Salad

A salad is a dish made from a mix of ingredients, most often vegetables. It is usually served cold or at room temperature, but warm versions exist. Dressings—savory sauces in many flavors—are commonly added. Garden salads, built on raw leafy greens like lettuce, arugula, kale, or spinach, are so standard that "salad" by itself usually means this type. Other varieties include caprese, bean, tuna, bread-based (such as fattoush or panzanella), vegetable salads without greens (like Greek salad, potato salad, or coleslaw), rice, pasta, and noodle salads, plus fruit and dessert salads.

Salads can appear at any meal stage: as light appetizers, as side dishes alongside the main course (e.g., potato salad or coleslaw), as main courses that often include high-protein items like eggs, legumes, or cheese, or as sweet dessert salads with fruit, gelatin, sweeteners, or whipped cream. The sauce used to flavor a salad is called a dressing, typically based on oil and vinegar or a creamy dairy mixture.

The word "salad" entered English in the 14th century as "salad" or "sallet," from the French *salade*, itself shortened from the Vulgar Latin *herba salata* (salted herb), from Latin *salata* (salted), from *sal* (salt)—a nod to Roman-era vegetables seasoned with brine or salty oil-and-vinegar dressings. The phrase "salad days," meaning youthful inexperience (playing on "green"), first appears in Shakespeare in 1606. "Salad bar," for a buffet-style serving of salad ingredients, entered American English in 1937.

Ancient Greeks and Romans ate mixed greens with dressing, a practice that spread across Europe. John Evelyn’s 1699 book *Acetaria: A Discourse of Sallets*, often called the first salad book, urged Britons to eat fresh greens, with limited success. Mary, Queen of Scots, enjoyed boiled celery root over greens with creamy mustard dressing, truffles, chervil, and sliced hard-boiled eggs. Salad oil was used in ancient Greece and Rome, and later in the 17th-century colony of New Netherland (now parts of New York, New Jersey, and Delaware). Cargo records from the era list "a can of salad oil at 1.10 florins" and "an anker of wine vinegar at 16 florins." A 1665 letter from Curaçao to the Director of New Netherland requested seeds for cabbage, carrots, lettuce, and parsley, noting none were available locally. Today, salads are sold in supermarkets, restaurants, and fast food chains. In the U.S., restaurants may offer salad bars where customers assemble their own. Salad-focused restaurants earned over $300 million in 2014. At-home salad consumption in the 2010s shifted from fresh-chopped lettuce to bagged greens and kits, with bag sales projected to reach $7 billion annually.

Salads can be composed (ingredients arranged on the dish) or tossed (mixed in a bowl with dressing). An antipasto plate, the first course of a formal Italian meal, resembles a composed salad, featuring vegetables, cheese, and meat.

A green salad, or garden salad, mostly uses leafy greens like lettuce, spinach, or arugula. If non-greens dominate, it may be called a vegetable salad. Common raw vegetables include cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, onions, carrots, celery, radishes, mushrooms, avocado, olives, artichoke hearts, heart of palm, watercress, parsley, fennel, beets, and green beans. Nuts, berries, seeds, lentils, and flowers appear less often. Hard-boiled eggs, bacon, shrimp, and cheese serve as garnishes; larger amounts of animal-based foods are typical in dinner salads.

A wedge salad is a green salad made from a halved or quartered head of lettuce (often iceberg), topped with other ingredients.

Bound salads use thick sauces like mayonnaise and hold their shape when scooped. Examples include tuna, chicken, egg, coleslaw, and potato salads. Some, like macaroni salad, are used as sandwich fillings. They are popular at picnics, potlucks, and barbecues.

Main course salads (dinner or entrée salads in the U.S.) may include small pieces of poultry, seafood, or steak. Examples are Caesar, chef, Cobb, Chinese chicken, Michigan, and Pittsburgh salads. Cheeses like Roquefort (traditional for Cobb) and Swiss (for chef and Cobb) are common.

Fruit salads are made from fresh or canned fruit, such as fruit cocktail.