Veggie Salad Niçoise

If, like me, you struggle to see a salad as a meal, then this might provide a good solution for a tasty and filling veg-packed summer treat. As I have, you'll find people who want to tell you this isn't a 

Niçoise as it doesn't have any fish in it, but I don't give a fig, and I suggest you don't either. 

This has a sharp, lemon-based dressing so you really don't need too much of it to sparkle up these leaves. Taking the time to par-steam the french beans is vital to the success of this dish - raw and they are very rigid and a little bitter and fully cooked and they tend to lose all their bite. 

This is useful as a side-dish as well as the main event, but it also makes a smashing pack-up lunch. The addition of 8 black olives really does add colour and taste to this dish, although it will cost you 1.5 syns. You could reduce the number to cut this or leave them out, but I always budget for them as they make it feel like a real treat! I'd also recommend sprinkling them over later in the construction of the salad and halving them to make sure they are really visible and you are more aware of them as you eat. 

As with all recipes and meal plans on the blog I have highlighted the protein sources (P foods) in red, the speed (S) foods in green, healthy extra allowances in blue and syns, with syn values in brackets in orange. 

Veggie Salad Niçoise

Serves 1 hungry person (2 or 3 as a side-dish) - 1.5 syns in whole dish

100g (or a good handful) of french / fine green beans 

1/2 tin of Cannellini Beans, drained and rinsed

2 eggs, hard-boiled

1/2 bag of rocket leaves

Large handful of raw baby spinach leaves

10 fresh basil leaves

8 black olives, halved (jarred in brine, not oil) - 1.5 syns

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 tsp french mustard

Seasalt

Start by putting the green beans in a steamer filled with boiling water and steam for 6-8 minutes. 

Rinse and spin the rocket and spinach leaves in a salad spinner and lay them out in a dish.

Quarter the eggs and lay them around the outside of the dish like rays of sunshine. I like seasalt on my eggs so I would grind this over them at this point. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, salt, pepper, vinegar and mustard briskly. Stir the drained cannellini beans into the dressing and stir to coat. 

Spoon the dressed beans into the centre of the bowl and sprinkle the halved olives over the bowl - focusing on the eggs around the edge. 

After about 6 minutes, sample one of the green beans - they should still have a firm bite to them but not be crunchy. Take off the heat once they are at this stage and immediately run them under cold running water until the heat has gone out of them totally. This is essential to avoid instantly wilting the salad leaves when you assemble. 

Arrange the green beans on the top of the cannellini beans and spoon over any remaining dressing from the cannellini beans (to taste) over the top.