celery are very good; also young spinach
leaves, dandelion leaves, endive, sorrel and young nasturtium leaves.

Then there are the onion family (for those who can take them), the
tender kinds, such as spring onion, chive and shallot being very good
when chopped finely and used as a minor ingredient in any salad.

The root vegetables should also be added in their season, raw carrot,
turnip, beet, artichoke and leek, all finely grated.

A taste for all the above-mentioned vegetables, eaten raw, is not
acquired all at once. It is best to begin by making the salad of the
ingredients usually preferred and mixing in a small quantity of one or
two of the new ingredients.

For those who find salads very difficult to digest, it is best to
begin with French or cabbage lettuce and skinned tomatoes only, or, as
an alternative, a saucerful of watercress chopped very finely, as one
chops parsley.

Any salad, however made up, should be served in as dainty and pleasing
a fashion as possible. It is, perhaps, usually best to serve it ready
chopped and shredded, and to allow each person at the table to take
his or her own helping of "dressing."

English people seldom serve salad in the French fashion--that is,
quite dry, save that the dressing is well mixed in an hour before the
meal. Readers who have been to France may have seen French peasant
women whirling a wire salad-basket round their heads in order to dry
the materials after the cleansing has been done. When dry, the
green-stuff is torn with the hands, the dressing (and the French know
all about salad dressings) is added and the whole allowed to stand
some little time, so that by the time the meal is served there is a
complete blending of all flavours.

Not everyone likes this method; but it is certainly better than the
customary method here, which too often leaves a little puddle of water
at the bottom of the bowl.

There are many ways of preparing good salad dressing without resort to
vinegar, salt and pepper. The two prime necessities are (1) really
good oil and (2) some kind of fresh fruit juice. Most people prefer
lemon juice or the juice of fresh West Indian limes, well mixed into
either olive oil, nut oil or a blended oil such as the "Protoid Fruit
Oil" or Mapleton's Salad Oil. The ordinary "salad oils" obtainable at
grocers are seldom to be recommended; they almost invariably contain
chemical preservatives and other adulterants. It is better to have the
best oil