The best salads in the world

Salad is a very popular appetizer. Salads come in many different variations. Here are some of the best salads in the world .

Salad is said to have originated from the ancient Roman practice of dipping romaine lettuce in salt—'herbe salata' means 'salted leaf'.

Centuries after the concept emerged in ancient Rome, for some people, salad may conjure up images of a salad plate with a buffet of mixed vegetables, grains, and possibly meat; for others, it is a bowl of warm grains (like farro salad) or a salad without any lettuce at all (like macaroni or potato salad, or cole slaw). Some people consider salad to be a cold, processed, and chopped side dish, while others turn salad into a full meal by adding a variety of proteins.

In short, the key to a good salad is fresh ingredients, texture, and a well-balanced dressing. No matter how it's served, salads can say a lot about a place. From Greece to Mexico to Ethiopia to Japan, it's not just about the ingredients (vegetables, herbs, leaves) or the seasonings, dressings, and textures—there's often a story behind the recipe that evokes the time, place, and availability of the produce. Here are some of the best salads from around the world.

1. 1 1

   Panzanella (Italy)

   

    

   Italian bread salad, or Panzanella, begins with leftovers: specifically, day-old bread. At New York's beloved Via Carota, Italian chefs Jody Williams and Rita Sodi serve a best-selling Tuscan-style panzanella salad—not too soggy, using aged sherry vinegar, which may be the key to the dish's perfection. Their recipe calls for shredded pieces of day-old country bread to be soaked in a salty sherry vinegar mixture, drained of the brine, and mixed with chopped green onions, ripe tomatoes, cucumbers, and celery, then dressed with olive oil and basil. The salad's origins date back centuries, as a cheap meal prepared by Tuscan peasants using leftovers and local produce.

2. 2 0

   Salade Niçoise (France)

   

    

   Niçoise is a style of French cooking, particularly from the city of Nice, where the famous restaurateur and royal chef, Auguste Escoffier, perfected the Salade Niçoise by adding potatoes and green beans to a mixture of anchovies, Niçoise olives, capers, tuna, hard-boiled eggs and cherry tomatoes on Boston lettuce. It is light yet hearty and full of flavor.

3. 3 0

   Yusheng (Singapore)

   

    

   To welcome a lucky new year, Singaporeans and Malaysians will toss Yusheng (or yee sang), a sweet and sour raw fish salad, known as 'prosperity dish' (or lo hei). Yusheng can be translated as 'raw fish' and also means 'increase in prosperity' in Chinese, making it a popular Lunar New Year appetizer and ceremonial dish. At a typical gathering, each ingredient is placed on a plate, with the host sprinkling nuts, seeds, spices and sauces on top of the salad. Participants toss the ingredients—shredded vegetables such as carrots, daikon radish, yams, cucumbers and pickled ginger, along with the raw fish—as high as they can with their chopsticks while expressing good wishes for the new year.

4. 4 0

   Narangi Salad (India)

   

    

   Indian chef Asma Khan writes in her cookbook, 'Monsoon: Delicious Indian Recipes for Every Day and Season' that despite being a hot and humid place, India doesn't have many salads compared to Mediterranean cultures. Of course, they eat fresh vegetables with their meals, and one particular salad - a spicy vegetable and citrus dish called Narangi salad, made with oranges, sliced ​​red or green peppers, carrots, cabbage and cloves. It is dressed with a honey vinegar mixture that tastes sour, salty, sweet and fresh.

5. 5 0

   Katzutz Salad (Israel)

   

    

   Israeli-American chef Michael Solomonov writes in his best-selling cookbook, 'Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking,' that this Israeli salad has Arabic origins, and is often called the Arabic Salad but is found on every table in Israel. Made with simply chopped cucumbers, tomatoes and fresh parsley, the vegetables are tossed in a bowl with olive oil, kosher salt and lemon juice. In the Middle East, these refreshing ingredients are ubiquitous. Plus, since tomatoes and cucumbers are grown year-round, this salad is popular and inexpensive.

6. 6 0

   Shredded Salad with Jicama and Pumpkin Seeds (Mexico)

   

    

   At Cruz del Sur in Brooklyn, chef Hugo Orozco serves authentic Guadalajaran dishes, including a popular Mexican-style shredded salad with jicama. Native to Mexico and commonly found in South American cuisine, jicama adds a sweet crunch to any salad, and it does so especially well in this shredded salad, which features Persian cucumbers, navel oranges, pineapple, onions, cilantro, and chilies, topped with roasted pumpkin seeds and sliced ​​avocado. Plus, the salad's avocado vinaigrette, made with Tajín, a lime-pepper salt, is also drizzled over the salad.

Marvin Fry

Update 20 June 2025