Salads for Every Season With Alexandra Stacey of French Family Food
With two hearty salad recipes to make asap.
“Not many people realize how important salads are to everyday French food,” Alexandra Stacey tells me in this week’s podcast conversation. Alexandra grew up eating salad every day, and she says that “salads were a way, for French kids, of understanding the geography of France. Each region has its salads, which showcase the best of each region.”
You’ve probably seen the Salade Niçoise, and lots of variations. But Alexandra mentions many more classics, including Salade Normande (with Camembert and apple), Salade Parisienne (with potato and ham), and Salade Landaise (with duck).
As a salad-eating child, she says, “you go through France learning about the geography through the ingredients.”
While plenty of folks will fight about what belongs in each of these regional specialties, Alexandra says she loves “taking the traditional recipes and twisting them a little bit. I think it’s so much fun.”
Alexandra’s new book, Salads for All Seasons, pops with color, the produce so vivid you feel like you can almost smell it—just like the photos in her popular Instagram account, French Family Food. She makes salads with cherries in June and zucchini in August, varying her dressings throughout the year to better match each season’s ingredients.
Below you’ll get to see a few recipes from the book: Alexandra’s hearty merguez salad with tomato, red onion, cucumber, and herbs, plus another salad that pairs ripe figs and blackberries with watercress and earthy Morbier cheese. (I’ve had blackberries on the brain lately, so I’m especially drawn to that one.)
In the podcast, Alex walks us through the way she composes a salad while shopping the market she loves most. She shares vinaigrette tips, too, as well as the formula for the pantry-sourced salad she makes when the fridge is pretty bare. Download the episode now so you can listen while you wash lettuce tonight.
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Alexandra mentioned:
Amy Sheppard on Instagram (including her malt loaf and Tuscan Salmon Butter Bean One-Pot)
Dominic Franks on Instagram
Simon Hopkinson’s Roast Chicken and Other Stories (Bookshop here)
Rosemary Hume & Muriel Downes’s The Cordon Bleu Cookery Book (Abebooks; Etsy)
Elisa Beynon’s The Vicar’s Wife’s Cook Book (World of Books)
Avocat Crevettes (IG)
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Maggie mentioned:
Arayes from Maureen Abood’s Lebanese Baking
Moroccan Salad with Merguez Meatballs
Excerpted with permission from Salads for All Seasons by Alexandra Stacey (DK, £25)
Serves 4
When I am asked to describe summers in France, I immediately picture long lazy barbecue lunches and children playing barefoot on sun-parched lawns, while swallows soar and dive stridently overhead. Naturally, there is a very chilled bottle of rosé on the table, tiny droplets of condensation pearling on the glass. I can also almost smell the enticing smoky whiff of grilled merguez sausages just carried on the breeze. I defy anyone not to feel their taste buds tingling gleefully upon encountering this evocative smell of North African spiced meat grilled over red-hot coals. This salad will, I hope, transport you for a short interlude to hot still days in the French countryside. Eat it with lots of warm baguette, if you can, and perhaps a little bowl of fiery Dijon mustard for those who cannot resist adding a smidgen to their meatballs.
300g (10½ oz) merguez sausages
4 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to drizzle
½ red onion, very finely chopped
1 cucumber, peeled and cubed
1 tbsp sherry vinegar
4 large tomatoes, cored, deseeded, and cubed
1 green (bell) pepper, cored, deseeded, and finely chopped
20g (⅓ cup) chopped coriander (cilantro)
20g (⅓ cup) chopped flat-leaf parsley
16 pitted black olives
1 tsp ground cumin
¼ tsp dried herbes de Provence
sea salt and freshly ground
black pepper
Preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan/400°F/Gas 6).
Remove the skins from the merguez sausages. Divide the meat into meatballs, about 3cm (1¼ in) in diameter, using the palm of your hand to roll them into balls. Place them in an ovenproof dish and drizzle with some of the olive oil. Roast for 25 minutes.
While the meatballs are roasting, assemble the salad. Put the onion and cucumber in a large bowl and season well with salt and pepper. Add the sherry vinegar and stir well. Tip in the chopped tomatoes and green pepper. Set aside some of the herbs for garnishing, then add the rest to the bowl along with the olives and cumin. Spoon over the remaining olive oil and add the herbes de Provence.
Combine all the ingredients until fully mixed. Taste the salad and add more salt or a drizzle of olive oil if required. Top with the meatballs and the reserved herbs just before serving.
Morbier Cheese, Blackberries, Watercress, Figs, Pomegranate, and San Daniele Ham
Excerpted with permission from Salads for All Seasons by Alexandra Stacey (DK, £25)
Serves 4
I have lovely memories of blackberrying along the banks of the river Seine on golden early September afternoons with my Mum, her friends, and all their kids. When my own children were old enough, we used to head off with our plastic boxes to a large, wild, ragged, messy patch of brambles hidden away down a narrow footpath behind our local park. Nothing beats the joy of stretching out your fingers to reach the perfect tantalizing fruit on the highest thorny stem. It is such a great feeling, especially when you have filled your box and you can already envisage the crumble bubbling away in the oven. I secreted away a few blackberries to make this salad one evening, and it was a delight.
200g (7 oz) Morbier cheese, rind removed
12 hazelnuts, halved
80g (3 oz) watercress, woody stalks removed
150g (5¼ oz) blackberries
6 large ripe figs, sliced in half lengthways
70g (2½ oz) slices San Daniele ham
1 tbsp finely chopped chives
2 tbsp pomegranate seeds
1 quantity Honey, Dijon Mustard, and Balsamic Vinegar Dressing (below)
Slice the cheese into even rectangles.
Toast the hazelnut halves in a skillet over a medium heat for 4–5 minutes until golden brown, tossing them after 2 minutes.
Layer a large shallow serving bowl with the watercress, then add the blackberries, figs, ribbons of ham, Morbier, chives, hazelnuts, and pomegranate. Spoon the dressing over the salad and mix gently. Serve immediately.
Honey, Dijon Mustard, and Balsamic Vinegar Dressing
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1½ tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp wholegrain Dijon mustard
1 tsp runny honey
50ml (3½ tbsp) olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Put all the ingredients except the olive oil in a bowl with a pinch of salt and pepper. Mix well.
Start adding the oil, a trickle at a time, stirring well as you go, and keep going until all the oil has been combined into the dressing. Use immediately.
I was so inspired after listening. Thank you!
That fig salad is absolutely stunning.