Gordon Ramsay’s ploughman’s salad is from Ultimate Home Cooking (2013). Romaine, watercress, apple, celery and radishes are tossed in an English mustard and honey dressing. Then torn ham, shards of Cheddar, cubes of Stilton and lightly pickled red onion go on top. It takes about 20 minutes and serves 4.
It’s the pub ploughman’s lunch turned into one salad. Given the choice of ham, Cheddar or Stilton, he says he can never make up his mind, so he puts all three in. In the book he serves it with his beer bread, and that’s how he makes it in his ploughman’s lunch video on YouTube.
The pickle is where his version moves on from the old pub plate. Those used to come with sharp pickled onions that almost made you cry, he says in the video. So his red onion is only lightly pickled, with sugar, cloves and red wine vinegar.
Gordon Ramsay’s Ploughman’s Salad
Course: SaladsCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy4
20
minutes450
Gordon Ramsay’s ploughman’s salad recipe from Ultimate Home Cooking, with ham, two cheeses, apple and pickled red onion. These amounts serve 4.
Ingredients
- For the salad:
100 g (3½ oz) watercress, thick stalks removed
1 romaine lettuce, roughly sliced
1 crisp eating apple, quartered, cored and cut into small chunks
3 celery stalks, trimmed and finely sliced
8 to 10 radishes, trimmed and sliced
6 to 8 slices of cooked ham, torn into pieces
100 g (3½ oz) good aged Cheddar, such as Montgomery
100 g (3½ oz) good Stilton, such as Colston Bassett, cut into small cubes
- For the pickled onion:
1 red onion, peeled and very thinly sliced into rings
½ tablespoon golden superfine sugar
4 cloves
2 to 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
pinch of sea salt
- For the dressing:
½ to 1 teaspoon English mustard, to taste
1 teaspoon runny honey
2 to 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
4 tablespoons olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions
- Pickle: Put the onion in a bowl with the sugar, cloves, vinegar and a pinch of salt and toss well. Cover with a saucer or plastic wrap, weigh it down with a can or jar and leave it while you make the salad, or for up to an hour.
- Dressing: Stir the mustard, honey, vinegar and oil together with a pinch of salt and pepper. Taste, adjust and set aside.
- Toss: Mix the watercress, lettuce, apple, celery and radishes in a bowl. Stir the dressing again, pour it over and toss so everything is lightly coated.
- Top: Shave the Cheddar into strips with a vegetable peeler. Dot the ham and both cheeses over the salad, drain the onion and dot it over too, then toss lightly and serve.
Notes
- Calories are about 450 a serving, and the two cheeses bring the most.
FAQs
Why a red onion for the pickle?
It’s a lot sweeter and less harsh than a white onion, he explains in the video. The cloves give the pickle a perfume and make it more mellow, and red wine vinegar matches the red onion, though white wine vinegar works just as well.
The weight on top isn’t optional, either. Pressing the onions down speeds up the pickling, so you get a light, fragrant pickle in the time it takes to make the salad.
Do I use the watercress stalks?
No, keep them for soup. The stalks are a bit bitter, so pinch the leaves off and twist, the way he does on camera.
Where does the dressing come in?
He admits you don’t really think of a vinaigrette with a ploughman’s, and that’s his modern touch. It goes on the leaves first, before the ham and cheese, so they stay on top.
If yours tastes heavy, his tip in the book is to loosen it with a little peanut oil or a touch of water. His classic vinaigrette is on our salad dressing recipe page.
What bread goes with it?
His beer bread, from the next page: the batter is 175 g (1⅓ cups) self-raising flour and 75 g (about ⅔ cup) whole wheat self-raising flour. Add ½ tablespoon flaked sea salt and 250 ml (1 cup) beer or lager.
Bake it in 8 greased and floured mini loaf pans, three-quarters full, at 350°F (180°C) for 30 minutes. Brush the tops with milk, dust with flour and give them 5 minutes more.
Zaytouna Studio Team is the kitchen team behind Chef Ramsay Recipes. We cook Gordon Ramsay’s recipes from his cookbooks and videos in a home kitchen and write them up for yours, with US and metric measurements.