Chef Thomas
A Ploughman's Salad
The old pub ploughman's, shaken loose from its board and laid across butter lettuce with a sharp mustard dressing, for the kind of lunch that feels like you've given yourself the afternoon off.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Chicory, Apple and Stilton Salad
Created by Chef Thomas
Bitter chicory leaves carrying sharp apple, crumbled Stilton, and toasted walnuts, dressed with cider vinegar and honey. A winter salad that earns its place at the table when the garden has shut up shop.
Salads
British
Weeknight
Christmas
15 min
Active Time
5 min cook•20 min total
Yield4 servings
January. The garden is bare and the salad drawer in the fridge is a reproach. Lettuce at this time of year tastes of water and good intentions. But chicory doesn't care about the cold. It arrives at the market in tight, pale heads, crisp as anything, with a clean bitterness that wakes you up the way summer leaves never need to.
This is the salad I come back to when the days are short and the evenings call for something that isn't another braise. Bitter chicory, sharp apple, the salty crumble of Stilton, and walnuts toasted until the kitchen smells like warmth itself. A cider vinaigrette pulls it all together, the vinegar's sharpness cutting through the cheese, the honey softening the edges just enough. It takes fifteen minutes. It feeds four. It looks like you tried harder than you did.
I make it through the winter months and into early spring, when the chicory is firm and good and there's still a wedge of Stilton in the fridge from Christmas. At our table it sits alongside cold meats or a bowl of soup, or sometimes it is the whole meal, with bread and butter and nothing else needed. I wrote it down in the notebook last December: chicory, apple, Stilton, walnuts. Cold night. Candles. Right food, right evening.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
chicory
Quantity
3 heads
a mix of white and red if available, leaves separated
sharp eating apples
Quantity
2
such as Cox's or Braeburn
Stilton
Quantity
150g
crumbled into rough pieces
walnut halves
Quantity
75g
flat-leaf parsley
Quantity
small handful
leaves picked
cider vinegar
Quantity
1 tablespoon
Dijon mustard
Quantity
1 teaspoon
runny honey
Quantity
1 teaspoon
extra virgin olive oil
Quantity
3 tablespoons
fine sea salt
Quantity
to taste
black pepper
Quantity
to taste
lemon juice
Quantity
a squeeze
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| chicorya mix of white and red if available, leaves separated | 3 heads |
| sharp eating applessuch as Cox's or Braeburn | 2 |
| Stiltoncrumbled into rough pieces | 150g |
| walnut halves | 75g |
| flat-leaf parsleyleaves picked | small handful |
| cider vinegar | 1 tablespoon |
| Dijon mustard | 1 teaspoon |
| runny honey | 1 teaspoon |
| extra virgin olive oil | 3 tablespoons |
| fine sea salt | to taste |
| black pepper | to taste |
| lemon juice | a squeeze |
Equipment Needed
- •Small frying pan for toasting walnuts
- •Small bowl or jam jar for the dressing
- •Wide serving plate or shallow bowl
Instructions
- 1
Toast the walnuts
Put the walnuts in a dry frying pan over a medium heat. Shake the pan now and then and keep watch. You want them golden and fragrant, smelling of warm, toasty oil, which takes three or four minutes. The moment they start to colour, tip them out onto a board. Walnuts go from toasted to burnt in the time it takes to answer the phone. Roughly chop them once they've cooled enough to handle.
Trust your nose here. When you can smell them from across the kitchen, they are done. If you can smell them burning, they already have. - 2
Make the dressing
Whisk the cider vinegar, mustard, and honey together in a small bowl or jam jar. Add the olive oil in a steady trickle, whisking as you go, until it comes together into something thick and glossy. Season with salt and pepper. Taste it against a chicory leaf. You want sharpness first, then a trailing sweetness from the honey. Adjust as you like. A recipe is a conversation, not a contract.
- 3
Prepare the chicory and apple
Trim the base of each chicory head and separate the leaves. Keep them whole if they are small. Halve the larger outer leaves lengthways. Quarter the apples, cut out the cores, and slice them thinly. A squeeze of lemon over the apple slices stops them browning, but don't drown them. You want the lemon as a whisper, not a shout.
If you can find both white and red chicory, use them together. The red brings a deeper bitterness and the contrast on the plate is quietly handsome. - 4
Assemble the salad
Arrange the chicory leaves on a wide plate or shallow bowl, not piled, but spread so each leaf is visible. Tuck the apple slices among them. Crumble the Stilton over the top in rough, generous pieces, not too small, you want it to hold its own. Scatter the toasted walnuts and parsley leaves. Spoon the dressing over everything, letting it pool in the chicory boats and catch in the crevices. Don't toss it. This salad looks better left where it falls.
Chef Tips
- •Buy your Stilton from a cheesemonger if you can, or find a piece with some age to it. Supermarket Stilton can be bland and chalky. What you want is something that crumbles with personality, a bit creamy, a bit sharp, with blue veins running through like a map of somewhere interesting.
- •The apples need to be tart and firm. A Cox's in season is ideal. Braeburn or Granny Smith will do. What you don't want is anything mealy or sweet. The apple is here to cut through the richness of the cheese, and it can't do that if it tastes like pudding.
- •This is a Christmas table salad if ever there was one. It sits beautifully alongside cold turkey, a slice of pie, or a plate of ham. The bitterness and sharpness are a relief after the richness of everything else. Make the dressing ahead and keep the components separate until the last moment.
- •If you have a bottle of walnut oil, use a tablespoon of it in place of some of the olive oil in the dressing. It deepens the nuttiness and ties the whole plate together. Not essential, but a quiet improvement.
Advance Preparation
- •The dressing can be made a day ahead and kept in a jar in the fridge. Give it a good shake before using, as it will separate.
- •Toast the walnuts up to three days ahead and store in an airtight jar. They lose their crispness quickly in the open air.
- •Do not slice the apples or separate the chicory until you are ready to assemble. Both discolour and wilt once cut, and this salad depends on crispness.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 220g)
Calories
425 calories
Total Fat
36 g
Saturated Fat
11 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
25 g
Cholesterol
28 mg
Sodium
610 mg
Total Carbohydrates
16 g
Dietary Fiber
5 g
Sugars
9 g
Protein
13 g
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