If you’ve ever wandered to downtown State College looking for a quick, healthy meal, you’ve probably walked into Fiddlehead on College Ave. Known for their bottomless salads, this soup & salad cafe is a go-to spot for any student looking to avoid the Chipotle line.
But have you ever actually looked at your receipt before grabbing a fork and digging in?
Their salads range from $7.25 - $12.75, not including tax. And if you want to design your own salad, the toppings (and price) are seemingly limitless.
$10+ for like...a lot of lettuce? This week I set out to see if I could make one of their salads for cheaper than the menu price. In the spirit of fall, I chose their seasonal salad, the Harvest Salad.
(One note, I personally substituted tofu for turkey, but it doesn’t change the price of the salad, and actually your DIY salad will be cheaper per serving.)
Fiddlehead Harvest Salad - $10.35
Kale & Spring Mix Blend
Roasted Turkey or Tofu
Sweet Potato Chips
Roasted Corn
Pepitas
Dried Cranberries
Apple Cider Vinaigrette
Then I headed to Giant, and picked up the same ingredients.
DIY Version (cost per serving): $5.14
$0.89 Bunch of organic kale
$1.50 Nature’s Promise Spring Mix Blend
$0.91 Nature’s Promise Tofu
$0.10 Sweet Potato (for Sweet Potato Chips)
$0.28 Green Giant Whole Kernel Sweet Corn
$0.67 Giant Brand Pepitas
$0.60 Giant Brand Dried Cranberries
$0.19 Ken’s Apple Cider Vinaigrette
So here's how to make the salad: slice the sweet potato into thin "chips" and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes. Cook the meat/tofu as desired. Lastly, throw it all in a big bowl and toss with dressing. And guess what? My DIY version was literally half the price.
Let's be clear, I still loooove Fiddlehead, and yeah, there is some effort involved (really the hardest part is cooking the meat/tofu and sweet potato chips, and even all that takes less than 15 minutes).
But if you’re a stingy college student like me, this will save you big time in the long run.
....while still taking a solid half hour to make a dent in that salad.