Salad

A salad platter.

Part of the Meals series

Common meals

Breakfast · Brunch · Lunch · Tea · Dinner · Supper

Components & courses

Amuse-bouche · Appetizer · Cheese · Dessert · Drink · Entrée · Entremet · Fruit · Main course · Nuts · Salad · Side dish

Related concepts

Banquet · Buffet · Cuisine · Eating · Etiquette · Food

Salad is any of a wide variety of dishes including: vegetable salads; salads of pasta, legumes, eggs, or grains; mixed salads incorporating meat, poultry, or seafood; and fruit salads.^[1] They include a mixture of cold and hot, often including raw vegetables or fruits.

Green salads include leaf lettuce and leafy vegetables with a sauce or dressing. Other salads are based on pasta, noodles, or gelatin. Most salads are traditionally served cold, although some, such as south German potato salad, are served warm.

Green salads including leaf lettuces are generally served with a dressing, as well as various garnishes such as nuts or croutons, and sometimes with the addition of meat, fish, pasta, cheese, eggs, or whole grains.

Salads may be served at any point during a meal. They may be:

• Appetizer salads, light salads to stimulate the appetite as the first course of the meal.
• Side salads, to accompany the entrée as a side dish.
• Entrée salads, served as the main dish, usually containing a portion of protein, such as chicken breast or slices of beef.
• Palate-cleansing salads, to settle the stomach after the main course.
• Dessert salads, sweet versions usually containing gelatin or whipped cream.

Etymology

A Crab Louie salad is typically composed of romaine lettuce, crab meat, hard boiled eggs, tomato, asparagus, and cucumber and served with a Louie dressing based on mayonnaise and chili sauce with peppers on the side.

The word "salad" comes from the French salade of the same meaning, from the Latin salata (salty), from sal (salt). (Other salt-related words include sauce, salsa, sausage, and salary). In English, the word first appears as "salad" or "sallet" in the 14th century.

Salt is associated with salad because vegetables were seasoned with brine or salty oil-and-vinegar dressings during Roman times.^[2]

The terminology "salad days", meaning a "time of youthful inexperience" (on notion of "green"), is first recorded by Shakespeare in 1606, while the use of salad bar first appeared in American English in 1976.^[2]

History

Food historians say the Romans ate mixed greens and dressing, and the Babylonians were known to have dressed greens with oil and vinegar two thousand years ago.^[3][4][5] In his 1699 book, Acetaria: A Discourse on Sallets, John Evelyn attempted with little success to encourage his fellow Britons to eat fresh salad greens.^[6] Royalty dabbled in salads: Mary, Queen of Scots, ate boiled celery root over salad covered with creamy mustard dressing, truffles, chervil, and slices of hard-boiled eggs.^[4]

The United States popularized salads in the late 19th century and other regions of the world adopted them throughout the second half of the 20th century. From Europe and the Americas to China, Japan, and Australia, salads are sold commercially in supermarkets for those who do not have time to compose a home-made salad, at restaurants (restaurants will often have a "Salad Bar" laid out with salad-making ingredients, which the customer will use to put together their salad) and at fast-food chains specializing in health food. In the US market, fast-food chains such as McDonald's and KFC, that typically sold "junk food" such as hamburgers, fries, and fried chicken, now sell packaged salads to appeal to the health-conscious.

Types of salads

Green salad

A Green Salad

The "green salad" or "garden salad" is most often composed of leafy vegetables such as lettuce varieties, spinach, or rocket (arugula). Due to their low caloric density, green salads are a common diet food. The salad leaves are cut or torn into bite-sized fragments and tossed together (called a tossed salad), or may be placed in a predetermined arrangement.

Vegetable salad

Vegetables other than greens may be used in a salad. Common vegetables used in a salad include cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, spring onions, red onions, avocado, carrots, celery, and radishes. Other ingredients, such as pasta, olive, hard boiled egg, artichoke hearts, heart of palm, roasted red bell peppers, cooked potatoes, rice, sweet corn, green beans, black beans, croutons, cheeses, meat (e.g. bacon, chicken), or fish (e.g. tuna, shrimp), are sometimes added to salads.

Bound salad

American-style potato salad with egg and mayonnaise

A "bound" salad can be composed (arranged) or tossed (put in a bowl and mixed with a thick dressing). They are assembled with thick sauces such as mayonnaise. One portion of a true bound salad will hold its shape when placed on a plate with an ice-cream scoop. Examples of bound salad include tuna salad, pasta salad, chicken salad, egg salad, and potato salad.

