Salad

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 or hot foods, 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.

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 .

Translation

The word "Salad" occurs as such in the following languages: English, Indonesian, Simple English.

Translation(s) in other languages: Arabic: سلطة (غذاء), Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܙܠܛܐ, Bengali: সালাদ, Bulgarian: Салата, Catalan: Amanida, Czech: Salát (pokrm), German: Salat (Gericht), Spanish: Ensalada, Esperanto: Salato, Persian: سالاد, French: Salade (mets), Italian: Insalata, Hebrew: סלט, Hungarian: Saláta (étel), Malayalam: സാലഡ്, Dutch: Salade, Japanese: サラダ, Korean: 샐러드, Norwegian (Bokmål): Salat (mat), Polish: Sałatka, Portuguese: Salada, Quechua: Yuyupa, Russian: Салат (блюдо), Finnish: Salaatti, Swedish: Sallad, Tagalog: Ensalada, Tamil: சாலட், Turkish: Salata, Ukrainian: Салат (страва), Cantonese: 沙律, Chinese: 沙律.