Okay, since we're talking definitions, salsa literally means "sauce". Many spicy salsa condiments outside of Latin America (where they'd just laugh at both of us) are liquid and have few or no chunks. When we say "salsa" here without any qualifiers, we usually mean salsa picante (spicy), even if it includes sweet fruit like mango or peach. I've never heard of a salsa which must be bigger dice than pico de gallo, which is chunkier than most salsa picante in my world. If that's your definition, or common where you live, I'm happy you said so in your top post, so we'll have no misunderstandings.

I've also had many a chopped salad without lettuce, and actually few that do have lettuce. More likely to have cabbage, but some have no leafies at all. So again, thank-you for setting up your question with your definitions. Our "chopped" salad is where all the ingredients are chopped to a similar size, including any leaves/greens, and mixed together, before they're dressed.

Here, in the USA, a "tossed salad" is one in the components are literally tossed, either with utensils or by shaking the bowl) to distribute the dressing evenly. It does usually have a plethora of leaves because those are the hardest to coat evenly, but one could, in theory, toss anything. A standard "green salad" would be one which is usually served with a base of greens and various other ingredients on top--not tossed, and often taken with the dressing on the side for the person eating it to decide how much to use and how tossed-ish it should be.

I agree with the "next to" vs. "on top" since a salad is a dish in itself, and a salsa is a condiment.

So, then there are other parts of the world where the word for "salad" has a different range of meaning. In Hebrew, for instance, salad includes purees like chumus and baba ganouj, anything cut up and dressed like carrot salad, capnoata, or tuna salad, and chopped, green or tossed salad. One might put ten small dishes of various salads of different flavors and textures on the table rather than one large composed salad, and in a restaurant, there might be a "salad plate" that has 6-8 components of a similar variety.

Salad and sauce (salsa) have so many different meanings, I don't think it's possible to narrow down an exact meaning. "Escalator" has a pretty specific meaning, not so much salad and salsa. If you tell people your definitions, like you told us, there will be no confusion.

The only fruit that must be in salsa is chilies. You can add tomatoes or tomatillos, but these are the only fruit that I ever put in salsa. Salsa can be a fine mince - smaller than pico de gallo.

Salad definitely does not have to have lettuce. I frequently make kale salad without lettuce, for example.

Salad belongs in a separate bowl or plate - not next to the main ingredient, and salad is often its own course and not served at the same time as the main course.

A chopped salad is one were all the ingredients are cut or 'chopped' to approximately the same size....even any greens that might be included. But greens are not a requirement....there are many variations on a chopped salad that do not require lettuce or cabbage or spinach, etc. but focus on other ingredients,

Salsa is a sauce or garnish....more of a condiment than an actual meal or part of a meal. Would not even consider it in the same breath as a salad. More like ketchup.....or cranberry sauce.

I too am of the camp that a salad does not have to have lettuce. A chopped salad is just chopped ingredients that can be tossed or composed, can be dressed at time of making or dressed on the side. It can be it's own main dish, a starter dish, or a side dish to accompany something else.

I'm sure I've never seen a salsa with a half inch dice in it- that is more like a chopped tomato salad. The salsa I've encountered is a much finer mince or puree with more liquid than pico de gallo, and is usually a sauce since the name of it literally is sauce. Pico de gallo is a fine dice that isn't as minced or pureed as salsa is and has less liquid than salsa.

Remember, these things mean different things in different places.

Thanks for all the replies and infomation. My definitions were a way of asking if I was right in thinking this way. From what you have all kindly pointed out, I am coming to understand that ‘my salsa’ is really a chopped salad as I didn’t realise the ingredients needed to be chopped so fine.

I think many people where I live use the term of salsa (sauce) to mean a small container of chopped salad.

That's interesting - where are you?

Hi carolb, I’m in Melbourne Australia. When it comes to food it seems to me as well as having our own preferences and ways of doing things, we are influenced by other countries. In the past more so UK US and perhaps Italy maybe Greek food as well. Lately SEAsia has dominated our food style of cooking.

Hmmmmm… ‘chopped salad‘ isn’t a term used here, but I would interpret it as a side dish consisting of chopped fresh vegetables that might also include cheese, meat, nuts, etc., and has some dressing or sauce pre-mixed with it.

In this area, a tossed salad is always primarily lettuce/leafy greens with some small amount of other vegs, like sliced red onion, grape tomatoes, cucumber slices, olives, etc., and the choice of salad dressing is ordinarily served on the side. Once you add cheese, meat, etc., it’s called something else (e.g., antipasto). Otherwise, salad is a generic term.

