Rustic and Fresh Salad

It’s almost spring here in the Northern Hemisphere and the beautiful weather has put me in the taste for a good, fresh salad. Time to shed the heavy (though delicious) flavors of winter and fall and turn to more healthy and fresh tastes. Maybe those New Year’s resolutions don’t have to die after all! 🙂

I don’t know about you, but when I think healthy, I usually think of smoothies and salads. Salad may seem boring and plain, but it actually has an interesting and complicated history. Since time began, man has been eating some sort of natural element from the earth. Be it grain, fruit, or leafy greens. Produce and its cultivation have largely occupied mankind’s time.

The English word “salad” stems from the Latin word “sal” meaning salt. And this reflects the origins of the salad. They were first eaten by Greeks, Romans and Persians as a dish of salted vegetables often served with a dressing of oil and vinegar. It puts me in mind of pickles almost. They were rustic and hearty.

Salads eventually found their way all across the world from France to England and later America. Through the years, they have endured the ups and downs of various arguments about whether or not they were truly healthy for us or not! Many people use to believe that eating such “animal food” would hurt the human digestive system!

Salads have come a long way since their days as a humble side dish of greens dripping liquid. The modern salad now is full of not just a mixture of leafy greens like spinach, bibb and arugula, but also other delicious nutrient dense foods like cheese, fruit and nuts as well as other vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, broccoli, avocado, radishes, peppers and celery.