Salad

Truffle juice, an amazing ingredient that truly captures the heady aroma and taste of freshly harvested truffles, pairs well with soy sauce because they both have a rich earthiness. That depth of flavor makes this a natural pairing for other savory ingredients, like mushrooms and steak. Any salad with Parmesan cheese would benefit from a drizzle of this dressing, too.

While I use this to dress my chicken salad (page 130), I also like it on soft bitter lettuces. Too often, we relegate vinaigrettes to greens, but they’re also good with proteins. This one, in particular, pairs well with salmon, either poached or slow-baked.

Whenever I serve something really rich, like Soy-Braised Lamb Shanks (page 168), I like to have something tart and bracing to go with it. The tangy-hot blend of apples and chiles goes well with just about any red meat, and the combination of creamy and crunchy is unbeatable.

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts are often derided as dry and bland. But I love pounding them and then grilling them until juicy. Their subtlety makes them perfect for a range of flavors—especially in salads. This is one I eat throughout autumn as a complete meal.

The beauty of this dish is the butter and soy combination. I dress a fresh green salad with a light, lemony soy sauce vinaigrette, then top it with shrimp coated in a creamy beurre blanc. To marry the two elements, I use champagne vinegar in place of the traditional white wine for a sharper beurre blanc.

This is the type of salad my mom used to make—unfussy and delicious. It’s best with fresh spring potatoes and onions, but it hits the spot any time of year. While I love drinking dry white Alsatian whites, I enjoy making this salad with a good Sancerre.

This is easily one of my favorite fall salads. The creaminess of avocado and sour cream is amazing with the spiced zing of the carrots and the toasted, nutty seeds.

I crave Greek salad year round, so in the winter, when tomatoes don’t taste great raw, I make it with roasted beets instead. This began as a home lunch, but I decided to try it out at some of my restaurants, too, and it’s turned out to be one of our most popular salads.

When watermelon ripens in the summer, I treat it simply to make it shine. Blue cheese turns it into a savory, refreshing salad and black pepper ties the whole thing together. To best match the juicy, crisp sweetness of the melon, I look for strong and sharp creamy cheeses. This tastes even better when the watermelon is cold and the cheese is room temperature and soft. In that case, it’s easiest to use a spoon to flick nuggets of cheese directly onto the melon.

When I lived near Nice in the sunny south of France, I discovered that everyone there has a version of this summer salad. By tasting ones made by everyone from legendary chefs to humble housewives, I came up with my own. My sun-dried tomato vinaigrette makes this version distinctive. The perfumed sweetness of elderflower cordial highlights the concentrated sweetness of the tomatoes. Be sure to use the best sushi-grade bluefin or yellowfin tuna you can find.

This is something I grew up with, a dish my grandmother and mom always served family-style. For me, this combination—a fluffy, snowy mountain of shaved Gruyère with sliced sweet-tart tomato—is home. In Alsace, we sometimes mixed wine vinegar with honey and spices for the dressing, but sherry vinegar has a similar nuanced sweetness that works very well here.

I’m always looking for inspiration when I shop at farmer’s markets. The heirloom varieties of summer squash, like Goldbar, Paddle, and 8-Ball, are among my new favorites. To highlight their subtle flavor, I splash them with a simple lemon dressing, then surround them with sharp cheese and peppery greens.

Tangy goat cheese makes a perfect salad dressing for wax beans (haricots verts work well here, too). To balance the creamy cheese, I toss the sweet tomatoes with a bright, acidic vinaigrette. Together, they make an amazing summer salad.

When I compose a salad, I like to pair buttery flavors with bright ones. Here, creamy avocado is offset by the mustard vinaigrette and peppery radishes. I especially like making this in early spring, when the first radishes appear at the market.

My go-to salad for the fall, this simple combination tastes great with just about everything. Fresh, toasted poppy seeds release a delicious, complex nuttiness into the dressing. You can also add avocado and shrimp or chicken to turn this salad into a complete meal.

This dressing can be made in no time flat and offers an offbeat alternative for jazzing up green salads.

This is a most useful dressing for me—perhaps even more so than the basic vinaigrette in the previous recipe. I love how it tastes on crisp salads, giving them an Asian accent. You can also use this on cooked Asian noodles to make an easy side dish.

As a marinade and an all-purpose dressing for salads and slaws, I find this recipe indispensable. Increase the proportion of vinegar if you prefer a more pungent taste.

This luscious mixture is as welcome on raw salads as it is over cooked noodle, grain, or vegetable dishes.

This wonderful salad is a perfect accompaniment to classic Middle Eastern dishes. You can also build a meal around it in the summertime; serve with store-bought or homemade hummus, fresh pita bread, and stuffed grape leaves. See the menu with Tofu Shakshouka (page 45) for another menu idea. Make sure to use an organic, unwaxed cucumber, as it’s best unpeeled in this salad.