We enjoy eating hearty main-dish salads for dinner fairly often. I usually just wing-it, using ingredients we have on hand or that need to get used up. Sometimes it’s fun to actually follow a recipe, discovering delicious flavor combinations along the way. This week’s Cook the Book Fridays recipe gave me a change to try one such salad recipe.
Frisée Salad with Bacon, Egg, and Garlic Toasts, also known as salade lyonnaise, is classic French fare. It’s a salad made with (you guessed it) frisée, bacon, poached or hard-boiled eggs, and garlic croutons, but it also includes potatoes and a tasty vinaigrette.
I followed the recipe pretty much to the letter, with a couple of small exceptions: I mixed in some Romaine lettuce with the frisée, and I left the raw garlic out of the vinaigrette (but I did include the fried garlic clove from making the croutons). My husband assembled his own salad, personalizing it to his own tastes. He left out the potatoes and croutons, added grated cheese, and used blue cheese dressing instead of the vinaigrette.
Leftovers for Lunch
We loved this salad! The combination of flavors was perfect. I liked the extra heartiness the potatoes added, and I LOVED the croutons (why don’t I make croutons more often?). My husband enjoyed his version as well. I had enough leftovers for a delicious lunch the next day. I am sure I will be making salade lyonnaise again.
This post participates in Cook the Book Fridays, an online group currently cooking our way through David Lebovitz’s book, My Paris Kitchen. This week’s recipe can be found on page 99. Join us!
From Scratch 
Karen, Because I do not want to start WWIII (the president is doing that nicely all by himself), I will not tattle to the French that your husband “left out the potatoes and croutons, added grated cheese, and used blue cheese dressing instead of the vinaigrette” for his Salade Lyonnaise! My lips are sealed. However, you did exactly what I am going to do next time. I am going to nix the raw garlic and just mince up the garlic we roasted for the croutons. I almost had to make another batch of croutons because I kept eating them. (Needless to say, I sleep alone!). I applaud you for finding frisée in Reno. I looked in several grocery stores in Colorado and even Whole Foods but couldn’t find it.
That looks fabulous!!! Yum!
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That is a lovely plate-up! If I ever find frisee or the other option, I will certainly make this again; with both the fried garlic and raw!
I like the lovely combination of frisée and romaine. I have a difficult time finding frisée. I have a good excuse to make this salad again if I find frisée next time.
Your plating is perfect. Looks like a restaurant. I loved this salad too, especially the garlic croutons.
I normally just “wing it” with dinner salads but am glad I followed this recipe so closely. SUCH a great plate of food, right?