Salad is a light meal -- or, more commonly a part of a larger meal, such as an appetizer -- consisting of mixed vegetables (usually including at least one leaf vegetable) or fruit, often with a dressing or sauce, occasionally nuts and sometimes with the addition of meat, fish, pasta or cheese.

It is usually seen as a healthy dish, although not always low in calories, salt, sugar, or fat because of the dressing that is often added.

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), for which the word "salary" is derived from.

Salads also exist in some cuisines of Southeast Asia. In Vietnam, these are called n?m or g?i.

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 arugula.

Other common vegetables in a green salad include tomato, cucumber, peppers, mushroom, onion, spring onion, red onion, carrot and radish. Other ingredients such as pasta, olives, cooked potatoes, rice, beans, croutons, meat (e.g. bacon, chicken), cheese, or fish (e.g. tuna) are sometimes added to salads.

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 (shalajiang) tends to refer to mayonnaise or mayonnaise-based dressings.

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.

Salad is often served as an appetizer before a larger meal. Other traditional western appetizers include, but are not limited to, bread (often of the garlic variety), and soup.

Please follow the links below to discover many different ways to prepare some really tasty salads:

Salads: