"Massive salad"

[Sparklfairy]

I see it here all the time, it's the new mythical mumsnet chicken I think. In the recent lovely (and not so lovely) weather I've been eating a lot of salad, but I really want to know what other people think is a 'massive salad'.

So, AIBU to ask when you make a massive salad what you put in it and how much??

nosy

Of course.
Its completely made up, but based on other recipes I've seen, and I've tweaked a bit, quantities aren't necessarily specific either, but this is generally what I like.

Around a third of a standard piece of Danish blue cheese
A teaspoon or grated parmesan
Two finely sliced spring onions
Juice of quarter of a lemon
A shake of Worcester sauce
A dessert spoon of mayo
A dessert spoon of sour cream
Good few grinds of black pepper

Chuck it all in a mini chopper/blender, or if you don't have one, mix and thoroughly as you can to get a smoothish texture.
Add water to thin slightly, I like it to be about the consistency of double cream.
Taste, and add extra of any/all ingredients until it's right for you.
I don't use salt as it's full of salty ingredients but obvs you can.
eat with spoon

Its utterly amazing as a dressing for pasta salad with smoked bacon, halved baby plum tomatoes and black olives.
Also roast beef and caramelised onion baguettes.

@LyingWitchInTheWardrobe

Oh... a proper salad thread, I'm so impressed with some of these. I'm going to read through it properly now with a pen and paper to take notes.

I'm particularly interested in the 'white salad', aka Russian salad as we make this for Christmas Eve (along with a million other things) but it's been re-named as Italian salad for some inexplicable reason.

Our family's Italian salad has (everything in tiny cubes) - onions, gherkins, sliced ham, tinned carrots, boiled potatoes, tinned peas - maggi dressing/mustard/hot water - and shitloads of mayonnaise.

It gets mixed in a storage box, it's the most enormous salad!

You can't make juat a bit of Christmas salad 😁 It has to be a bucket! (not russian ha)

@IHaveBrilloHair

Thanks so much! That sounds bloody delicious.

It really is.
I think Danish blue is best for blue cheese dressing, but obviously use your favourite, roquefort is pretty good too, I think it needs the sharpness.
The parmesan is just to bring out the cheese flavour, Im a huge cheese fan!
A few drops of balsamic are good if you use a more mellow blue cheese.

Todays: lettuce and spinach, cucumber, tomatoes, avocado, asparagus, chicken, figs and goats cheese with walnuts. It was very nice.

Byron cobb salad - yum,

For me, if it's not eaten out of a mixing bowl, it's not a massive salad!

I LOVE cobb style salads. They are responsible for at least 30kg of my weight😂

Ooh yes to Russian salad! With grated boiled egg or tinned tuna or whole marinated anchovies on top.

Apple. Roquefort. Walnuts. Cherry toms. Cucumber. Green leaves. Croutons.

Lettuce. Cherry toms. Cucumber. Veggie bacon bits. Soft boiled egg over it all. Croutons.

I like greek salad too.

My normal salad: rocket, sundried tomato , 100g fetta, half avocado and fits in a cereal bowl.
My DH massive salad: all the above plus lettuce, sweetcorn, nuts, pasta or rice, eggs , a tin of tuna (around 2 or 3 times my salad in volume)

Spicy Cajun beef salad

Dinner tonight.

Lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, spring onions, beetroot, hard boiled egg, coleslaw, cottage cheese, new potatoes and either cooked chicken, tuna, salmon fillet or smoked salmon and prawns and sometimes tinned green beans

I’m enjoying the jumbo red spring onions they have in the shops just now. Yimmity yum

We had a fab salad tonight - spinach, chorizo, red pepper, butter beans, and goats cheese. Pudding afterwards though.

