Summer Salad with Sesame Honey Dressing – My 39°C Lunch in France
When it is 39°C in France, the last thing I want to do is turn on the oven.
Even standing over the stove feels like too much.
On days like this, lunch becomes very simple: something fresh from the fridge, plenty of vegetables, and a dressing good enough to make a simple plate of salad feel like a proper meal.
This summer salad with sesame honey dressing has become exactly that kind of lunch for me.
It is made with crisp endives, sweet cherry tomatoes and tender mâche, all drizzled with a savoury sesame dressing softened with just a little honey.
Fresh, crunchy, slightly sweet and wonderfully easy.
And perhaps most importantly on a 39°C afternoon: there is absolutely no cooking required.
An Easy Summer Salad for the Hottest Days
Summer in France can be beautiful, but when a heatwave arrives, the way I cook completely changes.
Slow-cooked dishes can wait.
The oven can definitely wait.
Instead, I find myself reaching for tomatoes, salad leaves, cucumbers, fresh herbs and whatever else I can turn into lunch without heating the kitchen.
This easy summer salad recipe came together from ingredients I already had at home.
The tomatoes bring sweetness and juiciness. The mâche is soft and delicate, while the endives add crunch and a slight bitterness.
Then comes my favourite part: the sesame honey dressing.
The toasted, nutty flavour of sesame works beautifully with the vegetables, while a small spoonful of honey balances the vinegar and the slight bitterness of the endives.
It is a small detail, but it completely changes the salad.
Ingredients
For the Salad
Serves 2
- 2 endives
- 150 g cherry tomatoes
- 2 generous handfuls of mâche (lamb’s lettuce)
- 1–2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds
For the Sesame Honey Dressing
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
- Freshly ground black pepper
You can adjust the honey according to your taste. I prefer just enough to soften the acidity without turning the dressing noticeably sweet.
How to Make This Summer Salad with Sesame Honey Dressing
Start by washing and drying your vegetables.
Remove any damaged outer leaves from the endives and cut them into bite-sized pieces. I like to leave some of the smaller leaves whole because they look beautiful on the plate.
Cut the cherry tomatoes in half.
Arrange the endives, tomatoes and mâche on a large plate or in a shallow salad bowl.
Next, make the dressing.
In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar and honey until combined.
Add the toasted sesame seeds and a little freshly ground black pepper.
Taste the dressing before pouring it over the salad. If you prefer it slightly sweeter, add another small drizzle of honey.
Drizzle the sesame honey dressing over the vegetables just before serving.
That’s it.
No oven. No stove. No complicated preparation.
Exactly the kind of cooking I appreciate when it is 39°C outside.
Why Sesame and Honey Work So Well Together
What makes this salad special is really the dressing.
Sesame oil has a rich, toasted flavour, so you don’t need very much of it. Soy sauce adds savoury depth, while rice vinegar gives the dressing the acidity a fresh salad needs.
Then there is the honey.
I only add a little.
The goal isn’t to make a sweet salad dressing. The honey simply rounds out the vinegar and complements the natural sweetness of ripe summer tomatoes.
It is particularly good with endives because their slightly bitter flavour creates a lovely contrast with the honey.
You end up with a dressing that is nutty, savoury, tangy and just a little sweet.
A Simple No-Cook Summer Salad
One reason I love this no-cook summer salad is that it doesn’t really need to be followed like a strict recipe.
Use what you have.
If there are cucumbers in the refrigerator, add them.
A few radishes will give it extra crunch. Fresh basil or mint would be lovely. Avocado can make it richer and creamier.
If you want a more substantial lunch, you could also add:
- a boiled egg
- grilled chicken left over from the night before
- prawns
- tofu
- cold salmon
- mozzarella or burrata
But on very hot days, I often prefer the simple version.
Just vegetables, dressing and perhaps a piece of good bread on the side.
A Little Food-Safety Note for Summer Salads
Because this salad is eaten raw, wash fresh produce thoroughly under running water before preparing it.
For leafy vegetables, separate the leaves so they can be rinsed properly, then dry them well before making the salad. A salad spinner is particularly useful because the dressing coats dry leaves much better than wet ones.
There is no need to wash vegetables with soap or detergent—plain running water is the better choice.
The Kind of Summer Cooking I Love
I sometimes think we make cooking more complicated than it needs to be.
Especially in summer.
When tomatoes are sweet and ripe and the vegetables are fresh, they don’t need very much from us.
A good dressing. A nice plate. A shady place to sit.
That’s enough.
This endive tomato salad with sesame honey dressing isn’t a complicated recipe, and that is precisely why I like it.
It is the kind of food I genuinely eat at home: simple ingredients, prepared according to the season and the weather.
And when the thermometer says 39°C, I am perfectly happy to let the oven have the day off.
A cold drink, this fresh salad and a quiet spot in the shade sound much better to me.
What is your favourite thing to eat when it is simply too hot to cook?
