So much diversity exists among salads that it is somewhat hard to give a comprehensive definition of this category of foods. In general, however, They are food mixings either arranged on a plate or tossed and served with a moist dressing. A dish of green herbs or vegetables, sometimes cooked, and generally chopped or sliced, sometimes mixed with fruit or with cooked and chopped cold meat, fish, etc.
They are ordinarily served with a dressing. It can be either hot or cold. The choice of salad ingredients depends upon seasons. Salads are unique. They can either accompany a main course, act as an appetizer, served as an extra party dish, or just plain served alone. A high-protein salad, such as lobster salad, substitutes the meat course, whereas, a light salad of vegetables or fruits may be used as an additional course. For the most part, salads take their name from their chief ingredient, as, for example, chicken salad, tomato salad, pineapple salad, etc. Just what place salads have in the meal depends on the salad itself.
 |
| Salads |
SALADS IN THE DIET
Salads are often considered to be a dish of small importance; that is, something that is added to a meal. While this is the case with meals composed of a sufficient diversity of foods, salads have a definite place in majority of families. Frequently there is a tendency to limit green vegetables or fresh fruits in the diet, but if the members of a family are to be fed an ideal diet it is highly important that some of them are included in every day meals. The best and appetizing method to include them in a meal is the serving of salads.
One who gives much attention to the artistic side of the serving of food will often use a salad to carry out a color scheme in the meal. This is, naturally, the least valuable use that salads have, but it is a point that shouldn't be overlooked. The chief purpose of salads in a meal is to provide something that the rest of the foods served in the meal lack.
Although salads, through their diversity, offer a chance to vary meals, it needs a brief attention in choosing them if a properly balanced meal is to be served. Salads that are high in food value or contain ingredients like to those found in the other dishes served in the meal, should be avoided with dinners or with other heavy meals. For example, a fish or a meat salad shouldn't be served with a dinner, for it would add a quantity of protein to a meal that is already sufficiently high in this food substance because of the fact that meat also is included. Such a salad, however, has a place in a very light luncheon or supper, for it helps to balance such a meal. The best salad to be served with a dinner that contains a number of heavy dishes is a vegetable salad, if enough vegetables are not already included, or a fruit salad, if the dessert does not consist of fruit. In case a fruit salad is selected, it is frequently made to serve for both the salad and the dessert course.
If the meal is a light one and the salad is to be served as the main dish, it should be sufficiently heavy and contain adequate food value to serve the purpose for which it is intended. On the other hand when the meal is a heavy one it is always better to selected a lighter salad. For example, with meat or fish as the main course of the meal, a fish, egg, or cheese salad would obviously be the wrong thing to serve. Instead, a light salad of vegetables or fruits should be selected for such a meal. It should be remembered that if the other dishes of a meal contain enough food value to make the meal properly nourishing, a salad containing a rich dressing will provide more than a sufficient supply of calories and consequently should be avoided.
Another point that shouldn't be ignored in choosing a salad is that it should be in contrast to the rest of the meal as far as flavor is concerned. While a lot of foods acid in flavor do not necessarily unbalance a meal so far as food substances and food value are concerned, they provide too much of the same flavor to be agreeable to most persons. For example, if the meal contains an acid soup, such as tomato, and a vegetable with a sour dressing, such as beets, then a salad that is also acid will be likely to add more of a sour flavor than the majority of persons want.
