Lettuce alone is sufficient, but not necessary. As soon as you omit lettuce it takes multiple ingredients.

So teeeeechnically, a salad is a dish composed of mixed ingredients. You could make the argument that you mix any two set of chopped ingredients and bingo bongo, it's a salad.

However, I like to think that dishes' ingredients aren't a taxonomic thing, they're a probabilistic thing. In other words, there's no such thing as "not salad" or "salad", only shades of saladness.

• Serve it cold? Ok it's saladier

• It's made up of chopped ingredients? Saladier still

• Those ingredients are mostly vegetables? Getting pretty saladish

• They're mixed together? Even more salad like

• They've got some sort of dressing mixed in? Now it's very likely a salad!

... and so on. To me, your SO'a dish has a pretty high Salad Probability^tm

Well, the cube rule of food says anything without a starch/bread is a salad, if you want an absurd authority to point to: https://cuberule.com/

I think 1 ingredient can be a salad as long as it's a very salady ingredient.

lettuce in a bowl is salad.

I would probably still call dressing on just lettuce a salad, although I would say it's an unusually basic one. 3 ingredients definitely counts.

One, if that ingredient is salad.

All you need is lettuce and salt. "Salad" is derived from the latin for salt: sal

Been there and found out that If you dig deep enough almost everything is either a salad or a soup

Can we first define "salad"?

If it's cold ingredients, mixed together, then wilted iceberg lettuce and a gas station dressing packet is salad.

So two.

I would argue the minimum number of ingredients is two.

Something in a bowl with a dressing is salad.

• Tomatoes + balsamic + olive oil = salad
• Romaine + Caesar dressing = salad
• Canned tuna + mayo = salad
• Cucumber + rice wine vin + sesame oil = salad

Salad is more fun with multiple ingredients, but everything up there is still salad

Two ingredients must be present for something to be a salad - a vegetable and a dressing. I make all sorts of salads. Some have lettuce, some don’t. I make salad with just fennel and an oil/vinegar dressing. I make salad with tomatoes & cucumbers with a dressing. What she ate was 100% a salad. This is a weird fight.

Potato salad is often just potatoes with chives and Mayonnaise. Your SO is chatting shit imho.

What about Kabelsalat?

it's a salad, it's just a terrible one

I grew up with the notion that chopped tomato sprinkled with coarse salt is a salad.

One vegetable and dressing is enough if you need a utensil to eat it. Example: cucumber salad.

Take lettuce for example.

If you put a lot of lettuce in a bowl.. What do you have? A Salad?

NO. You have a bowl of lettuce.

You put a second object in the lettuce bowl (Crouton, dressing, another veg, whatever), Now do you have a Salad?

Yes. You have a salad.

There is no maximum ingredient count for a salad, but you must have a minimum of two items for a salad.

You can make tomato salad with just tomato and onion.

I would say the important distinction is in presentation. Was it a bowl of onion and cucumber mixed together with ranch? If so salad. Was it a plate with a pile of cucumber and a pile of onion, with ranch for dipping? If so crudites.

2 minium?

• A base, such as lettuce, pasta, boiled potato or rice.
• Some salad-worthy veggie or fruit.

One. But it needs to be a vegetable AND have dressing AND be chopped into bite sized parts AND be raw.

If any of the previous conditions isn't met, then you need at least two ingredients.

So, yes, cucumbers and onion with ranch most definitely is a salad.

Carrot salad is just shredded carrots with dressing made from mustard mixed with oil, but I'd challenge you to take a bite of that and tell me it's not a salad.

Now mix up uncut baby carrots, celery sticks, cherry tomatoes, and cucumber slices. I'll give you a bowl of ranch, and if you pour it in try to eat it like a salad instead of using them as dip, there's something wrong with you

Salads aren't about ingredient counts, they're about preparation

As long as there's no structural starch it's a salad https://cuberule.com/

Oxford dictionary says:

Originally derived from the Latin sal for salt, meaning something dipped into salt. Now normally a dish of uncooked vegetables; either a mixed salad or just one item (commonly lettuce or tomato).

There is tomato salad. Just tomatoes, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.

https://cuberule.com/

If i chop up a cucumber and throw it in a bowl with some vinegarette, I call it a cucumber salad.

If you're telling me grapes in a bowl doesn't count as fruit salad, then I guess I've never had a salad.

Her salad did have multiple ingredients.

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.

When will the divorce be final?

Merriam Webster says :

*any of various usually cold dishes: such as

a: raw greens (such as lettuce) often combined with other vegetables and toppings and served especially with dressing

b: small pieces of food (such as pasta, meat, fruit, or vegetables) usually mixed with a dressing (such as mayonnaise) or set in gelatin*

As such, even just cucumber would suffice.

Edit: in dutch, a "salade" has to accompanied by a dressing or vinaigrette, thus very much limiting what a salad is.