French Bistro Salad With Punchy Dijon Vinaigrette Recipe

Salads don't always get their due. It's understandable — it is easy to make mistakes with salad and end up with a mediocre side dish that's only on your plate because you know you ought to be eating more vegetables. But a salad done right, like this French bistro salad, is a whole different animal.

We begin this salad with a mixture of greens — red leaf lettuce provides a cool crunch, and escarole adds a hint of bitterness. To round out the greenery, we include a variety of fresh herbs in the form of tarragon, parsley, and chives. The tarragon imbues the salad with a light anise flavor, the parsley adds a burst of freshness, and the chives provide a gentle touch of allium.

No salad is complete, of course, without a good dressing. For this recipe, we make a simple Dijon vinaigrette, complete with white wine vinegar and olive oil, but add another punch of flavor by including minced shallots. And finally, we get to the toppings. While this is an area of any salad that is begging to be customized to personal tastes, our combination of chopped ham, boiled eggs, and crumbled chèvre adds an incredible heartiness to the salad as well as even more layers of flavor. Salty ham, tender eggs, and tangy chèvre perfectly complement the myriad flavors and textures of the greens, leaving you with a salad that is wonderful as either a side dish or a main course.

For the vinaigrette in this recipe, you will need white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, shallots, salt, pepper, and olive oil. For the salad, you will need red leaf lettuce and escarole as well as tarragon, parsley, and chives. For toppings, you'll need chopped ham, hard-boiled eggs, and chèvre. Once you have all these ingredients gathered together, only a few minutes' work separates you from a delicious and satisfying salad.

Add the vinegar, shallot, mustard, salt, and pepper to a small bowl and mix together.

Drizzle the olive oil into the bowl in a thin stream while whisking. Set aside for now.

In a large bowl, combine the lettuces and herbs, and toss to mix well.

Divide the greens between two plates for a dinner salad, or four plates for side salads. Top with eggs, ham, and chèvre.

Drizzle the dressing over the salads and serve immediately.

This French bistro salad recipe makes use of many ingredients that are common to French cuisine, not least of them the Dijon mustard in the vinaigrette. Dijon mustard has a unique flavor that many consider to be an essential part of a proper French vinaigrette. We won't argue with the flavor, it's wonderful, but if you want to whip up a salad right now and the jar of Dijon is down to the dregs, there are substitutes out there.

In a pinch, spicy brown or stone ground mustard makes a solid replacement for Dijon. Brown mustards tend to have a bit more bite than Dijon, but the complex, spicy flavor adds similar elements to a vinaigrette. If possible, opt for a smooth brown mustard, to ensure the same silky texture that you would get from Dijon. But even a whole-grain brown mustard would work if that's all you've got. Yellow mustard is also an option, though its flavor is considerably less complex than both Dijon and brown mustard.

Whatever mustard you have on hand is likely to work in your vinaigrette. English mustard, honey mustard, beer mustard, none of them will taste just like the Dijon called for in the recipe, but each will add their own unique character.

Salads are one of the easiest dishes to customize. You can make a different salad to serve alongside dinner every night, dialing in your preferences among the many types of lettuce and all manner of dressings and toppings. But for this French bistro salad, here are some good places to start your tinkering.

For this recipe, we chose red leaf lettuce and escarole to serve as the base. Red leaf lettuce is a mild lettuce, similar to many other leafy greens, that provides a nice crunch in the stems and tender leaves throughout. Escarole (not to be confused with endive) has a bit more character with a mild bitterness but nice tender leaves. The combination of crunchy and bitter works great in this salad, but could also be accomplished by mixing green leaf lettuce or romaine with frisée or arugula.

The depth of flavor in this salad comes in large part from the use of plenty of fresh herbs. We chose tarragon for its mild licorice flavor (a French favorite), as well as fresh-tasting parsley, and chives, with their gentle grassy, oniony flavor. But other delicate herbs would work equally well — basil, cilantro, mint, thyme, oregano — all of these could add an interesting twist. Ham, eggs, chèvre, and Dijon vinaigrette are all classic French fare, but other dressings, cheeses, and cured meats can easily be substituted to change the character of the salad.