White Salad with Roquefort
- Servings: 4 to 6.
There are variations on this salad but no matter how it's made, all the ingredients must be white. Or pale green. No red tomatoes, or purple radicchio, or beige garbanzo beans. This is also a crunchy salad, with texture from different kinds of raw vegetables.
This salad makes a flavorful and visually appealing addition to a meal that has lots of color, such as a wine-braised pot roast or a tomato-based ragu. While it will taste wonderful with many other dishes, it's not a partner for blanquette de veau or cream of mushroom soup or macaroni and cheese; in other words not with another all-white dish because we also eat with our eyes and an all-white meal is not appealing.
A mandoline or other slicer will help make paper-thin slices out of the endive which can otherwisebe awkward to cut into thin, uniform pieces. Because the salad combines different kinds of raw vegetables, try to cut them in pieces that can come together on a fork, thus making it easier to eat. For example, slice the endive in short pieces, not in long strips.
Ingredients
- The Salad:
- 2 c. Belgian endives, sliced into 1/2-inch pieces
- 1/2 c. scallions, the white and tender green parts, sliced into 1/4-inch pieces
- 1 c. celery, sliced very thin; if you're using full stalks of celery, save some of the inner leaves as a garnish
- 2 c. fennel, sliced very thin
- 1 c. white button mushrooms, trimmed of their stalks and sliced very thin
- 2 c. torn pieces of a tender lettuce such as bibb or frisee
- 1/2 c. Roquefort or other good blue cheese, crumbled
- White Vinaigrette:
- 1 tablespoons white wine or Champagne vinegar
- 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 8 to 10 grinds of black pepper
Directions
- In a large salad bowl combine all the salad ingredients, except the cheese.
- Make the vinaigrette by combining in a small bowl the vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper and use a whisk or fork to combine until the salt dissolves. Add the olive oil and continue to whisk until emulsified.
- Pour the mixed vinaigrette over the salad ingredients and gently toss.
- Sprinkle the crumbled Roquefort or blue cheese over the dressed salad and serve immediately.
