So many different dishes are called salad that it’s hard to know what the term means. Many salads consist of raw leafy vegetables served cold or at room temperature with a dressing, but others have cooked vegetables, grains, nuts, fruit, cheese, seafood, or meats. They are usually served before, with, or after main courses of meals but can be substantial enough to stand on their own. Japanese and some Middle Easterners eat salad for breakfast. (So do I.) If there is one unifying quality of salads, it seems to be temperature: almost all of them are cold or cool. Warm salad is an oxymoron (even though you may encounter one). Because freshness is a large part of their appeal, salads should be put on the table soon after you make them; however, many of the ingredients in the recipes that follow can be prepped in advance for easy assembly. The range of salad possibilities here will, I hope, inspire you to try out variations and creations of your own.

Recipes marked veg are vegetarian, those marked v are vegan, and those marked gf are gluten-free. The symbols veg*, v*, and gf* indicate recipes that can be modified to be vegetarian, vegan, or gluten-free by substituting or omitting specific ingredients.