Salad Ingredients

Salads are the most versatile dishes that you can serve at any time, before meal as appetizers, as side dish, as main course, after meal and as desserts. The only thing is how you prepare them and which salad ingredients you use to suit the purpose of serving. For example, entrée salads are made with portions of meat and vegetables to provide sufficient nutrients, whereas dessert salads are made sweet with sugar and cream. Let's delve more on what all ingredients you can add to make delectable salad recipes.

Ingredient Options for Salads

Salad ingredients comprise both hot and cold items, usually with raw fruits and vegetables. In most cases, salads are served cold, while a few are served warm. They are an exclusive, yet tasty dish for people interested in having raw foods. Needless to say, salads are healthy foods, which you can include in your daily diet plan. Individuals who want to control their weight often have salads to reduce oil and fat intake. Listed below are ingredients used for different salads.

Fruit Salad Ingredients
Fruit salads are made by using variety of fresh seasonal fruits and dried fruits. You can chop the fruit ingredients into bite sized pieces and mix them. Following are ingredients used in fruit salads:

• Avocado
• Apple
• Papaya (both green and ripe)
• Pineapple
• Watermelon
• Blueberries
• Raspberries
• Strawberries
• Orange (as toppings)
• Grapefruit (as toppings)
• Nuts (cashew nuts, walnuts, etc.)
• Dried cranberries
• Mango
• Guava
• Grapes
• Banana

Green Salad Ingredients
Very often, green salads are recommended as diet foods, mainly because of the low calorie count. And to complement the blend taste, they are served with sauce and/or dressing. In order to make green salads, lettuce leaf and other greens are used. With reference to the ingredients added, they are also known as garden salads. You can use:

• Spinach
• Lettuce
• Arugula
• Green onion
• Cabbage
• Basil leaves
• Dandelion
• Mint
• Marjoram
• Parsley
• Thyme
• Nasturtium
• Chives
• Asparagus
• Celery

Vegetable Salad Ingredients
From the name itself, you already have gotten an idea regarding the ingredients of this salad. Indeed, you can add any vegetable that are eaten raw. The ingredients are cut into bite-sized pieces, which are then tossed before serving. Or else, you can also arrange them in a decorative manner. Vegetables that you can add include:

• Cucumber
• Tomatoes
• Radish
• Carrot
• Beet
• Onion
• Green bell pepper
• Red bell pepper
• Yellow bell pepper
• Cauliflower
• Broccoli
• Beans (chickpeas, kidney beans, etc.)
• Peas
• Pumpkin seeds
• Asparagus

Impart a tangy taste to green salads and vegetable salads by adding fresh lemon juice while tossing. In addition, cheese, mayonnaise, croutons, boiled eggs, grains, sprouts and favor culinary herbs are also added while making salads. You can also add pasta and noodles to a chicken salad. To make your salad dish taste better, remember to sprinkle salt, pepper, curry powder, vegetable oil or vinegar as per the recipe. Though deep-fried salads taste delicious, the calorie count is very high. Hence, serve them on occasional basis, but not frequently.

This was just a highlight about salad ingredients for the common dishes. You can prepare salads with any food ingredient that you can think of. In fact, add adequate portions of seafood, poultry, meat, grains and vegetables of your choice and you can call it a mixed salad. That explains the versatility of selecting ingredients for salads. If you do not have time to prepare ingredients for homemade salads, purchase those packaged salads sold in food stores. But, make sure that you include salads in your diet and reap the various benefits of having them.