Salads

TRADITIONALLY, a French salad can be composed of many things—vegetables, meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, cheese, herbs, greens, or combinations thereof—just as long as it’s dressed with a vinaigrette or a mayonnaise-based dressing. Salads can range in complexity from the simple raw vegetable salads called crudités to cooked vegetables dressed with vinaigrette or even cooked in a sort of vinaigrette—as are dishes prepared à la grecque (see Mushrooms à la Grecque).

A combination of ingredients artfully arranged in a salad bowl or on a plate is known as a salade composée—the most well-known example of which is probably salade niçoise. By tradition, the components of a salade composée are kept separate, not tossed together.