Lettuce
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Spring onion
Shredded carrots
Celery
Beetroot
Pickles (onions & gherkins)
Boiled Eggs
Coleslaw
Potato salad
Tuna/ham or chicken
Salad cream

Lettuce
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Spring onion
Shredded carrots
Celery
Beetroot
Pickles (onions & gherkins)
Boiled Eggs
Coleslaw
Potato salad
Tuna/ham or chicken
Salad cream

This is facist becoming my favourite thread. Pictures now and everything! 😃😃😃😃

[quote Lookingoutside]@cakewench

I’m with you on the dressing. I always have full fat Caesar or blue cheese. I find my salads come out at around 600 calories, there’s room for cheese, avocado and dressing because there’s no bread and not much, if any meat.[/quote]
Oh yes! Cardini’s Caesar is a treat (if not making my own, which I can and do when I have the time, but for a bottle one it’s lovely)

Salad can mean so many things. To me it's classic salad vegetables like carrot pepper Cucumber tomato sat on a bed of lettuce and a bit of coleslaw or potato salad on the side.
But my OH is from Eastern Europe, when he makes salad it's a huge dish of ingredients all mixed together with lashings of mayo & sour cream. It usually has a carb base (potato, rice, pasta) some protein (eggs, meat, fish, cheese) and then some fruit or veggies (Cucumber, tomato, apples, peas, pickles...)
We regularly make a huge bowl of it for bbqs, we tend to do potatoes, eggs, apples pickles and peas
We used to add some chopped ham too but since my daughter went veggie we dropped the ham and use more eggs instead. It doesn't sound great but it's actually delicious.

@forfucksakenett

Me too!

love bowl salad .....rocket,leaves,spinach,potato salad grated cheese ,onion, pepper,cous cous ,tomatoes, plenty of mayo

Here's a proposed approximate mathematical definition!

Massive salad (single serving) = over 300 cubic inches (over 5300 cubic cm), weighing over 500g, and containing more than 15 different (tasty) ingredients.

This was based on the following facts:

"Massive" depends on how many people the salad is for. So, a salad might not be so large one shared out between a large party. So, I presume that we could address it as a single salad for one person for just one meal.

Also, going by what many people written, it also means "with a diverse range of many ingredients".

Subsequently, I would combine these learned facts to say, a
"Massive salad" (per person per meal) would contain in excess of 15 ingredients and weigh in excess of 500g. However, with heavier ingredients (as in potato salad or coleslaw), this might not seem so large, so I would also include a volume factor, such as filling a round bowl that is 1 foot (30cm) wide and 3inches (7.5cm) deep.
This equates roughly to over 300 cubic inches (over 5300 cubic cm), weighing over 500g, and containing more than 15 different ingredients - per single serving.

Different foods have different amounts of water content (e.g. boiled potato versus baked potato), so the weight does not necessarily reflect the energy input (Calories or Joules).

If you wonder where I got 500g from, I based it on 2kg over 4 meals per day. But every person is different. Lettuce can take up a lot of volume without weighing much, so mixing lots of extra ingredients together helps make a salad more nutritious, tasty and heavier.

Here is a dietary quote (from www.quora.com/Approximately-how-many-grams-is-one-meal?share=1):

"An adult needs roughly 2 kg (2000 kcal, 8400 kJ) of food and water per day. Eyeballing this handy Dutch government chart that breaks down to:

25% * 2 kg = 500 grams of fruit/vegetable. (fast carb energy moderated by soluble fiber)
25% * 2 kg = 500 grams of cereal/bread/potato. (insoluble fiber bulk)
20% * 2 kg = 400 grams of dairy/meat. (protein energy for repair)

20% 2 kg = 400 ml of water. (hydration)

10% 2 kg = 200 grams of oil/fat. (slow carb energy and lubrication)*"

So if the "Massive salad" is over 500g and contains these proportions of fibre, protein, water, fat, carbohydrates, etc. then it should meet the average person's bodily needs. But bear in mind that a professional athlete would have different needs to a bus driver. So take it all with a pich of salt!