Salad

A salad is a dish made from mixed ingredients, often vegetables. Salads are usually served cold or at room temperature, but sometimes they can be warm. They are often dressed with special sauces called salad dressings, which come in many flavors, mostly savory.

Garden salads are very common and use raw leafy greens like lettuce, arugula, kale, or spinach. When people say "salad" without any other words, they often mean a garden salad. But there are many other kinds of salads too, such as bean salad, tuna salad, Greek salad, potato salad, and even fruit salads.

Salads can be eaten at different times during a meal. Some are eaten at the start as a light appetizer. Others are served on the side with the main dish, like coleslaw. Some salads have enough protein from things like eggs, legumes, or cheese to be a main course. And there are even sweet salads for dessert that include fruit or whipped cream.

When a salad is flavored with a sauce, that sauce is called a dressing. Most dressings are made from a mixture of oil and vinegar or from a creamy dairy base.

Etymology

The word "salad" first appeared in English in the 14th century, coming from the French word salade. This French word is a shorter form of an older Vulgar Latin phrase, herba salata, which means "salted herb." It comes from the Latin word salata, meaning "salted," because vegetables were often seasoned with brine or salty dressings made from oil and vinegar during Roman times.

Later, the phrase "salad days" was used to describe a time of youthful inexperience, first written by Shakespeare in 1606. The idea behind it is like being "green" or not yet experienced. The term salad bar, which refers to a buffet-style setup with many salad ingredients, began being used in American English in 1937.

History

Ancient Greeks and Romans enjoyed mixed greens with dressing, a type of mixed salad. Salads have been popular in Europe since the times of Greek and Roman expansion. In 1699, John Evelyn wrote a book called Acetaria: A Discourse of Sallets, urging people to eat fresh salad greens. Mary, Queen of Scots, enjoyed boiled celery root over greens with creamy mustard dressing, truffles, chervil, and hard-boiled eggs.

Oil for salads was used in ancient Greece and Rome, and also in the 17th-century colony of New Netherland (later called New York, New Jersey, and Delaware). Supermarkets, restaurants, and fast food chains sell salads. In the United States, some restaurants have salad bars where customers can make their own salads. Salad restaurants earned over $300 million in 2014. At-home salad eating grew in the 2010s, with people choosing bagged greens and salad kits more often than fresh-chopped lettuce.

Types

Main article: List of salads

A salad can be a composed salad, where ingredients are arranged on the plate, or a tossed salad, where ingredients are mixed in a bowl, often with a dressing. An antipasto plate, the first dish of a formal Italian meal, is similar to a composed salad, and includes vegetables, cheese, and meat.

A green salad, also called a garden salad, is usually made with leafy vegetables like lettuce, spinach, or rocket (arugula). Common vegetables added to salads include cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, onions, carrots, celery, radishes, mushrooms, avocado, olives, artichoke hearts, heart of palm, watercress, parsley, fennel, garden beets, and green beans. Sometimes nuts, berries, seeds, lentils, and flowers are added. Small amounts of hard-boiled eggs, bacon, shrimp, and cheeses can be used as toppings.

Bound salads are made with thick sauces such as mayonnaise. These salads hold their shape on a plate. Examples include tuna salad, chicken salad, egg salad, coleslaw, and potato salad. Some bound salads are used in sandwich fillings. Pasta salads, like macaroni salad, are also bound salads. They are popular at picnics, potlucks, and barbecues.

Dinner salads are larger salads that can include small pieces of poultry, seafood, or steak. Examples are Caesar salad, chef salad, Cobb salad, Chinese chicken salad, Michigan salad, and Pittsburgh salad.

Fruit salads are made from fresh or canned fruit. An example is fruit cocktail.

Dessert salads are sweet and usually do not include leafy greens. They are often made with gelatin or whipped cream, such as jello salad, pistachio salad, and ambrosia. Other types include regional dishes like Midwestern America's ambrosia-like glorified rice and cookie salad, which has crumbled cookies.

A tossed green salad


A simple salad of anchovies and tomato wedges


American-style [potato salad](/wiki/Potato_salad) with egg and mayonnaise


A traditional [Slovak](/wiki/Slovak_cuisine) fish salad of [cod](/wiki/Cod_as_food) in [mayonnaise](/wiki/Mayonnaise), _treska s majonézou_


[Fruit salad](/wiki/Fruit_salad)


[Ambrosia](/wiki/Ambrosia_\(fruit_salad\)), a [dessert](/wiki/Dessert) salad