Some of the most satisfying dishes are those made with minimal, but complementary ingredients. Salade Lyonnaise, or Lyonnaise salad, is a fine example.
This classic French salad is named after the city of Lyon, where it was first tossed. It’s made with salad greens, traditionally bitter-tasting frisée (also called curly endive), or a mix of salad greens, crisp batons of bacon (called lardoons in France), a soft poached egg, and vinaigrette. Some form of croutons are also added to, or set alongside, many Lyonnaise salads.
When everything is enjoyed together, the bitter and/or earthy taste of the greens, salty, fatty bacon, egg, with its warm, rich, dripping yolk, and tangy dressing make your taste buds take notice in a most delightful way.
When shopping for ingredients for my version of the salad, I could not find frisée, so I bought a bag of sturdy, local mixed salad greens. They are sold at farm markets and some smaller foods stores specializing in local produce. I also used some Island-made bacon, Island-baked bread and local eggs in my salad, giving it West Coast flair.
When poaching the eggs for the salad, do so in barely simmering water that you’ve lightly salted, added a drop of vinegar to and gently swirled. Crack the eggs, individually, into a bowl before slipping them into the swirling water. All these steps should ensure the whites nicely wrap around the yolks, creating well-formed poached eggs that will have soft centres if cooked for about three minutes.
My recipe serves two but could be doubled or further expanded if you are feeding a larger group.
Lyonnaise Salad
This classic Lyon-style salad features sturdy salad greens, crispy bacon, soft poached eggs, tangy vinaigrette and crunchy croutons. Serve for it brunch, lunch or as a hearty starter for dinner, followed by a light main course.
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: about 13 minutes
Makes: two servings
3 thick strips bacon, cut, widthwise, into 1/2-inch slices
1 1/2 cups cubed white bread or baguette
2 large eggs
2 tsp red or white wine vinegar + plus a drop (divided)
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp minced shallots
2 Tbsp olive oil
• salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
5 cups sturdy mixed salad greens or chopped frisée (also called curly endive), washed well and dried, plus more if needed (see Note)
Place bacon in a 10-inch wide or similar-sized skillet and set over medium, medium-high heat. Cook bacon until crispy, then lift out of the pan and drain on paper towel.
Set skillet back over the heat, add the cubed bread to the bacon fat and cook and stir until toasted. Remove skillet from the heat and set these croutons aside for now.
Set a medium pot with five inches or so of lightly salted water over medium, medium-high heat and bring to a gentle simmer. Crack each egg into its own small bowl.
While the water comes to temperature, make vinaigrette by combining the 2 tsp vinegar, mustard and shallots in a salad bowl. Slowly whisk in the oil. Season the vinaigrette with salt and pepper.
When water is simmering, add a drop of vinegar to it. Swirl the water in the pan with a spoon. Gently slip each egg into the water. Cook to the desired doneness, about three minutes for soft-poached.
While eggs cook, toss the salad greens (or frisée) and croutons with the vinaigrette. Toss in a few more greens if you find the ones in the bowl are too thickly coated with vinaigrette.
Mound salad on each of two dinner plates, ensuring some of the croutons end up on top. Top each salad with bacon. When eggs are cooked, lift them out of the water with a slotted spoon, trim any wispy edges, drain well, set one on each salad, and serve.
Note: Many bagged salad greens are washed and dried before being packaged.
Eric Akis is the author of eight cookbooks. His columns appear in the Life section Wednesday and Sunday.
