What do you regard as a salad?

TerriBull

Salade Nicoise is my favourite salad of all, although I have to leave out tuna and anchovy if we have a vegetarian with us. I like a really nice potato salad with fresh chives. If I order a salad in a restaurant as a side, I do occasionally, Cote do a nice green salad, it's only ever as good as its dressing.

I love homemade Salade Nicoise, also Caesar Salad.😋

Salade Nicoise is my favourite salad of all, although I have to leave out tuna and anchovy if we have a vegetarian with us. I like a really nice potato salad with fresh chives. If I order a salad in a restaurant as a side, I do occasionally, Cote do a nice green salad, it's only ever as good as its dressing.

A side salad - usually lettuce and possibly in this house shredded white cabbage, onion, cucumber, tomatoes, red or yellow peppers, radishes if we have any.

In winter I usually use all white cabbage. Keeps so much better in the fridge.

I try not to ‘regard’ a salad if I can help it. I have one inflicted on me once a week by DD, which usually has grains and pulses, cherry tomatoes, baby cucumber, beetroot, avocado, and some sort of soft cheese. I think she’s getting her own back for all the times she was made to sit at the table and finish something she didn’t like😂!

I enjoy salad, and feel I am eating healthily when it is my main meal of the day. Need several different colours, so, green for mixed crisp lettuce and some baby spinach. Also, cucumber, spring onions, mange tout, red with baby tims, red pepper, can also have orange pepper, shredded beetroot then can add in things like grapes, and/or dried fruit, seeds, walnuts, shredded carrot.
I use a good quality purchased maionnase, and also some coleslaw. If I want to 'pad' it out with carbs will also include a few small, boiled new potatoes or some pasta.

I wouldn’t want a salad without greens, but I agree that naming salads helps.
I wouldn’t order Tabbouleh salad because of its contents. I do like to make Greek Salad and Salad Niçoise.
My mum would be fascinated to know that what she served as a salad would now class as a Chef’s Salad, though we only had one meat, usually ham.

Norah

Last week we made farro salad (no greens), fruit salad (no greens), Tabbuleh (green herbs), potato salad (vegan), and Greek Salad (no feta).

Greens do not a salad make, IMO.

Surely there are lots of different types of salad according to the taste of the salad-maker. In restaurants specifically -named salads mean you know what you're getting roughly; Cobb salad; salade nicoise; ceasar salad. In our favourite pizza restaurant down here in SW France we order a "salade verte" rough green leaves ; a bit of onion; their wonderful salad dressing.
At home we have lettuce , cucumber , tomato, lots of onion, avocado , salad dressing with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

I wouldn't want a salad without greens. Takes all sorts.

NotSpaghetti

Even a green salad can have many many different greens in it though Norah - at least they can do in my house!

I understand.

I was merely saying salads don't require greens.

We have green salads often.

Sago

Salad is one of my most favourite things.

I use any combination of spinach, watercress, Webb lettuce, rocket etc as a base (never bags).
Then it’s a selection of blanched green vegetables chilled, mange tout, green beans, asparagus, broccoli, baby sweetcorns.
Now it’s the bottom of the fridge, cucumber,radish,spring onion etc.

I never put tomato on a salad, they make everything soggy, if tomatoes have been stored properly at room temperature they are delicious served separately with some red onion.

Finally Parmesan shavings and of course the best bit a beautiful homemade dressing.
A well made salad is a joy!

Now thats me. Love them.

Except I use wee tomatoes and leave them whole, and I dont eat onion.

I like fennel in it as well.

I don’t expect much for a side salad, but sometimes I am pleasantly surprised. I am disappointed if it is just green leaves from a bag.
The best green salad I have ever had was a lunch at a gastro pub. It contained at least ten ingredients, few of them being leaves and it was delicious.
I haven’t seen what used to be called ‘ mustard and cress’ for a long time.

I agree that shop bought coleslaw is not tasty. I sometimes buy a coleslaw kit from Tesco and make it at home, with a mixture of mayo and Greek yoghurt.

I buy gem lettuce and make chopped salad. I used to avoid salad spinner-ing, but since I bought a small compact one I don't mind doing small batches. I'm actually quite put off by the bags of baby leaves etc I always think they have zero nutritional value.

In winter I often use white cabbage instead of lettuce - it goes well with any other salad items and keeps very well in the fridge. And it’s nice and crunchy!

Also use a lot for homemade coleslaw (shop stuff always has too much mayonnaise or is too sloppy and vinegary for me) - with onion, celery, carrot, and apple. And only just enough mayonnaise to hold it together.

In Italy a salad was usually a separate course, served after the second course. It was often just a bowl of lettuce, but so crisp and fresh that it felt as if it had just been picked out of the garden.

Most places give 'a bit on the side' pun intended. Even ordering a toastie or sandwich you get a few leaves thrown in. To get a proper salad it has to be ordered separately. Prefer my own with spinach leaves or watercress leaves, chickpeas and the usual peppers,toms etc.

MayBee70

Oreo

I never eat salad when out for a meal, more tummybugs are caused by it than anything else.Have a hot meal to be safe.
My own salads contain tons of ingredients.

I agree. When I worked at the airport we used to sterilise our lettuce. I doubt if restaurants do that.

I have had food poisoning 4 times. Three times it was from shell food, the fourth from possibly the best steak I had ever eaten.

More to the point almost all food poisoning incidents arise from food prepared and eaten outside the home. It is very rare to get food poisoning from home prepared food. I heard that last piece of information from an interview a few years ago with one of the top experts in the field of food safety.

Even a green salad can have many many different greens in it though Norah - at least they can do in my house!

Oreo

I never eat salad when out for a meal, more tummybugs are caused by it than anything else.Have a hot meal to be safe.
My own salads contain tons of ingredients.

I agree. When I worked at the airport we used to sterilise our lettuce. I doubt if restaurants do that.

I agree Monica
This dish contained salad it wasn’t a salad mains, and it wasn’t even a salad side dish, it was a small part of the main meal
These are three separate things
A mains salad dish would be the whole caboose of perhaps four or five salad items
A side salad would be similar but much smaller
A dish ‘with salad’ could easily pass with a few salad leaves and half a tomato

I like a green salad with croutons and parmesan and prefer tomatoes served separately perhaps with mozzarella and basil .
I like Russian cucumber salad .
If entertaining I serve my salads separately.

Last week we made farro salad (no greens), fruit salad (no greens), Tabbuleh (green herbs), potato salad (vegan), and Greek Salad (no feta).

Greens do not a salad make, IMO.

I think people need to realise the difference between describing their favourite salad and the concept of what a side salad or a main salad are

A salad is simply a dish containing raw vegetables. There are hundreds if not thousands of ingredients that it could include. and all of us have salad ingredients we would never include in a salad because we dislike them.

I never eat salad when out for a meal, more tummybugs are caused by it than anything else.Have a hot meal to be safe.
My own salads contain tons of ingredients.

I was in a vegetarian restaurant once, I had ordered a main dish and paid extra for a 'green side salad' which was several limp, soggy English lettuce leaves with no form of dressing or topping. Needless to say I complained. I was met with rudeness and asked "What did I expect?"

A salad for me growing up was lettuce tomato cress egg ham or cheese a pickled onion and salad cream. My dad grew most of the ingredients. I still do similar with tinned fish or rollmops and beetroot.
What was on your plate was a salad trim.

A salad to me is the basics lettuce tomato cucumber at least! I ordered a quiche with side salad and it came with a few sprigs of lettuce leaves not amused!