My significant other ate cucumbers and onion with some ranch. I called it a cucumber onion salad. She says there aren’t enough ingredients to call it a salad, because “it takes multiple ingredients”. I pointed out she had three and asked what the minimum is. She refuses to answer so I ask Lemmy.
So here’s the interesting thing: salads with no leafy greens came first. The word (sallet) originally referred to salted vegetables, essentially pickles, which were eaten chopped with a binding sauce (e.g., garum). Think something reminiscent of relish, maybe.
Technically the thing with leafy greens is specifically a “garden salad”, but it’s been the most common type for so long (~400 years) that most folks think of it as the default.