The perfect green salad for a French person means a lettuce of some kind and this is it, nothing more! No extra olives, tomatoes, corn, fetta, or else or it becomes a “salad composée” (mixed salad).  The main purpose of the green salad is to help digestion and lighten meals.  On a diet perspective, it provides fibres and fill you up just enough so you don’t eat to much of other more calorific foods.
Preparing the lettuce
Salad needs to be washed or as it happened to a great uncle you may end up eating a slug (now this is a long time ago, during a meal in a very formal environment, he was told by his parents to be quiet, not make a fuss and finish his plate, ouch!).  More seriously, often there is still some earth in them, you don’t want to eat that.
You need to be equipped with a salad spinner, there is no excuse for soggy salad, big no no! Â If you need to get one, take one without the holes at the bottom because you will always end up flooding your work bench. Buy a good quality one, the one I have below has been in my kitchen for 8Â years probably now.
For the vinaigrette, for every day, I stick to the basic one. Â Best is to do it at the bottom of the bowl BEFORE placing the salad, which means that the salad will not lose its freshness by being mixed early. Â Mix the salad at the last minute.
The basic vinaigrette
Use your normal cutlery to measure quantities
- 1/4 spoon of salt, slightly covered with ground pepper
- 1 spoon of red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar
- 3 spoons of olive oil
- optional: chives herb cut in 5 mm lengths or shallots (as presented below)
Mix the ingredient slightly. Â We are not trying here to make an emulsion.
Tip: make the vinaigrette at the bottom of the salad bowl BEFORE putting the lettuce in the bowl. Â This will allow it to sit for a while without getting mushy. Â Turn the salad only just before serving.
Some salads are nice with a seasoning containing a bit of mustard, use 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard. if you like raw garlic, you can also crash a clove of garlic and cut thinly.
