My significant other ate cucumbers and onion with some ranch. I called it a cucumber onion salad. She says there aren’t enough ingredients to call it a salad, because “it takes multiple ingredients”. I pointed out she had three and asked what the minimum is. She refuses to answer so I ask Lemmy.
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.
If I heat pasta salad in the microwave, is it no longer a salad? Is a leftover portion of pasta a salad before it is reheated? I’m not sure temperature is a requirement.
Also I have to question calling two flavours of Jello “different things”, let alone calling 2 flavours of gelatine a salad, but I know Americans are more liberal with the word salad than other places.
Where I am you will rarely see the word salad used in relation to dishes that don’t contain some raw chopped vegetables, especially leafy green ones. Or it’s the dish’s imported original name, like potato salad. Fruit salad is the one exception to that, I think.
I think the temperature doesn’t work as part of the definition. If you’ve never had it, Taco Salad is served hot (the meat at least is, and usually the tortilla bowl is as well).
