This stunning summer salad is sweet, salty, savory and tart. The combination of soft-boiled eggs, bacon, stone fruit, and lightly dressed veggies is hearty enough for a meal on its own.
All summer long I crave two things: large, meal-size salads and perfectly ripe peaches. This delightful dish combines the two into my ideal summer meal.
This is a seasonal take on a classic French frisée aux lardons, a bistro salad typically made with frisée lettuce, thick-cut pork bacon, savory croutons, and a poached egg.
This salad is simple enough for a quick lunch or light dinner, but it’s also pretty enough to serve to guests at brunch.
If you want to be really trendy, you can embrace the idea of having a salad for breakfast and making it while you sip your morning coffee — the combination of egg, bacon, and sweet fruit mixed with some veggies and a zesty French vinaigrette is a great one Start to the day.
What is Frisee?
This salad starts with frisée, a pointed, light green vegetable related to endive. These ruffled greens don’t have a lot of weight, making for a light dish with lots of texture.
Like endive, frisée is slightly bitter (though not shockingly so), and that bitterness provides a nice contrast to the sweetness of the drupe and the creaminess of the egg. If you can’t find frisée, some escarole would work well here (though it won’t be quite as bitter).
Endive leaves, halved widthwise and piled in a pile would also work well — although their shape makes them more difficult to eat alongside the other ingredients on the plate.
Ripe fruit is the sweetest treat
My recipe calls for a combination of peach and plum, but pretty much any stone fruit would work well here. Nectarines are fantastic in this salad, while a very ripe apricot or pluot (or a pair if they’re small) adds a slightly different but equally wonderful sweet and sour touch.
The key is that the fruit must be sweet – fully ripe and slightly tender to the touch. Many peaches and nectarines are picked while still firm (so they don’t bruise on the way to market), so you’ll sometimes have trouble finding perfectly ripe fruit.
How to ripen stone fruit
If your fruit isn’t quite ready yet, you can easily ripen it in your kitchen. You just need time and space.
- Place the fruit on a flat surface, like your counter, and keep it at least a few inches away from other pieces of fruit to avoid brown spots.
- Let sit at room temperature for a day or two (or up to a week, if necessary) and wait until the fruit smells sweet and the flesh yields a little when you press on it before eating.
For the best soft-boiled eggs – steam them!
Steaming offers a quick and easy way to get perfectly cooked, soft-boiled or hard-boiled eggs. The process is quicker than regular cooking because you only need to boil an inch or two of water, and steaming cooks the eggs evenly, keeping the whites tender while the yolks set.
Steaming also gives you a lot of control over the texture of the finished egg:
- Very runny yolk: Steam for 6 minutes
- Slightly runny yolk: Steam 6 1/2 to 7 minutes
- Hard boiled eggs with egg yolk: steam for 12 minutes
Once the eggs are to your liking, you should immediately place them in a prepared ice bath to stop them from cooking. Chilling the eggs in ice water for a few minutes will also help their shells come off more easily. The boiled eggs (peeled or unpeeled) can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Plum and Peach Salad with Champagne Vinaigrette
ingredients
For the salad
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2 big eggs
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2 slices bacon
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3 lightly packed cups friseetorn into large pieces by hand
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1 ripe peach
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2 ripe plums
For the vinaigrette
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1 tablespoon champagne vinegar
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2 tablespoon Extra virgin olive oil
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2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
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1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
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1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
method
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Prepare the ice bath:
In a medium bowl, add 2 handfuls of ice, cover with water and set aside. You will place the steamed eggs in the ice bath to stop the cooking process.
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Steam Eggs:
To prepare a steamer basket: Fill a medium saucepan with about 1 inch of water. Place the steamer basket in the saucepan and bring the water to a boil over high heat.
Preparation with a pot: If you’re not using a steamer basket, simply fill the bottom of a saucepan with 1/2 inch of water. Bring water to a boil over high heat.
Turn off the heat and carefully place the eggs in the bottom of the steamer basket or in the bottom of the saucepan.
Turn the heat back on to medium-high and cover the pot. Steam the eggs for 6 1/2 to 7 minutes so the yolks become runny. After they are steamed, place the eggs in the ice bath to cool and peel them before assembling the salad.
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Cook bacon:
Line a plate with kitchen paper and set aside.
While the eggs are steaming, cook the bacon. In a medium-sized skillet over medium-high heat, fry the bacon slices until crispy, about 5 minutes, turning halfway through. Transfer the bacon to the plate lined with kitchen paper.
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Cut stone fruit:
Cut the peaches and plums into wedges: Halve and deseed the fruit, then quarter or eighth depending on the size of the fruit.
If the pit is sticking to the flesh, you can cut a wedge while the flesh is still attached to the pit by slicing from the stem end of the fruit down to the bottom, then pulling the pieces away from the pit one at a time.
Place the chopped stone fruit in a medium-sized mixing bowl.
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Make the vinaigrette:
In a small jar with a lid, combine the vinegar, olive oil, and Dijon mustard. Season with salt and pepper. Shake well to emulsify.
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Prepare the frisée and arrange the salad:
Tear the frisée into bite-sized pieces with your hands and place in the bowl with the fruit. Start by pouring half of the dressing onto the frisée and fruit mixture and tossing gently. Add more dressing as needed, 1 tablespoon at a time, until well dressed.
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Arrange and serve the salad:
Divide the frisée and fruit between two plates and crumble the bacon over them. Top each salad with an egg. Cut each egg in half so the yolk begins to ooze onto the lettuce. Surcharge.
| nutritional information (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 553 | calories |
| 18g | Fat |
| 91g | carbohydrates |
| 17g | protein |
