Few months ago you wouldn’t see me dead… near a salad. I love the fact that my tastes buds have opened up to enjoy salads not as an accompaniment but as a meal in itself. Bright, colorful, flavoursome, salads are much maligned, ironically due the health benefits they have. I am asked these days with a sad shake of the head, and a sympathetic eye “you must be eating salads and all na?”

Oh yes! a couple days in the week I actually love having a nice chunky salad for lunch. I have been experimenting with a lot of hearty salads, packed with crunch, proteins, fibre, and fats. Salad Nicoise is one such salad that’s somewhere on top of my favourite filling salad list.

My version is for the vegetarian and for the protein, in addition to boiled eggs, I have used a combination of mushrooms, kidney beans, and broad beans.

first thing you do, couple of hours before you eat -

thinly slice 1 red onion, and 3 to 4 mushrooms, set aside

make the dressing -

2 tablespoon EVOO
bit thyme
bit oregano
bit basil
2 teaspoon dijon mustard (I used a lil extra basil dijon)
2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (you can use cider or red wine)
1 garlic minced
pepper to taste
sea salt to taste
1/4 cup water

Beat all the stuff, add water to thin the dressing. Add the sliced onion and mushrooms into the dressing to marinate, and refrigerate until you need.

For the salad you need

2 boiled eggs, quartered
10, 15 french beans, stringed
1/4 cup broad beans
1/4 cup sweet corn
3 tablespoon black pitted olives, chopped
couple of broccoli florets
8 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 bell pepper thinly sliced
1 cucumber thinly sliced
some shredded greens – romaine, iceberg, oak leaf, any other

1/4 cup cooked kidney beans, drained

Method

1. Lightly steam the french beans, sweet corn, broad beans, and broccoli. Season with salt and olive oil set aside.
2. For assembling toss everything together along with the dressing, you can go easy on the liquid and use as much as you need. Save the rest of the dressing in the refrigerator.

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