Doesn’t the word “salad” immediately bring to mind fresh, crunchy heads of Cos or lamb’s lettuce sprinkled with a light vinaigrette? Or the antipasto with the colours of the Italian national flag, tomato, mozzarella and basil, with a splash of olive oil and, optionally, aceto balsamico? And who could forget the noodle & leftovers salads from the times of wild partying or those turbulent kindergarten parents’ evenings? And then, of course, there’s potato salad and the never-ending debate whether you can/must/should make it with or without mayonnaise.

Salads feature in every cuisine in the world, and have done since the times when man was still roaming the countryside as a hunter-gatherer. Passed down from the Roman gourmet and cookbook author Marcus Gavius Apicius (born in 25 AD) is a recipe for cucumber salad with honey or sweet cooking wine, fleabane, fish sauce and wine. The word salad comes from the French salade, which in turn is derived from the Latin sal meaning salt. From the original salad made of leaves, shoots, blossom, herbs and spices, inventive housewives and knowledgeable cooks have in the course of history created an entire universe of different salad types – cold vegetables, enriched with meat and fish, mushrooms, fruit and nuts, and refined with all manner of delicious sauces.

Some regional and national salad compositions have even made it into the hallowed pages of international cookery books – salade niçoise and Caesar’s salad, Brussels, Dutch, Polish, Russian and Rhineland salads, to name but a few. Although the origins and inventors of some of these salads remain obscure, we do know exactly who dreamt up Waldorf salad, and when. The honours go to Oscar Tschirky, the Swiss maitre d’ and chef at the once famous New York hotel Waldorf-Astoria. In 1894 he had the idea of grating tart apples and raw celeriac, mixing them with a light mayonnaise and scattering chopped walnuts on top.

There are two simple explanations why salads are so popular and widespread around the world: in general they are quick to make and an excellent way of using up leftovers. The fact that they are also very healthy and easy to prepare didn’t use to be an important issue, but it is all the more so for us today. And in an age when we’re all keeping an eye on our figure, what once was just a starter or a snack can be transformed with little effort into a scrumptious main course.

In his 1854 book “Gastrosophy or the Doctrine of the Joys of Dining”, Eugen von Vaerst wrote: “Anyone who can make a good salad will without question be capable of writing a good book!” Just as notes are only joined together into music by melody and rhythm, it is the dressing that unites a salad’s disparate ingredients. Grated carrots are not a salad until they are mixed with a vinaigrette of oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. As a rule of thumb, light salad ingredients like lettuce and wild herbs call for a light dressing; heavy ingredients such as potatoes, noodles, rice and beans can also handle a dressing that is heavier and more complex.