Generically, I think of salsa as usually being cooked — served as a condiment or dip with tortilla chips. lol! For me, Pico de gallo is basically a salsa fresca with a larger chop… and I like cucumbers in mine. :)

I agree with party music’s idea of tossed salad ’primarily lettuce/leafygreens with some small amount of added vegs’ but with usually a french vinaigrette tossed through at the last minute. Here we would serve that with a steak or grilled chicken fillet or lamb chops. I believe it originates from what would be the salad course in France

'Chopped salad' seems like it started as a California thing IMPO. Then there's Cobb salad, where various ingredients are sliced and diced and arranged separately on a platter, that's considered a classic now. Isn't chopped salad rather similar, but in smaller pieces?

Some examples from Google Images...

Cobb Salad:

Chopped Salad (from GOOP):

I also really do not use the terms "chopped salad" or "tossed salad" and so I wonder where they come from.

I do consider Cobb salad to be a form of chopped salad, and IMO it should never be tossed, although restaurants will often ask if you want it that way, and I always say no. I guess Caesar (or Cesar) salad is a form of tossed salad, and I make that often.

My favorite salad to make is Crab Louis, and I serve more like a Cobb salad, with all of the ingredients laid out on the plate. Like Cobb salad, I consider it a main course.

I often order Cobb salad in restaurants, but I prefer to make Crab Louis at home, as a general rule. I much prefer my own Louis salad dressing to what I get in restaurants. Sometimes they make it sweet, and I strongly dislike sweet salad dressing, unless it is specifically for a fruit salad.

There are accepted culinary definitions for each of these terms so I have to wonder why there seems to be so much confusion. And we can add to the list a 'composed' salad, which is what a Cobb salad or a Nicoise salad is. A tossed salad is just that...the ingredients, whatever they are, are tossed together, often with the dressing, before serving. And a Caesar salad can be both tossed or composed, depending on your preference for presentation :-)

Salsa or even pico de gallo doesn't really fit the definition of a salad at all as it is a condiment rather than a stand alone serving or meal.

It isn't mysterious or confusing. But we have a grey area where a spouse might suggest a 'chopped garden fresh veg' to go with a prepared protein. It may have been more like a salsa in the past. 'Salsa' and 'salad' are blanket umbrella tems that mean so many things. Tossed, torn, wedge, shredded, minced. Crudo, chunky, roasted, fresh, ...add peach, avocado, green or ripe mango. Shred brussel sprouts, cauliflower, kale, carrots, golden beets....pickled red onion, ramen eggs, hijiki, ... potato salad, egg salad, chicken salad, tuna nicois, asian, mediteranian, italian, greek,...rainbow. Caesar, cobb. When we order we have classic visual expectations.

I can make a minced salad that seems like a salsa. A pico that should be a 'sauce' but is a salad. Served as a salad. Under a chunk of watermelon and feta.

I've had a fresh salsa avocado chopped salad but i can visualize what that means. I just ask. It can be a small side or a meal. Price never detemines the outcome depending on the restaurant.

I've been making fresh, new to me, 'minced' and 'shredded' salad sides for the past few weeks. Tossed with chunkier veg. Capers and green olives like a muffelata salad. Nice addition to a salmon or tuna salad bowl for lunches.

Cobb salad originated at the Brown Derby restaurant in Los Angeles. It was named after the owner so there can be no confusion. It's a specific thing, though, of course, there's drift. There should be a bed of mixed iceberg, romaine, endive and watercress, but this is often abbreviated to just lettuce. The top is covered with sections of ingredients including chicken, eggs, bacon, Roquefort cheese or blue, and a couple others , commonly served as stripes on an oval chop plate, but orignally, IIRC, less precisely in a round dish. Never in a bowl. There is also a specific vinaigrette style dressing, but in restaurant service that has morphed to a creamy blue cheese dressing when blue cheese became expensive. To be called a Cobb, even with drift, you must have the areas (stripes) of toppings on the lettuce base.

The “chopped salad“ is also from Los Angeles and is entirely different, though the Cobb toppings are diced. The origins were simpler, but the chopped salad became a Thing at upscale Itaian restaurants, and combined standard salad ingredients with the meats (especially salami) and cheeses from a typical antipasto charcuterie plate. There's enough fat that it doesn't need salad dressing, and is often served with an acidic vinaigrette, or lemon wedges, to brighten it up. In a chopped salad all the ingredients are chopped to the same size and mixed together. The emphasis is that you get eveything in every bite without working at it.

