Items14The creator’s order
  1. 1Cobb saladCobb saladThe benchmark for a salad that eats like dinner: chicken, bacon, hard-boiled egg, avocado and blue cheese laid out in rows over chopped lettuce and tomato. Most accounts trace it to Robert Cobb at the Brown Derby in Los Angeles in 1937, though the date and creator are disputed. The work is in the…0
  2. 2Chef saladChef saladThe least effort on this list for a properly filling plate. Strips of ham, turkey and Swiss or Cheddar go over crisp lettuce with hard-boiled egg, tomato and cucumber, and the only cooking is the eggs. That makes it the salad to reach for on a weeknight when the fridge holds deli meat and not much…0
  3. 3Caesar saladCaesar saladOn its own a Caesar is a starter; with grilled chicken or a few anchovy-laced croutons the size of a thumb it becomes a meal, and the dressing is the reason to bother. Caesar Cardini is generally credited with improvising it at his restaurant in Tijuana on 4 July 1924, using romaine, egg, Parmesan,…0
  4. 4Taco saladTaco saladThe Tex-Mex answer for anyone who finds most salads too polite. Spiced beef or turkey mince, black or pinto beans, Cheddar, tomato, avocado and crushed tortilla chips over shredded iceberg add up to a plate as filling as a burrito, with more crunch. Skip the deep-fried tortilla bowl and a homemade…0
  5. 5Chinese chicken saladChinese chicken saladShredded chicken, cabbage and lettuce with crisp fried noodles or wonton strips, toasted almonds or sesame and a gingery soy and sesame dressing: a Southern California restaurant staple and one of the few big salads that is better a few hours after dressing. Madame Wu's Garden in Santa Monica is…0
  6. 6Salade niçoiseSalade niçoiseTuna, hard-boiled egg, black olives, anchovies and tomatoes make a composed plate with real staying power, and the version most people know adds boiled new potatoes and green beans, which turn it into a full dinner. Purists in Nice reject the cooked vegetables, and some insist on tuna or anchovies,…0
  7. 7Salade lyonnaiseSalade lyonnaiseProof that a salad can be bistro comfort food. Bitter frisée, hot fried lardons, butter-browned croutons and a poached egg come together under a sharp wine-vinegar vinaigrette, and breaking the yolk into the leaves makes a second, richer dressing. It is quick, about twenty minutes, but it has to…0
  8. 8French Lentil Salad with Goat's CheeseFrench Lentil Salad with Goat's CheeseThe best vegetarian option here for anyone who needs a salad to last until the evening. Small French green lentils, such as the protected Puy variety, keep their shape when cooked, so they take a robust mustard vinaigrette without turning to mush. Toss them while still warm with shallot, carrot,…0
  9. 9FattoushFattoushA Levantine bread salad that becomes a full meal with a tin of chickpeas and some crumbled feta. Crisp pieces of toasted or fried pitta soak up a lemon and olive oil dressing sharpened with sumac and, ideally, a spoonful of pomegranate molasses, over cucumber, tomato, radish, herbs and, in…0
  10. 10Gado-gadoGado-gadoIndonesia's great warm salad, and the most generous plate on the list. Blanched vegetables such as long beans, bean sprouts, cabbage and spinach go together with boiled potato, fried tofu, tempeh, hard-boiled egg and, traditionally, lontong rice cakes, all coated in a peanut sauce built from fried…0