The base, the body, the garnish and the dressing. Salads may or may not have all four parts.
There are five varieties of salad: leafy green salads made of mixed greens; vegetable salads made from 2 or more non-leafy green vegetables; combination salads made from a variety of ingredients, a cooked salad made from a main single cooked ingredient that is often �bound� with other ingredients; and congealed salads, which have a gelatin base.
There are five salad courses: an appetizer salad, usually made from exotic ingredients and depending on their garnish to carry the day; an accompaniment salad, designed to complete the meal or replace a vegetable course; a main course salad in which the salad is served as the meal, and usually comes with meat or cheeses; separate course salads that are used to cleanse the palate (these are often �composed� salads); and finally a dessert salad�to �end� the meal a dessert salad usually contains fruit, nuts, gelatin and/or cream.
All of which is to say a salad can be almost anything at all, with the exception, perhaps, that a salad can not be a soup.
The salad is a textural and color contrast to the rest of the meal. Most Americans think of salads in terms of cool and crisp because it provides the contrast to the hot and soft of the traditional American style main course.
But consider the cool creamy (not crisp) slaws that traditionally accompany crisp fried fish, or the warm German potato salad that is served with chilled beef and cold crisp pickles.
Salads are the counterpoint to the main dish (unless they are the main dish). There is probably nowhere on the table that the quality of the ingredients and presentation are more important, because a salad has no where to hide.
Wilted Island Salad