Cesar’s salad is also a specific thing, from a restaurant in Tijuana, and named after the maitre d’ or owner depending on who is telling the tale. There is extensive drift in ingredients from the original, but the commonly accepted version for decades had romaine, raw eggs, lime or lemon juice, worcestershire sauce, anchovies, grated parmesan cheese and croutons, and some less specific ingredients, such as oil, etc.

During a massive lettuce crop fail, during which iceberg was sometimes unattainable and very dear if you could get it, but romaine was plentiful and reasonably priced (it had previously cost a lot more), restaurants started pushing small ”cesar salads” as sides for dinner. Previously, they'd been an entree (main meal) dish in fancy glory. The side version put more and more of the flavor ingredients in the dressing, until it was reduced to romaine, parm and croutons, and whatever dressing you wanted.

This was really simple and cheap to make, even with the cheese, so they kept pushing it after the crisis, and the relative price of romaine stayed low because of increased demand (they planted more). Sometime in there, they also bred some of the harshness out of the flavor of romaine, which was known for bitterness. So, once they'd trained diners to accept this new stripped down ”cesar”, they started building it up again with new ingredients and dressings, like the ”Southwest Cesar”, which has very little in common with an actual cesar salad, to the point where ”cesar” nowadays means salad built on a bed of romaine.

Drift is enevitable, thank the masses. Or whoever.

Like i said, a cobb is a cobb, a nicois is as it should be by name or close.

Today progressive (?) salads. I don't mind the origins but like fresh chopped, diced, whatever...

I care less about past names and what they should be. I just want fresh torn, chopped, etc like mentioned. Fresh. Call it what you want. Order what you want. Chopped and dressed or side dressing. Custom or David Chang's.

Sweetgreen is not a help-your-self salad 'sneeze-guard' venue. Chopped and chunky or dressed.

I have no interest in a debate about what is what. Google image salsa, google image chopped salad. All over the place. Just because 'salsa' means 'sauce' in a trasnslation in another language other than english american....many american salsas are processed, canned, tinned...like ketchup. Make it how you like it like your perfect eggs.

I don't disagree, but the subject of this thread was what the names of the salads are.

I watched a show yesterday on Niçoise salads, and it showed some interesting variations that are native to Nice. Personally, I think that the salads do need to have Niçoise olives, but they do not need to have potatoes. I always make mine with fresh tuna that I grill specifically for the salad.

Interesting to read all the above explanations. Curious the origins of these individual salads.

In my personal cooking world, I only came across the terms chopped salad and salsa relatively lately, about maybe 10 years, salsa more. I therefore don’t have an established concept of them since childhood like I do with, say a tossed salad or Salad Nicoise.

I know it’s discouraged to talk about other threads but I can’t help but refer to the What’s for Dinner thread where a poster was helpful in mentioning that there is also a salsa crudo (chunky) that can be served a little on the protein as well as next to it. I think this is the source of my confusion about Salsa.

Over the last couple of years it has become common usuage between my friends, family and I to refer to making a Grain Salad. We know what we mean... contains perhaps lentils or quinoa or barley or all three with the usual tomato, lettuce, green/red onion etc. I have no idea if this is a term being used in restaurants as hubby and I haven’t been to one for about 18 months. No I lie, we did go for an outside meal at a country pub a few months ago, but that was a good steak, chips and a basic tossed salad.

Salsa cruda (raw sauce) is another name for pico de gallo (rooster's beak, which has some wild origin stories, but I learned (right or wrong) as a kid that it was called that because it was like chicken scratchings). I think the chunky aspect, which some hold to, comes from the false cognate, and people thinking it means "crude" as in the opposite of elegant or suave. We have that with small crustaceans here, where people laughing at "jumbo shrimp" pushed stores into advertising them as "jumbo prawns" so some people think prawns are bigger than shrimp, whereas they're both the same thing. That is, the difference is that in England and Australia they say "prawn" and in the USA we say "shrimp". There are eleven species that are called shrimp, or prawns, so the main problem with using "prawn" to mean big shrimp is that most people won't know you mean size. :) OTOH, if the big dice of tomatoes is called "salsa" in your neighborhood, there's no reason not to go along with it.

As long as the people in your orbit know what you mean, it works. Like your grain salad, where only one of the alternatives is a grain (we do have similar things, but I don't know that there's any pervasive name for it--more likely to be something specific like "tropical quinoa salad" because it has mango and avocado in it). It doesn't matter! You all know what you mean. Terminology needn't come from restaurants. It's just that the names of two of the three specific salads discussed above did. And if you're concerned about what to call it here in CF, a little description always works. Though I think most of us know that "chips" means "french fries". :)