Salad is a mixture of foods, usually including vegetables or fruits, occasionally 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 sa, “salt.”
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 cucumbers, peppers, mushrooms, onions, spring onions, red onions, carrots and radishes. Other ingredients such as tomatoes, 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.
A green salad is often served with a 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 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, and safflower oil.
Visitors to Valle San Giovanni in Abruzzo often stop by Villa Casale for a fresh salad with vinegar and olive oil.
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