Salad

A salad is a dish consisting of mixed ingredients, frequently vegetables. They are typically served chilled or at room temperature, though some can be served warm. Condiments and salad dressings, which exist in a variety of flavors, are used to make a salad.

"}">

Quick Facts Main ingredients, Variations ...

Salad

A garden salad platter served with bread and dressing on the side, consisting of lettuce, beetroot, cucumber, scallions, cherry tomatoes, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and feta
Main ingredients	Pieces of vegetables, fruits, eggs, or grains mixed with a sauce.
Variations	Many
Cookbook: Salad   Media: Salad

Close

Garden salads use a base of leafy greens such as lettuce, arugula or rocket, kale or spinach; they are common enough that the word salad alone often refers specifically to garden salads. Other types include bean salad, tuna salad, bread salad (such as fattoush, panzanella), vegetable salads without leafy greens (such as Greek salad, potato salad, coleslaw), rice-, pasta- and noodle-based salads, fruit salads and desserts.

Salads may be served at any point during a meal:

• Appetizer salads – light, smaller-portion salads served as the first course of the meal
• Side salads – to accompany the main course as a side dish; examples include potato salad and coleslaw
• Main course salads – usually containing a portion of one or more high-protein foods, such as eggs, legumes, or cheese
• Dessert salads – sweet salads containing fruit, gelatin, sweeteners or whipped cream

When a sauce is used to flavor a salad, it is generally called a dressing; most salad dressings are based on either a mixture of oil and vinegar or a creamy dairy base.

The word "salad" comes to English from the French salade of the same meaning, itself an abbreviated form of the earlier Vulgar Latin herba salata (salted herb), from the Latin salata (salted), from sal (salt). 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 (a solution of salt in water) or salty oil-and-vinegar dressings during Roman times.^[1] The phrase "salad days", meaning a "time of youthful inexperience" (based on the notion of "green"), is first recorded by Shakespeare in 1606,^[1] while the use of salad bar, referring to a buffet-style serving of salad ingredients, first appeared in American English in 1937.^[2]

The Romans and ancient Greeks ate mixed greens with dressing, a type of mixed salad.^[3][4] Salads, including layered and dressed salads, have been popular in Europe since the Greek and Roman imperial expansions. In his 1699 book, Acetaria: A Discourse on Sallets,^[5] John Evelyn attempted with little success to encourage his fellow Britons to eat fresh salad greens.^[6] Mary, Queen of Scots, ate boiled celery root over greens covered with creamy mustard dressing, truffles, chervil, and slices of hard-boiled eggs.^[1]

Oil used on salads can be found in the 17th-century colony of New Netherland (later called New York, New Jersey and Delaware). A list of common items arriving on ships and their designated prices when appraising cargo included "a can of salad oil at 1.10 florins" and "an anker of wine vinegar at 16 florins".^[7] In a 1665 letter to the Director of New Netherland from the Island of Curaçao there is a request to send greens: "I request most amicably that your honors be pleased to send me seed of every sort, such as cabbage, carrots, lettuce, parsley, etc. for none can be acquired here and I know that your honor has plenty,...".^[8]

Salads may be sold in supermarkets, at restaurants and at fast food chains. In the United States, restaurants may have a salad bar with salad-making ingredients, which the customers will use to put together their salad.^[9] Salad restaurants were earning more than $300 million in 2014.^[10] At-home salad consumption in the 2010s was rising but moving away from fresh-chopped lettuce and toward bagged greens and salad kits, with bag sales expected to reach $7 billion per year.^[11]

A salad can be a composed salad (with the ingredients specifically arranged on the serving dish) or a tossed salad (with the ingredients placed in a bowl and mixed, often with salad dressing). An antipasto plate, the first dish of a formal Italian meal, is similar to a composed salad, and has vegetables, cheese, and meat.^{[citation needed]}

• Antipasto
• List of salads
• Salad spinner