta or a sweetened dressing that pushes the carbs up. My version skips the pasta entirely and uses a red wine vinegar and dijon dressing, so it comes in at 3.6g net carbs and 19.6g protein per serving. It's one of the most filling low carb salads I make.
What can I substitute for smoked gouda?
I'm protective of this one. I tested regular gouda, aged provolone, and pepper jack in the same dressing, and smoked gouda is the only one that gave everything that warm, smoky depth. Regular gouda tastes flat by comparison. If you truly can't find it, aged provolone is the closest I've gotten, but the flavor will be sharper and less rounded. Cube it roughly the same size as your mozzarella so every forkful gets both textures.
What can I use instead of red wine vinegar?
I've made the dressing with apple cider vinegar and white wine vinegar, and both are fine. Apple cider gives it a slightly sweeter, mellower flavor. White wine vinegar keeps things closer to the original but a touch lighter. I come back to red wine vinegar every time because it has a boldness that stands up to all the meat and cheese. Whatever you choose, keep the same ratio.
How do I meal prep this salad?
I make a full batch on Sunday and eat it through Wednesday, which is 3 days of low carb lunches from one prep session. The trick is keeping the dressing in a separate jar. If you dress everything at once, the meats release moisture by day two and the asparagus gets limp. I learned that the hard way. Portion the salami, pepperoni, cheeses, olives, and roasted red pepper into containers, and they hold up without issues. The tomatoes soften first, so I add those fresh each day. I prep my jalapeno popper salad the same way and alternate between the two for weekday lunches.
Can I make this dairy-free?
I've made it without cheese and it's still a solid salad, just a different one. The smoked gouda and mozzarella provide a lot of the richness, so without them I add extra olives, more artichoke hearts, and a sliced avocado to fill that gap. I haven't found a dairy-free cheese that works well cold in a salad like this, so my advice is to skip the substitute and load up on the other ingredients. If you want a naturally dairy-free option, my asian cucumber salad doesn't need any swaps.
Can I add lettuce or arugula to bulk this up?
I've tossed this over arugula a few times when I wanted more volume. Arugula is my pick because the peppery bite matches the Italian flavors better than romaine or mixed greens, which tend to disappear under all the meat and cheese. Add the greens to individual servings rather than the whole batch, because dressed greens wilt fast and you lose that crunch by day two. I usually do a couple handfuls per bowl and let the meats and cheeses sit on top.
confession: I’ve been doubling the red pepper flakes since batch one and I’m on batch five now. the extra heat makes the pepperoni cut through all the fat in a way the original amount just doesn’t. I keep telling myself I’ll go back to the recipe as written. I haven’t.
The gouda goes fast. I started cutting the cubes bigger just to slow that down, not because it looks better but because it’s harder to casually steal a dozen pieces than thirty tiny ones. The smokiness is why. I tested regular gouda and aged provolone in the same dressing and neither had that pull. Your husband found the right cheese to be obsessed with.
I’ve been making antipasto salads for years and they always end up tasting a bit one-note. Something about roasting the asparagus first changes the whole thing, and the smoked gouda keeps it from going too acidic with the red wine vinegar dressing. This is the version I go back to now.
I used to do a big Italian spread every Christmas Eve before I went keto, and I thought that whole tradition was just done. Made this last Sunday and the first bite with that red wine vinegar dressing hit me so unexpectedly I got a little teary. It tastes like exactly what I’ve been missing for two years, just without the bread. Making this for every gathering from here on out.
I put this together on a weeknight just to use up the deli drawer, and my son who treats salad like a garnish started picking through the bowl for salami before it was even dressed. Once everything was tossed with the red wine vinegar and dijon, he sat down and actually made it a full meal. That dressing is what gets it (the dijon against the smoked gouda does something interesting). Double batch next time for sure.
A salami-first kid is a good sign. And yeah, the smoked gouda is what makes the dijon hit differently here, something about that smokiness against the acid that regular gouda just doesn’t do.
Threw in kalamata olives and some pepperoncini because I had a jar open, and the brine bled into the dressing in a way I wasn’t planning on. It made the whole thing sharper (the red wine vinegar plus pepperoncini juice really amplifies the acid), which cut through the salami and gouda better than I expected. Already doing it at this ratio on purpose now.
The brine bleeding into the dressing is one of those things I didn’t plan for either but makes total sense once you taste it. That extra acid against the salami is exactly the right push.
Made this three times, and the first two batches I was tossing the dressing in right before eating and couldn’t figure out why it seemed flat. A few minutes of rest and the salami and mozzarella actually soak it up. Big difference. Also swapped smoked gouda for provolone because my store was out. Works fine, but the smokiness is probably worth tracking down next time. The dijon and red wine vinegar combo is tangier than I expected, so start with less dressing and build from there. On my fourth batch this week, adding olives.
My kids called this ‘charcuterie salad’ (they’ve been on a TikTok board obsession) and fought over the smoked gouda before I even finished plating, so double batch next time is non-negotiable. That roasted asparagus tossed in the red wine vinegar dressing was the detail they kept coming back to, asking what the ‘extra flavor’ was.
Roasting the asparagus first is what does it. It absorbs that red wine vinegar dressing differently than everything else in the bowl. ‘Charcuterie salad’ is a better name.
This was really pretty great. Nice combination of ingredients. The sauce could maybe be better, but not quite sure how. I made everything essentially as listed except my package of salami was 4oz instead of 5oz, and I used regular Gouda instead of smoked (my wife hates smoked cheeses).
The recipe didn’t include the total size of the dish or portion sizes, which was a little annoying, so I loaded into into Chronometer (my macro tracker of choice) and found it to be 1,219.1g or 152g/serving if divided 8 ways (when set to 5oz salami). The macros for 1 serving with the ingredients I used were 19g protein, 3.9g net carbs, 5.2g total carbs, 36.6g fat, 434 calories. Pretty darn close to what’s listed here.
Anyway, thanks for the recipe, I really enjoyed it.
The regular gouda probably explains some of the sauce thing. Smoked gives the whole dressing more depth, regular kind of sits flat next to the red wine vinegar. Try upping the dijon to 2 tablespoons if you make it again.
