A green salad routinely follows main courses when eating at home and will appear on menus as a matter of course. Cheese can sometimes be part of the course or taken separately.

The term salade is applied to both green salads and the rather more substantial salades composées, (eg niçoise or strasbourgeoise named after their home towns of Nice and Strasbourg respectively) more usually encountered as starters. Some salades composées include pasta or rice and can make a light meal in their own right.