Today we’re going to be talking about salads. Salads are fascinating, and they’re quite versatile. We all have our favorites. I’m going to tell you a little about the history of salads, and then we’ll talk about the main types of them, and then about some unusual ones.
So, salads stretch back many, many years. They’ve changed a lot through various cultures and food trends. In ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and Rome, there were already early forms of salads, which were simple mixes of raw vegetables like lettuce, onions, and cucumbers. They would be dressed with vinegar, oil, or even fermented fish sauces.
The word salad comes from the Latin “salata”, meaning salted, because Romans often ate raw greens dressed in brine or other salty dressings.
I find this very interesting because doing that’s supposed to help a lot with digestion. The French will often add a green salad, like plain greens in some olive oil with some salt, in between courses to help with digestion. They had it right back then.
Later, in medieval times, the salads became more elaborate. Sometimes they would contain cold meat, pulled meat, fruit, nuts, or even edible flowers and herbs. Then, as Pilgrims came to the USA, people spread to different areas of the world, and there was more trade, things such as tomatoes became popular. There were also potatoes, though those weren’t eaten raw, and peppers. At that time, salads were still seen as part of the upper class or banquet style meals. They would be used as appetizers or as palate cleansers between courses.
Then in Europe; in France, England, and Italy, they began to become more artistic with their salads. They had an artistic presentation. The composition of the salads would include very interesting dressings, and other unusual things.
The American salad that was popularized in the 1920s was the Caesar salad.
It’s made up of romaine lettuce – sometimes chopped, sometimes whole – and croutons, and it’s dressed with lemon juice and olive oil. They also add Dijon mustard, Parmesan, et cetera. The creamy dressing is what makes it a Caesar salad, and they add it to the lettuce, croutons and Parmesan. It’s very simple and very yummy.
The cobb salad also became popular in the USA. It’s like a garden salad, and it has chopped salad greens, tomato, bacon, and pieces of chicken breast. It has that meat, perhaps eggs, some avocado, sometimes blue cheese, and vinaigrette. That’s quite a comprehensive full meal salad that originated in the United States.
The Waldorf salad also came from there, and that one has fruit and nuts. Generally it would be apple with walnuts, sometimes with grapes or celery, and it’s dressed in a mayonnaise type dressing. Sometimes the ingredients will just be tossed in mayonnaise.
In modern salads, there’s such a diversity between countries, and so many influences from different places. The tabbouleh is from the Middle East, the som tum is a Thai green papaya salad, and the panzanella is an Italian breaded salad. There are also other super food based salads. The panzanella is a fascinating one. It has something similar to croutons – basically they take stale bread and they soak it instead of baking it. This salad also has onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, and sometimes basil, and it’s dressed with olive oil and vinegar. That’s an Italian one.
I think my three favorite salads are from France, Italy, and Greece – the Mediterranean. Let’s start off with the traditional French salad. What’s in that? The main ingredients of the original French salad were tomatoes and artichoke hearts. Those are one of my favorite things ever. They would be marinated in something like olive oil with a little bit of salt and herbs. There’d also be raw bell peppers in this salad, green or red, and typically cucumbers, small olives, hard boiled eggs, and sometimes radishes. The dressing would be olive oil with a splash of red wine vinegar or salt and pepper, sometimes with crushed garlic, et cetera.
The ingredients were always raw, fresh, and seasonal, typical of the Mediterranean diet in the south of France. This salad was meant to be simple, rustic, and to show off the produce of Provence and the Mediterranean area. The original fish used was anchovies, but later that was usually replaced by tuna. These days we use tuna in the Nicoise salad. This salad is higher in protein than most salads. It has more ingredients and it’s a little more complex, but it’s a great meal on its own.
The Greek salad is one of my favorites of all time. The original Greek salad doesn’t contain any kind of leaves or lettuce. It has cucumber, partially peeled – maybe then it’s a little less bitter, and then cut into thick half moon shapes. It also has tomatoes cut into wedges or large chunks, red onion, which I usually don’t eat, thin slices or rings of raw onion, green bell pepper, kalamata olives, and feta cheese. The feta is usually added as a single block; not crumbled, and you get to mix it in later.
Extra virgin olive oil is generously drizzled on top along with some dried oreganum, some salt, and perhaps some lemon juice. You get to mix it up yourself. When you mush that feta and mix it with the olive oil, it becomes this amazing, creamy, salty dressing. That’s definitely one of my favorite salads. I think it’s so much easier and nicer without the lettuce or the leafy greens.
The last one of my favourites is the Caprese salad. This one’s an Italian salad. The only ingredients are mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil leaves. Often we’ll slice fresh heirloom tomatoes; the big, lovely ones, and we’ll use some kind of fancy mozzarella like buffalo mozzarella. Maybe we’ll use a big bowl of mozzarella in liquid, or the little balls – anything that’s freshly made mozzarella. To make the salad, you slice that and put it on top of the tomato slices, maybe with a bit of salt first, and then put the fresh basil leaves on top. Sometimes the elements are stacked, sometimes they’re placed diagonally, and sometimes you’ll have little piles with a piece of tomato, some mozzarella, and a leaf of basil.
