French Laundry Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette

Fresh ingredients lend themselves to this French Laundry Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette and it is amazing!

While I include a lot of salads in my meal plans, I seldom think to include recipes for them here. That needs to change and will for this first quarter of the year; we could call it penance for the last quarter of celebrating! Salads are most often the result of opening the fridge and grabbing a bit of this or that and whipping together a simple salad dressing. This French Laundry Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette is different. It was planned and has to be shared.

While I keep a couple of prepared products on hand for a really quick meal; I love a low sugar raspberry vinaigrette that's good but I most often throw together minimal ingredients for a homemade salad dressing.

French Laundry Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette

Occasionally though I see something I want to make that uses garden veggies and I was taken with this French Laundry Salad and the dressing that accompanied it from the moment my eyes met the page in an issue of Food & Wine Magazine from 2016. I missed it when the issue came out but I'm clearing out stuff I really don't need and 8 year old magazine issues are on the list. But I am very glad I kept this one around and discovered this salad even late in the game.

The French Laundry restaurant in Napa is renown so having a recipe bestowed in those pages from proprietor Thomas Keller was like a gift. One he didn't even have to wrap! While they are a coveted reservation for folks hoping to enjoy a meal combining Keller's expertise and a location in Napa, I don't need a reservation if I can make this at home...that's truly where my heart is.

The original salad components sounded wonderful but using them would have required that I source a lot of ingredients I did not have on hand. Considering that it's winter in Colorado I substituted pretty freely.

I've included the list of ingredients that Chef Keller uses for their French Laundry Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette but use your judgement and do the same...not much can go wrong. I used romaine, endive, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, grilled carrots, sugar snap peas, red onion, and both parsley and basil from my indoor herb garden.

I knew when I purchased them that the tomatoes might be 'iffy' but I lucked out; often cherry tomatoes are fine to use when the weather outside is frightful. I wouldn't recommend a regular tomato though...they simply don't cut it, use something else. If you want color, maybe beets?

The fresh ingredients are certainly the beginning but it's the dressing made for this French Laundry Salad that is so stellar. Recipes are funny sometimes. There really is nothing so special in the list of ingredients for this dressing and yet the end result is almost magical; truly the sign of a great chef and his knowledge.

I've made so many salad dressings over the years and yet not one quite like the dressing on this French Laundry Salad.

Dijon mustard, garlic, balsamic vinegar, shallots, olive oil...nothing all that unique. The raw egg yolk certainly makes for a smooth, rich consistency and I urge you to try it. It can be left out but the result will lose some of the richness of flavor that makes it over the top wonderful.

I know raw egg is a concern for some but I simply wash the outside of the shell with warm water and detergent before breaking it. It might not be scientific but I feel more confident after doing it! Raw eggs are also critical with the French Silk Pie; sometimes substitutions leave a lot to be lacking.

If you can, find pasteurized eggs, that's probably your safest bet if you're concerned about the raw egg.

Don't limit this French Laundry Salad to one season; the flavor of the dressing would be great with any number of veggies.

You'll have a huge assortment to choose from in summer and I'm already thinking some roasted squash would be a great fall addition. Use your imagination and go crazy!

Take a trip to California wine country without leaving your home kitchen when you make this French Laundry Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette; you won't regret it; I promise.