Because French gastronomy can also be enjoyed cold, salads with specific ingredients can be found all over France, depending on the region. Particularly appreciated on the terrace in summer, these recipes are always very tasty and, which is surely one of the reasons for their popularity, easy to make.
The Parisian
Like the ham and butter sandwich, whose main ingredient it uses, this timeless dish is on the menu of all the French capital's brasseries, but its balanced composition (green salad, squares of Emmental cheese, eggs, bread crumbs) and satiating taste have also won over the French.
The warm goat cheese salad
Another great classic of French restaurant menus with its half-cold recipe (green salad and tomatoes) half-warm (grilled bacon and slice of toasted goat cheese). A gourmet speciality sometimes enhanced with honey for even more fondant and sweet/salty lovers.
The Piedmontese
Even if its name implies Italian origins, this recipe is... Russian! At the beginning of the 19th century, it was adopted by the French who enriched its base of potatoes and cream with tomatoes, gherkins and cooked ham. Copious and greedy, it is today one of the most popular salads everywhere in France.
L'Océane
By combining flavors that are not usually combined in other dishes, salads stimulate our taste buds, as in this recipe based on seafood that can be eaten (also) cold. If shrimps, mussels or salmon squares are the most used, the ocean salad can also be declined according to the catch of the day and is generally accompanied, on a bed of lamb's lettuce, by avocado and peppers.
La Landaise.
Faithful to the emblematic products of Southwestern gastronomy, this recipe combines duck breast and gizzards (or foie gras for those who are not afraid of fat) with sautéed potatoes or croutons. Not sure that, despite the cucumbers, tomatoes and green salad, this is enough to classify it as a "diet" salad, but what a treat!
La Niçoise.
As its name suggests, this recipe originates from the famous city of Côte d'Azur. The different ingredients are reminiscent of the sun and the mistral: green peppers, olives, artichokes or anchovies served on a base of green salad, tomatoes and eggs. A real bouquet of colors and flavors.
The Franc-comtoise.
Not much lighter with its fried potatoes, smoked ham, Morteau sausage and diced Comté cheese, this salad concentrates the pork and cheese heritage of the Eastern region in a (very) nutritious recipe.
La Lyonnaise.
Still in the series "we don't count calories", this salad born in the 3rd largest city of France is based on pieces of smoked bacon and croutons of bread but has the particularity to replace the classic hard-boiled egg by a poached egg and the usual green salad by frisée or lion's teeth, 2 varieties of dandelion giving it an aspect - and a taste - unseen.
La Normande
Also rather atypical with its sweet (apples) and salty (camembert and walnuts) association, this recipe based on green salad or potatoes, or even both, is generally seasoned with cider vinegar. A rather light and particularly succulent salad.
Note that the mountainous regions are not left out with variations where, very often, the initial green ingredient is used as an alibi for the consumption of potatoes and cheese. Thus, the Auvergne salad contains Bleu d'Auvergne or Cantal cheese and the Savoyard salad contains raclette cheese (a must even in summer). And in the Vosges salad, a bit like a French carbonara, the potatoes are topped with lardons, crème fraiche and eggs.
A little digestive walk afterwards to eliminate?
You're in Bordeaux and, although tempted by all those gourmet salad recipes, you're a little lazy to prepare one? Book the FoodTour "The Lunch Expedition" to sample local and regional specialities while discovering 7 monuments in the prefecture of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. It's the perfect opportunity to combine a feast for the eyes and a feast for the taste buds.
Valérie from Comme des Français
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To accompany the salad of your choice
