How many ingredients does it take to call it a salad?

Lettuce alone is sufficient, but not necessary. As soon as you omit lettuce it takes multiple ingredients.

So teeeeechnically, a salad is a dish composed of mixed ingredients. You could make the argument that you mix any two set of chopped ingredients and bingo bongo, it's a salad.

However, I like to think that dishes' ingredients aren't a taxonomic thing, they're a probabilistic thing. In other words, there's no such thing as "not salad" or "salad", only shades of saladness.

• Serve it cold? Ok it's saladier

• It's made up of chopped ingredients? Saladier still

• Those ingredients are mostly vegetables? Getting pretty saladish

• They're mixed together? Even more salad like

• They've got some sort of dressing mixed in? Now it's very likely a salad!

... and so on. To me, your SO'a dish has a pretty high Salad Probability^tm

Well, the cube rule of food says anything without a starch/bread is a salad, if you want an absurd authority to point to: https://cuberule.com/

lettuce in a bowl is salad.

I think 1 ingredient can be a salad as long as it's a very salady ingredient.

I would probably still call dressing on just lettuce a salad, although I would say it's an unusually basic one. 3 ingredients definitely counts.

One, if that ingredient is salad.

Been there and found out that If you dig deep enough almost everything is either a salad or a soup

I would argue the minimum number of ingredients is two.

All you need is lettuce and salt. "Salad" is derived from the latin for salt: sal

Can we first define "salad"?

If it's cold ingredients, mixed together, then wilted iceberg lettuce and a gas station dressing packet is salad.

So two.

Something in a bowl with a dressing is salad.

• Tomatoes + balsamic + olive oil = salad
• Romaine + Caesar dressing = salad
• Canned tuna + mayo = salad
• Cucumber + rice wine vin + sesame oil = salad

Salad is more fun with multiple ingredients, but everything up there is still salad

Potato salad is often just potatoes with chives and Mayonnaise. Your SO is chatting shit imho.

Two ingredients must be present for something to be a salad - a vegetable and a dressing. I make all sorts of salads. Some have lettuce, some don’t. I make salad with just fennel and an oil/vinegar dressing. I make salad with tomatoes & cucumbers with a dressing. What she ate was 100% a salad. This is a weird fight.

it's a salad, it's just a terrible one

One vegetable and dressing is enough if you need a utensil to eat it. Example: cucumber salad.

Take lettuce for example.

If you put a lot of lettuce in a bowl.. What do you have? A Salad?

NO. You have a bowl of lettuce.

You put a second object in the lettuce bowl (Crouton, dressing, another veg, whatever), Now do you have a Salad?

Yes. You have a salad.

There is no maximum ingredient count for a salad, but you must have a minimum of two items for a salad.

I grew up with the notion that chopped tomato sprinkled with coarse salt is a salad.

What about Kabelsalat?

One. But it needs to be a vegetable AND have dressing AND be chopped into bite sized parts AND be raw.

If any of the previous conditions isn't met, then you need at least two ingredients.

So, yes, cucumbers and onion with ranch most definitely is a salad.

I would say the important distinction is in presentation. Was it a bowl of onion and cucumber mixed together with ranch? If so salad. Was it a plate with a pile of cucumber and a pile of onion, with ranch for dipping? If so crudites.

Oxford dictionary says:

Originally derived from the Latin sal for salt, meaning something dipped into salt. Now normally a dish of uncooked vegetables; either a mixed salad or just one item (commonly lettuce or tomato).

As long as there's no structural starch it's a salad https://cuberule.com/

You can make tomato salad with just tomato and onion.

https://cuberule.com/

Carrot salad is just shredded carrots with dressing made from mustard mixed with oil, but I'd challenge you to take a bite of that and tell me it's not a salad.

Now mix up uncut baby carrots, celery sticks, cherry tomatoes, and cucumber slices. I'll give you a bowl of ranch, and if you pour it in try to eat it like a salad instead of using them as dip, there's something wrong with you

Salads aren't about ingredient counts, they're about preparation

If i chop up a cucumber and throw it in a bowl with some vinegarette, I call it a cucumber salad.

There is tomato salad. Just tomatoes, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.

If you're telling me grapes in a bowl doesn't count as fruit salad, then I guess I've never had a salad.

Her salad did have multiple ingredients.

Does "word salad" count?

Otherwise, 2, a vegetable and a dressing. Because nobody would call a bag of carrot sticks a salad.

Merriam Webster says :

*any of various usually cold dishes: such as

a: raw greens (such as lettuce) often combined with other vegetables and toppings and served especially with dressing

b: small pieces of food (such as pasta, meat, fruit, or vegetables) usually mixed with a dressing (such as mayonnaise) or set in gelatin*

As such, even just cucumber would suffice.

