The classic English Garden Salad is Britain's favourite, according to a new poll carried out by Unbeleafable to mark the launch of the nation's first National Salad Week, taking place from 1 – 7 June 2024.
Despite the growing popularity of food from Europe and the USA, in the UK, when it comes to the green stuff, almost half of respondents (46 per cent) opted for the English Garden Salad, which features produce which can be grown in a UK garden and typically includes lettuce leaves, tomatoes, cucumbers and radishes or spring onions.
Number two was a creamy potato salad, with Caesar salad coming in at third place. A Greek salad was in fourth place, and the French Niçoise salad and the US Waldorf salad were numbers 8 and 9 respectively.
The study of 2,000 Brits found that we are big salad fans: a massive 91 per cent eat salad, and a convincing 41 per cent of the nation love their greens, with one in three regularly munching salads as their main evening meal, and only eight per cent not being able to tolerate the green stuff.
And it seems that, although there is no shortage of new exotic foods nowadays in UK supermarkets, Brits still highly rate the same salad ingredients as their grandparents did, with traditional favourites like tomatoes, cucumbers and crunchy leaves coming out top in the question of what helps to make a salad delicious, and trendier more modern ingredients such as quinoa, and alfalfa sprouts languishing in last place.
43 per cent of people loved the addition of protein, such as cheese or chicken, and 41 per cent said a glug of olive oil made a positive difference to a salad.
The survey also revealed that nearly half of Brits (49 per cent) would find it a major turn-off if a dinner date left their leaves, and almost a third (27 per cent) would not dream of going on a second date with someone who left leaves on their plate in a restaurant – or worse, picked them out of a sandwich or burger.
In fact, according to the poll, it is not acceptable for anyone over the age of seventeen (average) to be fussy about salad.
Two thirds of salad fans (63 per cent) admit that they think people who are fussy about leaves and veggies are “childish”.
More than a half (56 per cent) go a step further and say they judge those who don’t eat plant-based foods, while a third (33 percent) simply think it is ridiculous behaviour in a grown adult.
Waste is a big issue with salads in the UK, with Brits admitting to throwing away a huge 75 per cent of the salads they buy, because they don't last long enough and go limp and slimy.
"We already knew that we're a nation of salad lovers, but we did find it interesting that Brits still love the classic English Garden Salad the most, even with all the fantastic salad ingredients now available from overseas," said Kate Hofman, founder of Unbeleafable. "Unbeleafable is launching the UK's first National Salad Week this June to shine a light on salads and we're encouraging people to get 'sala-brating' all salad! We love to see that our survey showed that people appreciate that fresh, crunchy leaves can really make a salad – and it's what we are all about: growing longer-lasting leaves in our vertical farm in Kent all year round!"
Unbeleafable is launching National Salad Week in the UK, which runs from 1-7 June.
