From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Salad is a mixture of foods, usually including vegetables or fruits, often with a dressing or sauce, occasionally nuts or croutons and sometimes with the addition of meat, fish, pasta or cheese. Salad is often served as an appetizer before a larger meal.

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).

Contents 1 Green salad 1.1 Popular types of garden salads 1.2 Dressings 1.3 Garnishes 2 Other types of salad 3 History 3.1 Largest salad 4 External links 5 References

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 (arugula). 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 vegetables in a green salad include tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, mushrooms, onions, spring onions, red onions, carrots and radishes. Other ingredients such as pasta, olives, cooked potatoes, rice, green beans, croutons, cheeses, meat (e.g. bacon, chicken), or fish (e.g. tuna) are sometimes added to salads. In a restaurant, a small salad without meat is called a dinner salad.

• Caesar salad
• Cobb salad
• Greek salad

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

• Balsamic vinegar
• Caesar dressing
• Creamy mayonnaise or yoghurt-based dressings:
  • Bleu cheese or blue cheddar dressing
  • Louis dressing
  • Ranch dressing
  • Russian dressing
  • Thousand Island dressing
• Oil and vinegar, lemon, or soy sauce based dressings:
  • French dressing
  • Italian dressing
  • Vinaigrette
  • Wafu dressing
• Tahini

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.

Many light edible oils are used as salad dressings, including olive oil, corn oil, soybean oil, safflower oil etc.

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

• anchovies
• bacon bits (real or imitation)
• beetroot
• bell peppers
• grated carrots
• cress
• croutons
• cucumbers
• fresh parsley
• mushrooms
• onions (often red onions)
• radishes
• sunflower seeds (shelled)
• surimi - artificial crab meat
• tomatoes

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

A Watergate salad	A fruit salad
	A Som Tam, Green Papaya Salad

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

• Antipasto salad
• Bean salad
• Chicken salad
• Coleslaw
• Congealed salad
• Egg salad
• Eggplant salad
• Fruit salad
• Greek salad
• Israeli salad
• Larb, from Laos
• Milner Salad
• Pasta salad
• Polish salad
• Potato salad
• Russian salad
• Pretzel salad
  • Ivanov Salad
• Salmagundi
• Salade Olivier
• 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

The diarist John Evelyn wrote a book on salads, Acetaria: A Discourse on Sallets (1699), that describes the new salad greens like "sellery" (celery), coming out of Italy and the Netherlands.

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.^[1]

• Alice Roth, "Sallets"
• Simple Salad Recipes
• Simple Salad Recipes Video