After a winter of hearty stews, heavy casseroles and robust roasts, spring is a time to lighten up. We’re all craving fresh, green things - butter lettuce, arugula, green onions, frisée… if it’s green and crunchy, pass the plate please!
Salad certainly doesn’t have to be a bowl full of limpid Iceberg lettuce and a handful of not-quite-in-season cherry tomatoes - the French have been making interesting, fresh green salads for a very long time, and you can too. It’s easier than you think. French salads are often composed of a variety of different greens - “mesclun” is actually the French word for “mixture”. But don’t buy a pre-bagged mesclun mix at the store - create your own custom salad by choosing a selection of greens individually, so you can get the best combination of flavors and textures, to your taste.
Some great choices for your salad are arugula, endive, frisée, radicchio, oak leaf lettuce, mustard greens, and even baby beet greens. Green onions, or scallions, add a piquant bite. And fresh herbs add an unexpected dimension to a green salad - depending upon the flavor profile you crave, chervil, fennel, salad burnet or thyme could all be great additions.
Dressing your salad should be simple. French salads aren’t drenched in cups of ranch or Thousand Island dressings out of bottle. Home made vinaigrettes are the way to go. Vinaigrettes are composed of three parts of oil to one part of acid - for example, three tablespoons of olive oil mixed with one tablespoon of white wine vinegar will give you a basic vinaigrette. Add a little salt and pepper, toss with your greens, and you have a simple and delicious salad.
From the basic vinaigrette, there are endless variations. The oil can be any type you like, but extra-virgin olive oil is perfect. The acid component can be white wine vinegar, or red wine vinegar or balsamic, or even fresh lemon juice. You can make a simple mustard vinaigrette by adding a couple of tablespoons of Dijon vinegar. An herb vinaigrette can be whipped up by adding a diced shallot and a few tablespoons of your favorite fresh herb (tarragon is wonderful) to the mustard vinaigrette. You can build any combination of flavor combinations from the basic vinaigrette, and they’ll all pair nicely with a fresh salad mix.
You can take the basic mixed green salad with mustard vinaigrette a step further and transform it into the most classic French salad of them all by adding some warm fried bacon and a poached egg on top - the ubiquitous salade Lyonnais. In some versions, mixed greens are used and in others, frisée exclusively. Which ever greens you choose, the warm bacon will slightly wilt the greens and add a smoky, salty flavor to the salad. And the poached egg perched on top is perfect; cut into, the silky yolk and just-done whites will coat the greens for the perfect spring time French salad.
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