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Intuitively, salads are healthy and low calorie, but we have to be careful about adding ingredients like meat, cheese, olives, and bacon that bring up the fat count even before the dressing goes on. Or avocados. Of course, olives, avocados, and nuts contain the good fats, but a calorie is a calorie.
All that said, if the salad is your entree, it's likely to have fewer calories than a hamburger.
A chopped salad is one where all the ingredients have been cut down to a fairly uniform size - 1/2 inch cubes. And served very cold.
There's a good recipe at: herborvacious - Chopped Salad - Revisiting a Classic
Chopped Salad Dressing
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon prepared mustard (Dijon)
1 small clove garlic, minced
Diced cucumber
Quartered grape tomatoes
Chopped pitted kalamata olives
Chopped parsley
Finely diced red onion
1 can garbanzo beans, cut in half to size of other ingredients
Romaine, chopped medium fine (see below)
Feta cheese
(Diced roasted beets)
(Sliced peperoncini)
(Dried cranberries)
(A few walnut halves)
Salt the cucumber and tomatoes and let stand in a strainer for 30 minutes. Put the oil and vinegar in the bowl and add the vegetables. Toss.
For chopping the romaine, the above web site suggests:
"The classic leaf for a chopped salad is romaine lettuce hearts. You can use some of the dark greens as well, but the ribs provide the structure that keeps the salad in cubes with some airspace, instead of collapsing into a mass of slimy leaves. A fantastic way to cut romaine is to make some lengthwise incisions, leaving the base intact, before cutting across the leaves at 1/2" intervals. Three of these lengthwise cuts is great for a normal salad, but for a chopped salad try five."
And make sure the lettuce is dry by using a salad spinner. No spinner? Wash it ahead of time, roll it in paper towels or a clean dish towel and store in a plastic bag in the refrigerator overnight. Should be dry and crisp.