I sometimes like to cheat and add a little basil pesto as well. It’s really good. You can add olive oil on top, and as I said, a bit of salt. Balsamic vinegar is apparently only used in a modern edition – it’s not part of the traditional caprice salad, but I do enjoy it. You can even put some balsamic glaze on top. This salad looks so good as well. The red and the green are amazing! It’s a celebration of the colors of the Italian flag – the red tomato, the white mozzarella, and the green basil. It’s a very, very simple salad, but it has quality ingredients, and it tastes amazing.
Strangely enough, my favorite combination at a particular restaurant we like to go to is a Caprese salad, a couple of stacks of it, with some tiny pork ribs. The two seem to compliment each other so well, although I’m sure the Italians wouldn’t approve of that.
The original Italian salad would basically be made up of mixed greens; things like arugula, romaine lettuce, and radicchio. Added to that would be tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, and interestingly, carrots either grated or chopped. Olives would be optional. It would be topped with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar or lemon juice, and then and sometimes some Italian herbs. That’s quite a common, basic Italian salad.
Here are some more unusual salads that we don’t often hear about. This one from Thailand is fascinating. I mentioned the name earlier – the som tum. It’s a green papaya salad. You take green papaya and shred it, and then add cherry tomatoes, halved green beans which are cut short, some chili, and some garlic, peanuts, and dried shrimp. This is very interesting. You probably get the shrimp in cans. It also has some fish sauce and some lime juice. All the ingredients are pounded together in a pestle and mortar, not just mixed. You get all the flavor dimensions – you get the sweet, the sour, the salty, and the spicy. This is a street food that they have in Thailand – a national staple.
Then in Mexico, the Nopales salad has cactus leaves that have been cleaned and boiled. It also contains tomatoes, onions, cilantro, fresh cheese, lime juice, and salt. Very interesting!
There’s a beetroot salad that comes from Russia. It has boiled beetroot, cooked potatoes, carrots, pickles or sauerkraut with peas, and then oil. That’s a very different one to usual as well. We’re more likely to eat the more common salads that you find in restaurants, ones that we’re familiar with.
One of the ways I love to make salad at home is to use a lot of unusual items. I often don’t use lettuce, as I said. I make a basic Greek salad with the chopped cucumber, the chopped baby tomatoes, some chopped artichokes, and some feta cheese, and then I add a few more unusual things like pine nuts. Those are amazing on a salad. Sometimes I add olives, and perhaps red peppers.
A sprinkle makes the salad more thick, and it can help with the creaminess – I would definitely add avocado as well. The sprinkle would be a combination of sesame seeds, salt, and either Parmesan cheese or nutritional yeast. They both have a cheesy flavor. You take your coffee grinder and add half sesame seeds, half nutritional yeast or Parmesan, and about half a teaspoon of salt, and you grind it all together into a fine powder. You have to taste it to see if you need to add more of anything; perhaps the Parmesan or the salt. That’s your salad sprinkle. You keep it in the fridge, and every time you make a salad, you sprinkle that on top and mix it with your olive oil, et cetera. It adds this amazing texture to the salad. That’s one of my favorite ways to have salad.
There’s also potato salad. I’m not generally a fan of a cold potato salad, but if you bake your potatoes and cut them up while they’re still warm, and then you add some mayonnaise, some cooked red pepper, a little bit of celery for crunch, and a little bit of salt, that makes it amazing. A warm potato salad – it’s very good.
So, what are your favorite salads? Do you lean towards the Italian, French, or Greek way? Do you like the feta or not? Do you like the olives or not? Do you like mixed greens or not? Sometimes it’s actually lovely to have a salad of only mixed greens, especially if you can get good quality ones, the baby greens. Mixed baby greens are amazing. They’re very tender and gentle. You can mix them up with a little olive oil and salt, and that makes a perfect appetizer for a meal. It can also be something to have between courses to help with digestion, as I said at the beginning, and it’s a nice change from the really crunchy, chewy salad.
The other thing I forgot to mention that I love to add to salads is sprouts – broccoli sprouts, alfalfa sprouts. Those also add a lot of nutrition, as well as a fun texture and a good flavor.
So, happy salad making if you enjoy salads. I hope this inspired you with some fresh ideas. Often I find that if I just start making a salad, then I get inspired to finish it even when I don’t feel like making one, because it is a bit of work, isn’t it? Sometimes I like to have a salad when everyone else is having a cooked meal.
I forgot to mention cooked ingredients. Obviously you can add meat like chicken and et cetera on your salad, but it’s also amazing to add cooked vegetables like butternut squash, chopped small, and baked in the oven with olive oil. You can do little bits of zucchini baked in the oven. Steamed or even raw, grated butternut squash is really nice on a salad. Cooked peppers – red peppers or yellow peppers are very, very nice. You can even marinate them. Cooked vegetables make an amazing addition to a salad.
Here’s a variation for if you don’t exactly feel like a salad. You can take some avocado, mash it up with a bit of salt and some pepper if you like, and then cut cucumber sticks and carrot sticks, and dip them in it. If you have some hummus in your fridge, you can dip them in there. It’s close enough to a salad, but it’s something different.
