24 of the best salads in the world

24 of the best salads in the world

The salad has its roots in the ancient Roman tradition where romaine lettuce was dipped in salt – “herbe salata” means “salted leaves”. Centuries after this origin, the idea of ​​salads has evolved. For many, a salad represents a bowl full of lettuce with various add-ins that one can choose from popular salad chains. Others think of a warm bowl of grains, like farro salad, or even a salad that doesn't contain any leafy greens, like a pasta or potato salad or coleslaw. While some consider salads as veal-based, marinated side dishes, others turn them into entire meals by adding various proteins.

The variety of salads worldwide

Salads mean different things to different people; What matters is fresh ingredients, texture and a well-balanced dressing. No matter how served, salads can say a lot about a place. From Greece to Mexico to Ethiopia and Japan - it's not just about ingredients (vegetables, herbs, leaves) or spices and dressings. There is often a backstory to the recipes that reflects the time, place and availability of the products. Ask any chef and they will tell you that making a salad is not for the faint of heart, which is probably why many classic salads endure for years, with little variation aside from small additions or omissions.

Classic salads from different countries

Panzanella (Italy)

The Panzanella Italian Bread Salad starts with leftovers, especially from yesterday's leftover bread. At New York's popular restaurant Via Carota, Italian chefs Jody Williams and Rita Sodi serve up a bestseller, a not-too-mushy Tuscan-style panzanella salad made with aged sherry vinegar—which may be the key to its perfection. Her recipe calls for torn, day-old pieces of country bread dipped in a salty sherry-vinegar mixture, soaking up all the flavors. Enriched with chopped scallions, ripe tomatoes, cucumbers and celery, everything is tossed in olive oil and basil. The salad's origins date back centuries as an inexpensive dish prepared by Tuscan farmers from leftovers and local vegetables.

Salade Niçoise (France)

Niçoise refers to a French cooking style, specifically from the city of Nice, where renowned restaurateur and chef to kings Auguste Escoffier perfected the salade Niçoise by adding potatoes and green beans to a mixture of anchovies, Niçoise olives, capers, tuna, hard-boiled eggs and cherry tomatoes, served on Boston salad. Julia Child called the Niçoise salad one of her favorite summer dishes, and for good reason - it's light but hearty and full of flavor.

Yusheng (Singapore)

To usher in the Happy Lunar New Year, Singaporeans and Malaysians toss together Yusheng (or Yee Sang), a sweet and spicy raw fish salad known as Prosperity Toss (or Lo Hei). Yusheng can be translated as “raw fish” and also sounds like the Chinese term for “increase in wealth,” making it a popular appetizer during Chinese New Year. At a typical feast, the host adds each ingredient one at a time to a serving platter and sprinkles the salad with nuts, seeds, spices, and dressing. Participants toss the ingredients - shredded vegetables such as carrots, daikon radish, yams, cucumbers and pickled ginger, as well as raw fish - into the air with chopsticks as high as they can while offering good wishes for the New Year.

Narangi salad (India)

Indian chef Asma Khan writes in her cookbook "Monsoon: Tasty Indian Recipes for Every Day and Every Season" that despite being hot and humid, India does not have a wide variety of salads compared to Mediterranean cultures. However, they eat fresh vegetables with meals, and one particular salad that Khan serves is a spiced citrus and vegetable dish, the Narangi salad, which consists of oranges, sliced ​​red or green chilies, carrots, cabbage and cloves. It's dressed with a honey and vinegar mixture that's salty, sweet and fresh with just the right amount of zing.

Salad Katzutz (Israel)

Israeli-American chef Michael Solomonov describes in his bestselling cookbook “Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking” that this Israeli salad has Arabic origins and is often known as Arabic salad, but is still served on every table in Israel. It's simply fresh chopped cucumbers, tomatoes, and parsley mixed in a bowl with olive oil, kosher salt, and lemon juice. In the Middle East, the refreshing ingredients are ubiquitous, and because tomatoes and cucumbers are grown year-round, they are cheap and widely available.

