Salad Totally Explained

Salad is a light meal — or, more commonly a part of a larger meal, such as an appetizer — consisting of mixed vegetables (usually including at least one leaf vegetable) or fruit, often with a dressing or sauce, occasionally nuts and sometimes with the addition of meat, fish, pasta or cheese. It is usually seen as a healthy dish, although not always low in calories, salt, sugar, or fat because of the dressing that's often added.
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).
Salads also exist in some cuisines of Southeast Asia. In Vietnam, these are called nộm or gỏi.

The green salad

The "green salad" or "garden salad" is most often composed of some vegetables, built up on a base of leaf vegetables such as one or more lettuce varieties, spinach, or rocket.
Other common vegetables in a green salad include tomato, cucumber, peppers, mushroom, onion, spring onion, red onion, carrot and radish. Other ingredients such as pasta, olives, cooked potatoes, rice, beans, croutons, meat (for example bacon, chicken), cheese, or fish (for example tuna) are sometimes added to salads.

Popular types of green salads

Dressings

A green salad is often served with a dressing. Some examples include:

Mayonnaise

French dressing

Tahini

Vinaigrette

Wafu dressing 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 (沙拉酱, shalajiang) tends to refer to mayonnaise or mayonnaise-based dressings.

Garnishes

There are various vegetables and other fare that are often added to green salad. Some of them are:

shelled sunflower seeds

onions (mostly the red variety)

bacon bits (sometimes the bits are artificially flavored pieces of textured soybean protein)

radishes

grated carrots

tomatoes

surimi - artificial crab meat

cucumbers

bell peppers

fresh parsley

beetroot

cress

mushrooms Again, individual taste usually governs the choice of salad garnishes.

Other types of salad

Some salads are based on food items other than fresh vegetables:

Bean salad

Coleslaw

Egg salad

Fruit salad

Greek salad

Larb, from Laos

Pasta salad

Ivanov Salad

Salmagundi

Shopska salad from Bulgaria

Somen salad from Japan

Som tam (Thai ส้มตำ) or Green Papaya Salad from Thailand

Gỏi ngó sen - a Vietnamese salad

Gỏi cá sanh cầm - from Hue province,Vietnam

Gỏi cá trích - from Phu Quoc island, Kien Giang province, Vietnam

Nộm rau muống - from northern Vietnam; made with Ipomoea aquatica

Nộm hoa chuối - from northern Vietnam

Thịt gà xé phay - from Vietnam

Tabouli

Taco salad

Tuna salad

Waldorf salad

Watergate salad

History

The diarist John Evelyn wrote a book on salads, (1699), that describes the new salad greens like "sellery" (celery), coming out of Italy and the Netherlands.
Salad is often served as an appetizer before a larger meal. Other traditional western appetizers include, but are not limited to, bread (often of the garlic variety), Fried Cheese, and soup.

Largest salad

On September 29, 2007, Pulpí, in Almería (province), Spain tossed the world's largest salad, with 6,700 kilograms (14,740 pounds) of lettuce, tomato, onion, pepper and olives, supervised by 20 cooks over 3 hours. A Guinness World Records judge was present to confirm the new record. The salad was prepared in a container 18m (59ft) long and 4.8m (15.7ft) wide.

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