13 Classic French Salad Recipes You’ll Adore

Say bonjour to a healthier menu with these delicious French salad recipes! 

France is known for its amazing dining. There are croissants, wine, macarons, coq au vin, beef bourguignon, baguettes, and so much more!

But did you know the French also have some pretty incredible salads?

After all, you need something to balance out all the delicious baked goods. 

Keeping with France’s reputation for culinary excellence, these salads are mouthwatering.

When you use fresh ingredients and whole foods, you really can’t do much better.

So grab a bottle of wine and prepare to live out all of your Parisian dreams. Here are 13 of my favorite, absolutely scrumptious French salad recipes. 

1. Famous French Green Salad with French Vinaigrette

The salad is a mean, green, fighting machine in the best way possible.

Loaded with healthy greens, this salad nourishes your body and fights off free radicals. Plus, it’s delicious. 

It features a combination of crisp greens, soft avocado, and crunchy cucumber. It’s topped with a fresh and tangy simple French vinaigrette. Et voila! 

Feel free to add yummy things like cheese, nuts, or meat to bulk up your salad.

2. French Bistro Salad

French recipes are all about the balance of flavor, texture, and weight. This is why this salad is so popular.

It balances the weight of your entire meal, and it tastes amazing! 

It features a mix of lettuce, fresh tarragon, chives, and parsley. It’s topped with pickled shallots and a lemon dressing for extra zing! 

If you like a little crunch in your salads, don’t worry. This salad has that covered, too! A few walnuts sprinkled on top finish your perfect bite.

3. French Country Salad with Lemon Dijon Vinaigrette

This salad will channel all of your cottage-core aesthetic vibes.

It will transport you directly to a cottage in the French countryside with every bite. 

You experience the flavors of nutty arugula, earthy beets, and roasted asparagus. Then, you add fresh goat cheese and toasted walnuts.

It’s dressed in a tangy lemon Dijon and balsamic vinaigrette. 

4. French Chopped Salad

This salad is super healthy and very filling. It’s a delicious side dish, but it could work as a light meal on its own.

Either way, every forkful is fresh and fabulous. 

While this salad does have lettuce, there’s even more to it.

It has fingerling potatoes, green beans, cucumbers, shallots, eggs, radishes, and olives. 

The sweet and sour dressing is to die for. 

5. Simple French-Style Potato Salad

Bring this salad to your next barbecue and everyone will say, “ooh la la.” This is not your grandma’s potato salad (unless maybe she is French). 

It’s mayonnaise-free, so it’s very light. Instead, it has a super flavorful mustard-based dressing.

Red wine vinegar and apple cider vinegar add acidity and a touch of sweetness. 

Green onion, parsley, and dill add lots of freshness. It’s simply divine. 

6. Niçoise Salad

The nicoise salad (pronounced Ni- swaaz) finds its roots in Nice, France. It’s a classic salad that you can find in many restaurants throughout the world. 

It’s no wonder because it’s so yummy!

This salad is hearty and fresh, filled with potatoes, tuna, olives, and lots of veggies.  

7. French Carrot Salad

“Quoi de neuf, Doc?” This is a salad that Bugs Bunny would go crazy for. It’s literally just carrots with a dressing and some herbs. 

But still, it’s mostly carrots. Despite its simplicity, it’s fantastic. Not to mention, it’s loaded with vitamin A, so it will super-charge your eyesight. 

This salad features saved carrots and fresh chives, tossed in a sweet and tangy dressing.

This recipe adds some optional chickpeas for texture and protein.

8. Parisian Chicken Salad

Chicken salad has never been so fresh! This is a salad you want to show off, not stuff between slices of bread. 

It features fresh greens, succulent slices of chicken, sweet peppers, and juicy orange wedges.

The chicken is marinated in a honey-orange-thyme marinade that results in so much flavor.

Everything is dressed in a garlicky, orange vinaigrette that will tickle your tastebuds. 

9. French Lentil Salad with Goat Cheese

If you want something light, tasty, and filling this is the meal for you!

Furthermore, this salad is full of healthy goodness like fiber, vitamin A, and potassium. #winning

And if you love lots of tasty textures, it has both creamy elements and crunchy elements.

Fresh carrots add crunch, goat cheese adds cream, and lentils are a bit of both.

Everything is dressed in a delicious lemon and mustard vinaigrette. I know you’ll love it. 

10. Vegetarian Niçoise Salad with White Beans

If Niçoise salad sounds intriguing but the tuna turns you off, try this vegetarian version. It has all of the same fresh ingredients, except the tuna. 

Instead, for protein, this version uses soft white beans. White beans have the added benefit of being chock-full of fiber, too.

Plus, they make a nice counterbalance to all of the fresh veggies. 

The simple vinaigrette features ingredients you will recognize from many of the salads listed. It has lemon, Dijon mustard, shallots, and olive oil.

It’s fresh, filling, and super flavorful. 

11. French Vinaigrette Pasta Salad

Pasta salad has never been so fresh or so simple. Like with much of French cuisine, the beauty is in that simplicity. 

You only need a few whole ingredients to make this delicious side dish. It has bowtie pasta, sweet peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes. 

And everything is tossed in scrumptious tangy French vinaigrette. This recipe calls for store-bought vinaigrette, but you could always make your own. 

12. French Green Bean Salad 

This salad combines ingredients you’d have never thought to put together, peaches and green beans.

It also has mixed greens, spicy corn, and toasted hazelnuts. 

It’s definitely surprising and a serious flavor bomb. The balance of fresh, sweet, and savory is absolutely delectable.

Add vinaigrette, and this salad will be a hit for many dinners to come.

Serve it with roasted chicken and a glass of wine to complete your meal. 

13. Endive Salad with Pears and Blue Cheese

I could describe this endive, pear, and blue cheese salad in one word: umami. Not only is it impressive in appearance, but its flavors are phenomenal. 

With each bite, you literally experience all of the flavors. It’s bitter because of the raw endive and it’s sweet because of the pear. 

The prosciutto adds lovely saltiness and the dressing is slightly sour. Plus, blue cheese is umami all on its own.

And that’s not even touching the amazing textures. 

Seriously, if you’re planning a dinner party, this is the salad you want to serve. Heck, you may want to plan a dinner party just so you can serve it.