Wednesday, March 08, 2006

The Case for the Healthy Lunch

Two words: Salade Nicoise.

I didn't use the recipe because I was able to discern some of the basic ingredients on my own. The trick is to use good vegetables - I was able to get potatoes and green beans at the Farmer's Market today for dirt cheap, which promptly went into the making of the salad.

In the meantime, here are the basic steps:

1) Cut the red potatoes into quarters. Snap green string beans in half and remove strings.
2) Add potatoes to salted water and boil for 5-10 minutes. When water starts boiling and/or potatoes begin to cook, dump beans and turn off heat; let cook for another 3-5 minutes. Once beans turn into a deeper shade of green, dump into a colander and rinse with cold water.
3) While potatoes and beans are cooling off, make dressing with red wine vinegar, olive oil, spicy mustard, and black pepper.
4) Transfer veggies in a bowl and mix with dressing.
5) Once veggies are coated with dressing, add 1 (6 oz., drained) can of tuna and toss until tuna is well distributed with dressing.

If you want a more authentic Salade Nicoise, feel free to add a chopped hard boiled egg and some Nicoise olives into the salad, topped with some anchovies. Skip the lettuce if you don't have any or don't want to for any reason.

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