Chopped Salad with Jicama and Pepitas (Mexico)

At his Brooklyn restaurant Cruz del Sur, Chef Hugo Orozco serves authentic Guadalajarian cuisine, including an ever-popular Mexican Chopped Salad with Jicama. Jicama, native to Mexico and often found in South American cuisine, adds a pleasantly sweet crunch to any salad, especially in this Chopped Salad, which is loaded with Persian cucumbers, navel oranges, pineapple, onions, cilantro, and chilies, along with toasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds) and sliced ​​avocado on top. The avocado vinaigrette dressing is made with Tajín, a chili-lime salt, which is also sprinkled on the salad.

Swedish Pressgurka (Sweden)

Using only thinly sliced, heavily marinated cucumbers (in a mixture of vinegar, water, sugar, white pepper and parsley), this Swedish pickled cucumber salad (Gammaldags Pressgurka) is a perfect accompaniment to Sweden's famous meatballs and other hearty dishes like roasts and seafood. Quickly pickled and vigorously pressed (hence the name “pressgurka”), the cucumber is pressed to extract liquid before preparation and then marinated in the sweet and sour mixture and left to rest for a few hours before being served.

Shopska salad (Bulgaria)

Bulgaria's most famous salad, which is also popular throughout southeastern Europe, is the crisp and colorful Shopska salad, made with chopped ripe tomatoes, roasted peppers (usually green, sometimes red), cucumbers (English or Persian), hot peppers (optional), onions (usually red), as well as parsley and crumbly Sirene cheese (similar to feta) is made. It is served with an olive oil vinaigrette dressing and sometimes black olives. Named after the Shopluk region of western Bulgaria, the colors of the lettuce (red tomatoes and peppers, green cucumbers and white cheese) represent the national flag. Famous Bulgarian chef Silvena Johan Lauta even included a recipe for shopska salad in her book “The Food & Cooking of Romania & Bulgaria”.

Ensalada de Palmitos (Argentina)

Hearts of palm, a vegetable obtained from several species of palm trees, are native to South and Central America and date back to the Mayan civilizations. These are extremely perishable and are often cut and pickled to preserve them and are found in salads throughout Central America, particularly Argentina. The Argentinian palm heart salad (ensalada de palmitos) is made from sliced ​​canned palm hearts, chopped tomatoes and sliced ​​avocados, dressed with a lime juice mixture and garnished with spring onions and cilantro. Easy to prepare, the salad is often served on a tray to accompany heavier beef dishes.

Laphet Thoke (Myanmar)

To stay cool in hot Myanmar, the Burmese rely on a salad made from tea leaves. Burmese fermented tea, lak hpak or lephet, has a smoky and bitter taste and is served with fresh vegetables, fried garlic, green chilies, crunchy roasted peanuts, fried beans, dried shrimp and roasted sesame seeds, on a bed of cabbage and with a dressing of fish sauce and lime juice mixed up. Burmese chef Suu Khin highlights the cultural significance of Laphet Thoke and how it is a central part of life events, large and small. Often Laphet Thoke is served with hot green tea, as the caffeine content from the tea leaves makes this more of a daytime dish. At Californian restaurant Burma Superstar, Laphet Thoke is a bestseller and is described as “a party in the mouth.”

Horiatiki (Greece)

When making Greek salad (Horiátiki salata), Greek-American chef Diane Kochilas urges Americans to avoid adding lettuce to her traditional recipe. This simple, refreshing dish, also called "village salad" in Greece, consists of a variety of ripe tomatoes (teardrop tomatoes, yellow teardrop tomatoes, cherry tomatoes), red onions, green peppers, crunchy cucumbers, kalamata olives, oregano, extra virgin olive oil (ideally Greek style), salt and a piece Feta cheese. Originally known as a peasant dish, this variation increased in popularity in the 1960s with the addition of feta. Today, you can find Greek salads on menus in restaurants worldwide.

