Salad is a mixture of foods, usually including vegetables or fruits, often with a dressing or sauce, occasionally nuts or croutons and sometimes with the addition of meat, fish, pasta or cheese. Salad is often served as an appetizer before a larger meal. The word "salad" comes from the French salade of the same meaning, which in turn is from the Latin salata, "salty", from sal, "salt", (See also sauce, salsa, sausage). Green salad The "green salad" or "garden salad" is most often composed of some vegetables, built up on a base of leaf vegetables such as one or more lettuce varieties, spinach, or rocket . The salad leaves are cut or torn into bite-sized fragments and tossed together (called a tossed salad), or may be placed in a predetermined arrangement. Other common vegetables in a green salad include tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, mushrooms, onions, spring onion, red onions, carrots and