Salade à l’Huile de Noix

Salad is not always a separate course in the Loire, unlike other regions. Often a salad accompanies roast chicken, or is served with a cheese like the local Ste-Maure. Walnut oil with cider vinegar is a favourite dressing and in the old days the walnuts would be crushed between two millstones, then heated to extract the oil. Often a bit of bread would be dipped into the newly pressed oil as a quick snack.