Pipirrana (Spain)

This Spanish summer salad is a refreshing blend of tomatoes, peppers, onions and cucumbers tossed in a tangy vinaigrette. Pipirrana is light, fresh and full of flavors. In his book Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America, superstar chef José Andrés serves his Pipirrana Andaluza (named after Andalusia, the Spanish region from which it comes) with tuna, but it also works great on its own. The salad is made simply with tomatoes, diced green peppers and cucumbers and marinated in a mixture of olive oil and sherry vinegar with a little salt and black peppercorns until ready to serve. It is particularly refreshing in summer and is reminiscent of gazpacho.

Som Tum (Thailand)

In Thailand, this crunchy, sour Thai salad with papaya is called Som Tum and has its origins in Laos, but is extremely popular and is served year-round (and often eaten weekly, if not daily) throughout Southeast Asia. In Thailand (particularly in the Isan region), it is commonly found at street stalls, restaurants, and private homes. To make the salad, garlic, salt, peanuts, chilies, sugar and shrimp are crushed into a paste and mixed with lime juice and fish sauce before being shaken over grated green papaya, tomatoes and long beans and sprinkled with peanuts.

Cobb salad (USA)

Like many great inventions, the Cobb salad was born out of necessity. According to local legend from 1930s Los Angeles, Robert Cobb, the owner of the Angeleno restaurant Brown Derby, assembled the protein-packed salad with ingredients he found in his refrigerator: lettuce, watercress, hard-boiled eggs, crispy bacon, roasted chicken, avocado, tomatoes, chives and blue cheese, all chopped and topped with Derby's homemade French dressing. This salad became an instant classic at the Hollywood restaurant and was often prepared tableside for guests until the restaurant closed in the 1980s.

Tabbouleh salad (Lebanon)

Tabbouleh and tabouli are the same thing; the recipe revolves around one main ingredient: parsley. Often made with bulgur wheat, parsley, tomatoes, mint and onions and mixed with a dressing made from lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, tabbouleh can vary depending on the person making it. Some add cucumber and others may add pomegranate or sour flavoring to give the sour spicy salad a bright acidity. Chef Yotam Ottolenghi claims there is one right way to make tabbouleh and that is with bulgur (never couscous). He recommends finely chopping the parsley, which is the main ingredient, without using a food processor.

Sunomono (Japan)

Thinly sliced ​​cucumbers marinated in a sweet and sour vinegar mixture are called sunomono, or Japanese cucumber salad, a typical appetizer or side dish found in Japanese restaurants worldwide. Also known as “vinegar salad,” the name comes from the Japanese words “su,” meaning vinegar, and “mono,” meaning thing. Vinegar is said to stimulate the appetite and with just a few ingredients (Japanese cucumbers, sugar, salt, soy sauce and rice vinegar, as well as sesame seeds as a topping), this salad is quick and easy to prepare. Relatively inexpensive and easy to find, pickles complement almost any dish and balance out some of the heavier ones, like tempura.

Swabian potato salad (Germany)

Traditional German potato salad from the Swabian region uses a vinaigrette, usually consisting of broth (beef or vegetable stock), oil, vinegar, and mustard; the main characteristic is the clear absence of mayonnaise, like most other potato salads worldwide, and without the addition of bacon. In Germany, where the salad is known as Swabian potato salad, it is served in restaurants and offered in grocery stores and at home. It starts with waxy potatoes (which have a higher water content and can hold flavor better than starchier potatoes) and is garnished with a chive topping.

Gado Gado (Indonesia)

Gado-gado is common in Indonesia, where it is prepared depending on geographical location, so ingredients may vary. The New York Times notes that gado-gado in the capital, Jakarta, tends to be high in carbohydrates, with both potatoes and lontong (rice cakes), while in West Java, lotek atah or karedok relies more on raw vegetables. The salad typically uses a selection of fresh vegetables (raw and/or steamed), hard-boiled eggs, fried tofu, or tempeh and is served with a peanut sauce dressing (some use fresh peanuts, other recipes call for peanut butter). Gado-gado, meaning “mixture,” is so popular in Indonesia that the sweet-salty-sour salad has been recognized as a national dish.

