Top 10 Best American Salads | American Best Food

Salads are the simplest and most popular appetizer. No family meal or holiday feast can do without them. They are a necessary part of any hearty lunch or dinner. Cooking salads was one of the most ancient occupations in the world, and the first mention of this type of dishes dates back to ancient Rome. And while the variety of salads around the world these days knows no bounds, today we will introduce you to the legendary salads of American cuisine. Hi! You're on the Best American Food channel, and this is a selection of the 10 most delicious American salads. 10. Macaroni Salad Usually an obligatory element of the Hawaiian plate lunch, macaroni salad is a slightly tangy, sweet, cold salad consisting of overcooked elbow macaroni pasta dressed with milk-thin mayonnaise. The pasta must be overcooked as it helps absorb the dressing. Just like most popular dishes, there is a wide variety of regional versions that include added ingredients such as tuna, tomatoes, onions, parsley, garlic, salami, bell peppers, or shredded chicken. Apart from its token presence in the Hawaiian plate lunch, it is commonly served as an accompaniment to fried chicken or barbecued meat. 9. Classic American Potato Salad Borrowing heavily from the diverse cuisine of the southern states of the United States is the classic potato salad. It is a heavy salad consisting of cubed and boiled potatoes, sliced hard-boiled eggs, onions, fresh or pickled cucumbers, celery and a decent topping of mayonnaise or sour cream. Add some salt, pepper and vinegar for enhanced taste. It is suitable for lunch due to its consistency, and you can have it with some corn bread or buns. It is also nutritious, providing all vital nutrients in just one bowl. This summer salad is traditionally served with grilled meat. 8. Crab Louie Crab Louie is an American salad dating back to the beginning of the 20th century. The salad is prepared with a combination of dungeness crab meat, tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, asparagus, hard-boiled eggs, and louie dressing which based on chili sauce and mayonnaise. Olives, green onions, and bell peppers are optional, but can be added in salad if desired. The origins of the dish are quite murky, but many sources claim that the dish was served as early as 1914 in a San Francisco restaurant called Solaris. This tasty salad is mostly served as an appetizer. 7. Ambrosia Salad Considered to be both a salad and a dessert, Ambrosia is a staple of numerous potlucks and a Christmas tradition in the southern United States. It typically consists of pineapples, mandarin oranges, coconut, and mini marshmallows, but it can also be enriched with ingredients such as bananas, strawberries, pecans, cherries, whipped cream, yogurt, or cottage cheese. Today, this salad is regularly prepared during the Christmas festivities in the American South due to ingredients, which were once thought of as luxurious and exotic. 6. Chinese Chicken Salad Despite its name, Chinese Chicken Salad is an American dish, believed to be invented by an Austrian chef named Wolfgang Puck who is doing Asian fusion cuisine in America. Others claim that the dish was invented during the 1930s, somewhere in the United States. Regardless of the origins, the salad, consisting of romaine lettuce, shredded chicken, vegetables, fried noodles, and almonds is popular throughout the states. The Chinese part in its name refers to the numerous Chinese-style seasonings such as soy, sesame, and ginger. Today, there are many versions of the salad, with added mandarin orange slices, peanut sauce, or bean sprouts. 5. Waldorf Salad Waldorf Salad had been invented in 1896 by Oscar Cherky, a dining room manager at New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Originally, the salad consisted of apples, celery, and mayonnaise, and was a huge success. Interestingly, finely chopped walnuts were added to the salad much later, in 1928, although most people associate the salad with walnuts as the key ingredient. Today, Waldorf Salad is usually served cold as an appetizer, on a bed of lettuce, while ingredients such as chicken, raisins, or grapes are sometimes added in the modern versions of this elegant dish. 4. Coleslaw This salad is nowadays a true American staple and a side dish that's often served with barbecued meat or fried chicken. It consists of shredded cabbage, mayonnaise, carrots, buttermilk or sour cream with vinegar, sugar, and other seasonings, depending on the cook and regional variations. Some of the variations have other ingredients such as salad dressings, celery seeds, grated cheese, pineapple, or peppers. However, the only consistent ingredient in coleslaw is shredded cabbage. The salad is always served chilled, and it's commonly used in hamburgers, sandwiches, and hot dogs. 3. Cobb Salad A shining example of American ingenuity and creativity, Cobb Salad was invented in the 1930s at the Brown Derby, a famous Los Angeles restaurant whose owner, Robert Cobb, found some leftovers in the kitchen, hard-boiled eggs, salad greens, chicken breast, avocado, chopped bacon, tomatoes, and Roquefort cheese among them. He tossed all of the ingredients with some salt, pepper, and a vinaigrette consisting of olive oil, red vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, and Worcestershire sauce, and Cobb Salad started its way toward fame. The composed salad's popularity relies entirely on the careful preparation of each ingredient and their distinct textures, from juicy over crunchy to creamy. Thanks to a variety of movie stars who ate Cobb Salad at the restaurant, the dish rose to stardom, becoming a symbol of Californian cuisine. Although the restaurant is closed today, the tradition of consuming Cobb Salad remains a staple of American food. 2. Caesar Salad It's a rare case where a popular salad has an exact author. He is Caesar Cardini, owner of an American bar in Tijuana, on the Mexican border. As the legend goes, Caesar invented in 1924 a strange mixture of romaine lettuce, croutons and grated parmesan dressed with a special sauce that was the essence of the recipe. Eggs, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce were the base of the sauce that eventually conquered the whole world. Later, the salad evolved to restaurant level by adding chicken or shrimp to the recipe and anchovies to the dressing, and even later, Dijon mustard. Like many other world-famous dishes, Caesar Salad was invented through pure ingenuity and improvisation. 1. Poké It is a traditional Hawaiian dish made of small pieces of fresh fish or seafood combined with finely chopped vegetables, herbs, seasonings and sauces. Over the past few years, Poké has gained incredible popularity across the planet and has become a major trend in the culinary world. Although traditional Poké uses either tuna or octopus, variations of this dish are endless these days, including Poké with salmon, mussels, crab meat or oysters, as well as vegetarian versions with diced avocado, various vegetables and fruits. Poké is usually consumed alone as an appetizer, or with steamed white rice for a full meal. If you've heard about this dish, but have never tried it, now is the time to do it. What's your favorite American salads? Share your opinions on today's selection in the comments, subscribe to my channel not to miss the next interesting video about the best American food, and I say goodbye to you until the next video. Thank you all, bye, everyone.