Here Is The Definitive History Of

Mankind's Finest Food: The Salad

05/29/2015 12:00am EDT | Updated December 7, 2017

Before the hamburger, before the burrito -- before even all-you-can-eat breadsticks --
there was the salad. (Cue dramatic music.)
According to the Oxford Dictionary of Food and Drink in America, mankind’s finest
vegetable creation was popularized way back in the Roman Empire. It first appeared in
the form of raw leafy vegetables covered in salty, oily dressing. (Indeed, the word salad
comes from sal, the Latin word for salt.) As the stupefying variety at your local salad
shop demonstrates, salads have increased in complexity through the ages. But the
Roman version -- the garden salad -- still lives with us today, largely unchanged.
To celebrate the leafy green-based meals' long and storied history, we've partnered
with Hidden Valley to explore the evolution of salad throughout the centuries -- from
the classic garden, to the WTF-worthy Jello, to the trendy kale options of today.