Salad is any of a wide variety of dishes including: green salads; vegetable salads; salads of pasta, legumes, or grains; mixed salads incorporating meat, poultry, or seafood; and fruit salads. They include a mixture of cold and hot, often including raw vegetables and/or fruits.
Green salads include leaf lettuce and 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.
The word "salad" comes from the French salade of the same meaning, which in turn is from the Latin salata , "salty", from sal , "salt", (See also sauce, salsa, sausage). Vegetables seasoned with brine was a popular Roman dish. 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.
Green salads including leaf lettuces are generally served with a dressing, as well as various toppings such as nuts or croutons, and sometimes with the addition of meat, fish, pasta, cheese, eggs, or whole grains. Salad is often served as an appetizer before a larger meal, but can also be a side dish, or a main course.
History
While food historians say the Greeks and Romans ate mixed greens and dressing, and the Babylonians were known to have dressed greens with oil and vinegar two thousand years ago, until the 18th and 19th centuries most humans avoided eating raw vegetables due to the danger of disease. Around the world, most felt well-cooked was the only safe way to serve a vegetable. 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. Royalty dabbled in salads: King Henry IV of England enjoyed a salad with new potatoes, sardines, and herb dressing, and Mary Queen of Scots ate boiled celery root over salad covered with creamy mustard dressing, truffles, chervil, and slices of hard-boiled eggs.
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.
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.
Other common vegetable additions in a green salad include cucumbers, peppers, mushrooms, onions, spring onions, red onions, avocado, carrots, celery, and radishes. Other ingredients, such as tomatoes, 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.
Vegetable salad
In India, the pure Vegetarian diet is favoured by Hindus. During Lunch and Dinner time the Vegetable Salad is prepared and taken along with all other vegetarian food items like rice.
Dressings
Sauces for salads are often called "dressings". The concept of salad dressing varies across cultures. 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 China, where Western salad is a recent adoption from Western cuisine, the term salad dressing refers to mayonnaise or mayonnaise-based dressings. Many light edible oils are used as salad dressings, including olive oil, corn oil, soybean oil, safflower oil, etc.
Composed salads may be bound with thick sauces such as mayonnaise.
- Balsamic Vinaigrette
- Caesar dressing
- Blue cheese dressing
- Louis dressing
- Ranch dressing
- Russian dressing
- Honey Dijon
- Thousand Island dressing
- French dressing
- Italian dressing
- Vinaigrette
- Wafu dressing
- Tahini
- Hummus
Toppings and garnishes
Popular salad garnishes are anchovies, bacon bits (real or imitation), garden beet, bell peppers, shredded carrots, diced celery, cress, croutons, sliced cucumber, parsley, sliced mushrooms, sliced red onion, radish, sunflower seeds (shelled), real or artificial crab meat (surimi) and cherry tomatoes. Various cheeses, nuts, berries, seeds and other ingredients can also be added to green salads. Blue cheese, Parmesan cheese, and feta cheese are often used. Color considerations are sometimes highlighted by using edible flowers, red radishes, and other colorful ingredients.
Entree salads
Entree salads or "dinner salads" 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.
Barbecue and picnic salads
Pasta salads, potato salads, and egg salads are often served at barbecues and picnics. These salads can be made ahead of time and refrigerated.
Fruit salads
Fruit salads are made of fruit, and include the fruit cocktail that can be made fresh or from canned fruit.
Dessert salads
Dessert salads rarely include leafy greens and are often sweet. Common variants are made with gelatin and/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.
Types of salad
Salads that include ingredients other than fresh vegetables are:
- Bean salad
- Broccoli slaw
- Caprese salad
- Chef salad
- Chicken salad
- Chinese chicken salad
- Coleslaw
- Congealed salad
- Cookie salad
- Crab Louie salad
- Egg salad
- Eggplant salad
- Fattoush
- Fruit salad
- Greek salad
- Ham salad
- Israeli salad
- Larb
- Niçoise salad
- Pablo salad
- Panzanella
- Pasta salad
- Potato salad
- Russian salad
- Salmagundi
- Seven-layer salad
- Shopska salad
- Somen salad
- Som tam
- Gado-gado
- Gỏi ngó sen - a Vietnamese salad
- Tabouli
- Taco salad
- Tuna salad
- Waldorf salad
- Watergate salad
Salad records
The moshav (settlement) of Sde Warburg 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, 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
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