Before meeting my first French boyfriend in New York, the idea of having a salad as a main meal never even crossed my mind. I’ve since changed, of course, and even my children expect to be fed salad for dinner every once in awhile. And since it’s summer, what better time?
There is this salad called “salade compagnarde” or “salade paysanne,” both of which suggest a sort of hearty, country salad with bacon and potatoes. I haven’t been able to determine any difference in the two, even from asking my mother-in-law and from looking online. Do any of you dear, francophile readers know the difference?
Anyway, there is naturally some flexibility in preparing this salad, but I think I’ve got all the basics covered here.
Start with some curly salad.
Okay that was a direct translation – no idea what it’s called in English.
Chop up some cherry tomatoes. Good ones! It is sacrilege in my mind to ruin a perfectly good salad with pale, tasteless tomatoes. Don’t you agree?
And dice some buttery cheese like Swiss, Gruyère or Comté if you have it.
Now you’ll need to fry up some bacon, or “lardons” which is more common here.
I’m sorry if you don’t like bacon. It must go in.
Add a boiled, sliced potato – this is what the salad looks like so far.
And add some cooked, although near-crispy green beans. (This is not strictly necessary, but who can say no to more greens?)
And you pretty much have the essentials. You could also add beets or avocado, sometimes walnuts, although that’s less common in a French salad.
Now you just need to soft-boil some eggs. Place them in boiling water for four minutes.
And you prepare the dressing. Take a heaping tablespoon of dijon mustard.
Then add a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar.
And 4 tablespoons of olive oil.
A dash of white pepper.
You don’t need any salt because the mustard and bacon are already salty.
But when you add your soft-boiled egg, I would sprinkle some salt on that, because … yum.
Top your meal off with a ¼ of a baguette and a plain yoghurt and you’ll think you’re in France.
And now for some gratuitous shots of the kids for the benefit of their grandparents. The rest of you can get started on your salads.
(I know, I know. I’m really bossy today. Feel perfectly free to ignore me).
Young Lady with one of our wildflowers in her hair (along with preventative lice treatment – the schoolgirl version of styled and gel’d).
Young Knight missing both of his front teeth. Can’t get this guy to give me a normal smile to save my life.
And the only reason Petit Prince is actually still, and non-blurry, and looking at the camera is because he paused long enough to scratch his leg. We must take advantage of every opportunity afforded us.
We’re heading to Le Pays Basque to the very city where a forest fire is currently raging. The resort assured me that they’re fine and it’s safe to come. There’s also a heat wave going on this week.
Hopefully we won’t all get burned to a crisp like a lardon.
- frizzy salad
- cherry tomatoes
- diced gruyère
- 2 sliced, boiled potatoes
- chopped green beans
- bacon
- 2 soft-boiled eggs
- Dressing: 1T dijon mustard
- 1T balsamic vinegar
- 4T olive oil
- dash of white pepper
- Wash the salad.
- Cook the green beans and potatoes, and slice them.
- Wash and cut the cherry tomatoes in half.
- Dice the cheese.
- Arrange the ingredients on 2 plates.
- Boil the eggs for 4 minutes. Shell them and put one on each plate.
- Prepare the dressing, mixing all the ingredients together.
- Pour the dressing over the salad and serve while still warm.
coucou!! ça a l’air délicieux!! can i pin this? hehe
Oh please do! What an honor. 🙂
Your posts are always so visually stunning and informative.
I expect to see a book of yours in stores anytime now AND, you making the rounds on morning talk shows.
Let’s dream about that one for a moment.
Ah that was nice. Ok back to reality. 😉 Thank you friend. 🙂
Making salad tonight! Yum. xo
Dinner inspiration helps after long hot summer days.
So very happy to have another of your salad recipes as I have prepared your salade nicoise often this summer. Hope you will share another in your salad repertoire. I will try to think of one to pass on to you that your children may enjoy.
You make my salad recipe? I’m so pleased! It had been so long since I’d done a food post that it was really on my heart to do another.
I am a sucker for a perfectly cooked egg. I think it gives the right oomph to just about everything. My newest love is a sunny side egg on french fries. Heaven.
That salad looks heavenly. I cannot wait to try it. We are a family of green eaters, so this is right up our alley.
Those babies of yours are beautiful, truly. We do the same hair gel live preventative, too. So far, fingers crossed, it has worked.
Good luck. I hope your vacation is filled with smoke-less fun.
I absolutely love eggs and fries. We have the same food tastes I think.
Can I come over for dinner? (I will have to pick out the bacon as I don’t eat pork)
I love that you got your little one while he was leg scratching, hee!
If you came for dinner I would even do the sacrilegious thing of making our salad without pork!
Okay, I hate to cook… but I somehow see this salad in my future. It’s a meal, not a salad. Soft boiled egg – who would’ve thought?
That’s the beauty! It doesn’t technically count as cooking.
Perfect for summer when you don’t want to fire up the oven!
I know! This one caters more to the adult set than the kid set but it might just pass.
That looks so delicious. And who doesn’t like bacon??
Mmmmm….. what time is dinner tomorrow & are you making salad?
I love salad and as a matter of fact that is exactly what I had for dinner!
I don’t know why I’ve never stopped in before since we share so many of the same bloggy friends and I see your name/pic pop up everywhere 🙂
This salad looks absolutely delicious. I want to try this, sans the bacon. My parents lived for years in Paris and I’ve visited a few times so it holds a very special place in my heart.
Hi Charlotte! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂 I’ll visit you as soon as I get a chance – we leave this morning for vacation.
Small salad world – am just making one for our lunch!
It took a trip to Paris for me to realize that a boiled potato is just fantastic in a salad. Looks delicious!
Hi Jen
Looking at the toothless grimace on YK’s face reminds me of the old Calvin and Hobbes strip, especially when Calvin’s parents were trying to get him to pose for a Christmas card photo.
I am constantly thinking of that comic strip (and living it out)!
MMMMMM. The other night I made chorizo salad: saute chorizo & onion in pan till onion is soft, then saute some tomatoes, too, toss with ribbons of argula & cilantro, and some hard cheese (asiago, maybe?) & lots of pepper, and some sherry vinegar. YUM. What I love about salad for dinner is that you can pretend it’s not caloric (ignoring all the cheese…!)
That sounds de-lish!
Thanks! We often have salad as a main course– we will definitely try this recipe. Of course, it probably will not look so photogenic before we eat it all up. 😉
Wow, it looks so easy! I can do that salad, surely – if I don’t mess up the egg or the bacon. Lately it’s been cheese, cold cuts and bread around here with fruit. A dinner salad would be nice.
And your kids are adorable.