Bound salads are often used as sandwich fillings. They are also popular at picnics and barbecues, because they can be made ahead of time and refrigerated.

Entrée salads

Entrée salads or "dinner salads"^[7] may contain grilled or fried chicken pieces, seafood such as grilled or fried shrimp or a fish steak such as tuna, mahi-mahi, or salmon. Sliced steak, such as sirloin or skirt, can be placed upon the salad. Caesar salad, Chef salad, Cobb salad, Greek salad, and Michigan salad are types of dinner salad.

Fruit salads

Fruit salads are made of fruit, and include the fruit cocktail that can be made fresh or from canned fruit.^[7]

Dessert salads

Dessert salads rarely include leafy greens and are often sweet. Common variants are made with gelatin or whipped cream (oftentimes with the brand products Jell-O and / or Cool Whip); e.g. jello salad, pistachio salad, and ambrosia. Other forms of dessert salads include snickers salad, glorified rice, and cookie salad popular in parts of the Midwestern United States and Minnesota.^[7]

Examples of salads

Sesame noodle salad

Fruit salad

World Salads

Click here for a List of salads around the world.

Other Salads

The following is a list of additional salads:

Dressings

A dish of American-style Italian dressing.

Thousand Island dressing on a salad

Cardini's brand bottled caesar salad dressing.

Sauces for salads are often called "dressings". The concept of salad dressing varies across cultures.

In Western culture, there are three basic types of salad dressing:

• Vinaigrette
• Creamy dressings, usually mayonnaise-based, but which may also contain yogurt, sour cream, buttermilk, milk, or crème fraîche
• Cooked dressings, which resemble creamy dressings, but are usually thickened by adding egg yolks and gently heating.

Vinaigrette /vɪnəˈɡrɛt/ is a mixture (emulsion) of salad oil and vinegar, often flavored with herbs, spices, salt, pepper, sugar, and other ingredients. It is used most commonly as a salad dressing,^[8] but also as a sauce or marinade.

There are many commonly used salad dressings in North America. Traditional dressings in southern Europe are vinaigrettes, while mayonnaise is predominant in eastern European countries and Russia. In Denmark, dressings are often based on crème fraîche.

In Asia, it is common to add sesame oil, fish sauce, citrus juice, or soy sauce to salad dressings.

The following are examples of common salad dressings:

• Blue cheese dressing
• Caesar dressing
• Extra virgin olive oil
• French dressing
• Honey Dijon
• Hummus
• Italian dressing
• Louis dressing
• Ranch dressing
• Rice vinegar
• Russian dressing
• Tahini
• Thousand Island dressing
• Vinaigrette
• Wafu dressing

Toppings and garnishes

Popular salad garnishes are nuts, croutons, anchovies, bacon bits (real or imitation), garden beet, bell peppers, shredded carrots, diced celery, cress, sliced cucumber, parsley, sliced mushrooms, sliced red onion, radish, sunflower seeds (shelled), real or artificial crab meat (surimi) and cherry tomatoes. Various cheeses, berries, seeds and other ingredients can also be added to green salads. Cheeses, in the form of cubes, crumbles, or grated, are often used, including blue cheese, Parmesan cheese, and feta cheese. Color considerations are sometimes addressed by using edible flowers, red radishes, carrots, various colors of peppers, and other colorful ingredients.

Salad records

Largest lettuce salad in the world.

The moshav (settlement) of Sde Warburg, Israel, holds the Guinness World Record for the largest lettuce salad, weighing 10,260 kg. The event, held on 10 November 2007, was part of the 70th anniversary celebration of the founding of the moshav. The salad was sold to participants and onlookers alike for 10 NIS per bowl, raising 100,000 NIS (over $25,000) to benefit Aleh Negev,^[9] a rehabilitative village for young adults suffering from severe physical and cognitive disabilities. Major General (Res.) Doron Almog, Chairman of Aleh Negev was present to accept the donation and commended the residents, who had grown the lettuce and prepared the salad on the moshav. The volunteer effort to prepare the salad itself took all day and most of the residents, ranging from many of the original founders of the moshav to young children, participated.

See also

• Antipasto
• List of salads

References

10. "Richie" declares his for a waitress, by shouting, "I love Salad" in the film, The Benchwarmers

External links

• Healthy salad recipes from MedicineNet