Basic French Vinaigrette

The recipe for basic French vinaigrette inspired by a trip to Paris. It is delicious on rocket greens and even as a marinade for chicken.

One of the first things I noticed on our recent trip to France was that greens are served with every meal, even breakfast. Not being a big meat eater I was ordering and eating plenty of scrumptious eggs, omelets, and quiches in restaurants in Paris. I was pleasantly surprised that greens accompanied my daily omelets. We loved that even the thin crust pizzas were often topped with arugula. Being a health coach I love all things fresh so I became a quick fan of this trend.

Omelette with a side of Green salad with basic French Vinaigrette

Back at home I’ve been trying my hand at replicating French omelettes served alongside European greens with French vinaigrette

There were two terms for greens on the French menus that were new to me. The first was mache. I came to learn that mache, also known as lamb’s lettuce, grows in little round leafed bunches. The texture of this green is soft and the flavor is mild and slightly sweet.

In our area I have not yet had any luck finding mache. The closest thing to it in flavor and texture is mixed baby greens.

The second salad term that was new to me in France was “rocket greens”. I was seeing rocket greens all over the menus. In French they say roquette for rocket. It turns out rocket greens is what the Europeans call arugula. Most of us have heard of and have tasted arugula. If you haven’t tried arugula it has a stronger peppery taste. I like the complexity of flavors in arugula, especially when mixed with other greens.

Although I haven’t found mache in the stores here in the U.S., I have been sampling some European mixed greens. For this salad I used Organic Spring Mix from Whole Foods (Melange Printanier Biologique) along with Organic baby arugula (Juenes Pousses de Roquette), also from Whole Foods. It was good!

The green salads in Paris would be served plain or with cherry tomatoes, always with a vinaigrette. Sometimes the tomatoes would be labeled “sun-dried” on the menus. However, in the French version of sun-dried, the tomatoes were much more moist than the ones we are used to. These olive oil laden sweeties were freshly made and only partially dried.

Often the green salads would have shaved Parmesan cheese.

shaved Parmesan cheese

After eating European greens with every meal for 2 weeks in Paris I am a greens pro! Here are my take aways – Salads need not be complicated. It is tasty, healthy, and elegant to keep salad ingredients very simple. Most importantly, greens go with everything!

I noticed that in France they like to really douse their salads and greens with dressing. This is possible and agreeable as the dressings in France are quite light – mainly vinaigrettes. We tasted hints of Dijon mustard in all our salads.

At home, I only had champagne vinegar on hand so I used it and it was delicious! Use whatever type of vinegar you have. It surprises me how lemony this dressing tastes with no lemon juice in the ingredients list. It must be something about the vinegar and mustard combo.

Incidentally, if you are a meat eater, this dressing makes for a very tasty chicken marinade. Simply put the chicken in a zip lock baggie or in a bowl and cover it with Basic French Vinaigrette. Marinate in the refrigerator for an hour or two. Remove from dressing and grill or bake the chicken.