Edit: in dutch, a "salade" has to accompanied by a dressing or vinaigrette, thus very much limiting what a salad is.

Have a look at the bottle of ranch dressing, and count all the chemicals in there. Is the count of ingredients necessary for a salad now OK?

Heterogenous chunks served around or below room temperature are a salad. To be heterogenous, there must be at least two different things, so... two is the minimum, dressing doesn't count towards the total.

Cucumber slices with tajín? Not a salad.

Cucumber, tomato, and red onion dressed with tahini? Jerusalem salad.

Tuna mixed with mayonnaise? Not tuna salad.

Tuna mixed with celery and mayonnaise? Tuna salad (barely).

Lime jello? Not a salad.

Lime jello cut into cubes mixed with orange jello cut into cubes? Jello salad.

Cranberries stewed with spices and sugar? Not a salad, cranberry sauce.

Cranberry sauce mixed with mandarin oranges, cut pineapple, and walnuts, set into a bundt-shaped jello mold? Cranberry salad.

When will the divorce be final?

To bolster your point I regularly make something I call cucumber onion salad with cucumber, white onion, and oil w herbs, salt and pepper. To me, it's a salad if it focuses on seasoned raw ingredients, esp vegetables, served cold. There's also the confusion over things like chicken/tuna/egg deli salads focused on being eaten as a sandwich or w crackers, and Midwest "salads" for which all rules seem to be moot except that it's likely served cold.

Cut is as a prep step and it becomes a salad.

For me a salad is minimum of two uncooked ingredients.

Those ingredients you listed are literally the ingredients to a dish called cucumber salad. Though usually the dressing is more of an vinegary Italian dressing instead of ranch. Just Google it.

https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/cucumber-salad

My girlfriend calls lettuce salad. A bowl of lettuce she calls a salad

There is a centuries-old simple salad recipe involving just cucumbers, onions, vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper.

Anyone saying you can't have a salad out of cucumber, onions, and dressing...is wrong.

I've often had spinach, some shredded cheese, and a vinaigrette and called it salad.

Potato and Mayo = potato salad. So I would say two is the minimum. A bowl of lettuce on its own is not a salad. A salad is a classification of coke, (mainly) vegetable based dishes.

I mean when you put chopped iceberg lettuce and tomatoes, it's a salad... So... Two?

I talked with a expert (my one friend who knows how to use a knife) and the conclusion is: any vegetable that is served in a different plate.

It's a well-known fact that the "L" in "salad" stands for lettuce. So no lettuce, no salad.

I grew up eating green salads without dressing, because the dressings my parents favored were so salty and acidic they hurt my mouth. Lettuce, sliced tomatoes, carrots, celery, maybe cucumber.

These days I usually go for a "Mediterranean" salad with greens, olives, feta or similar cheese, cucumber, tomato, bell peppers, herbs, and a splash of olive oil.

If you're making it for a group of people, finding a good mix of vegetables for a salad involves excluding the ones that someone doesn't like. I don't like zucchini or asparagus. One of my housemates can't abide celery. One friend doesn't like jicama. Another friend is okay with red bell pepper but can't abide green bell pepper. Making a salad everyone enjoys seems to be partly about getting all these preferences right and then balancing what's left.

A salad is at least one ingredient chopped up and tossed with some kind of dressing. This basically requires at least two ingredients. One chopped solid and one liquid dressing. Could be cucumbers and vinegar. Could be lettuce with ranch dressing. Obviously salads with more ingredients than two or three are probably gonna be better, but I think you could call cucumbers and onions chopped up and tossed with ranch a salad for sure.

I know people who's primary salad is just tomatoes and cucumbers with nothing else... no salt, no pepper, no onion, no dressing, no oil... I still consider it a salad, just not a good one.

Nachos are just upgraded taco salad.

I went to a party where everyone was supposed to bring a salad and vote on the best one. I brought the nachos. The vote was unanimous.

My favourite salad is good lettuce, sliced onion, salt, red wine vinegar, and olive oil. Also cucumber and onion is multiple ingredients.

I'd say at least 5. I have had many great salads and I have also had salads that were just bowls of lettuce...😂

Going by the Wikipedia first paragraph definition any two items mixed together can be a salad.

A salad is a dish consisting of mixed ingredients, frequently vegetables. They are typically served chilled or at room temperature, though some can be served warm. Condiments and salad dressings, which exist in a variety of flavors, are often used to enhance a salad.

Two veggies and some type of sauce is a salad. A proper salad has a variety of veggies, meat, cheese, crunchy bits and sauce.