Shirazi salad (Iran)

Similar to the Israeli salad, which uses parsley, not mint, the Shirazi salad or Salad-e Shirazi is a Persian dish made with tomatoes, Persian cucumbers and onions and is served with numerous meals in many households in Iran. Named after the city in southern Iran, the brightly sour salad is meant to complement the rice dishes, rich stews and kebabs with which it is often served. What makes it special is the addition of verjuice (a sour juice made from unripe grapes and/or crabapples) instead of lemon juice, which is also fine.

Olivye salad (Russia)

Russian potato salad, known as Olivye or Salad Olivier, is a staple in Russian and Ukrainian households. It also has significance for the New Year celebrations and is popular at family gatherings, special occasions and festive gatherings throughout the year. Yes, it's a filling potato salad (named after its creator, Russian chef Lucien Olivier) and seems simple, but variations on additions like vegetables (carrots, peas, and sweet pickles), eggs, and ham (or chicken, or even bologna) — plus mayo — give this dish an unexpected twist depending on how it's prepared. The salad has its origins in the 1860s when Chef Olivier worked at the Hermitage restaurant in Moscow, where it eventually became the establishment's signature dish.

Waldorf salad (USA)

Oscar Tschirky, the legendary Swiss chef at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, originally developed this Waldorf salad recipe using just three ingredients: apples, celery and mayonnaise. The New York Times recipe adds a squeeze of lemon but otherwise stays true to the original recipe published in 1896 and attributed to "Oscar von Waldorf." The original recipe called for two peeled raw apples, cut into small pieces, mixed with chopped celery and dressed with “good mayonnaise.” Simultaneously tart, crunchy, creamy, sweet and sour, the salad evolved slightly to include walnuts (added in the 1920s) and later raisins, grapes, and even marshmallows and eggs.

Caesar salad (Mexico)

Now a staple in American restaurants, it's easy to forget the Caesar salad's origins in Tijuana, Mexico. A little more than 100 years ago, the Italian chef Cesar Cardini put together the “Ensalada Cesar” at the Hotel Caesars. The restaurant's current chef and owner, Javier Plascencia, told the Los Angeles Times that 2,500 salads are prepared monthly at Hotel Caesars. And little has changed in the traditional preparation, which takes place in a large wooden bowl with stirring devices. The dressing forms the base of the salad and begins with anchovy paste, Dijon mustard, garlic, lime juice, black pepper and parmesan shavings, which are folded in; Then add an egg yolk for emulsification as well as some Worcestershire sauce and olive oil. Seasoned with more parmesan and served with croutons, the salad ingredients need to be properly dressed (in the traditional Mexican style).

Timatim (Ethiopia)

Timatim (Amharic for “tomato”) salata or tomato salad may seem simple, but the Ethiopian spice berbere gives it a unique twist. The warm umami spice blend (strong on coriander and peppers) is not extremely spicy, but gives the spicy tomato salad a lot of depth. It is simply made with diced tomatoes, finely diced onions, garlic and jalapeño, and a dressing made from lemon or lime juice, olive oil, Berbere seasoning and salt. Timatim is typically served as a side dish or complement to injera, the famous Ethiopian spongy sourdough flatbread.

Kachumbari (East Africa)

Like many simple salads, kachumbari (the Swahili name for fresh tomato-and-onion salad) is a summer dish in East African countries, particularly Kenya and Tanzania. It's almost like a garnish or salsa in its simplicity (just finely diced tomatoes and onions with chili, salt, cilantro and lemon juice) and is served with many dishes, just as coleslaw is a side dish in America that accompanies many meals. The longer it sits in the marinade, the better it tastes, which is why it's no surprise that rich meat and game dishes or heavier rice dishes are often served with kachumbari.