Green beans and small "new" potatoes are in season. They are plentiful at the farmers' markets, in our weekly produce box, and in our own garden. (I continued to be amazed that I'm able to eat food that we grew ourselves, which is probably a sad commentary on urban living.)
What do you make when you have green beans, potatoes, a tomato, one egg and some left over olives? It is Salade Nicoise. The great cuisines of the world take leftovers and odds and ends and give it a fancy name. Nice.
The five or six olives I found last week hiding in the back of the fridge went in with a spoonful of capers. I suppose these things are luxuries, but I didn't buy them recently so I cant tell what they cost. A jar of capers lasts a long time (ours must be at least a year old, maybe more), and you only use a spoonful at a time, so I'm guessing the spoonful might have cost 25¢, and maybe the olives were another quarter. A can of tuna is $1.89, and makes two servings, so I think my salad came in at or near the $1.57 target, even with the boiled egg.
I made another version of the salad today, but with carrots and no tuna. We get a lot of carrots in our weekly box but I find it difficult to use them all up, so I'm getting "creative" (or desperate). The carrots added some nice color to the salad, and you can boil everything together.
Recipe
Nice Salad
1 lb new potatoes (small potatoes), 1 lb green beans, 1 tomato, a handful of olives, 1 t salt, 1/2 t pepper, 2 T olive oil, 1t capers, 3-4 carrots, 4 eggs, a bit of onion, 1 clove garlic, 1 can of tuna.
Bring 2 Qt salted water to a boil. Add potatoes and boil for 5 minutes, add the carrots for another 3 minutes, and then add the egg and the green beans for the last 5 minutes and everything will be done at the same time. Drain it all in a colander, and while its cooling down, crush a clove of garlic in a salad bowl, add olive oil, salt and pepper, capers and perhaps a slice or two of onion chopped small. Toss everything with chopped tomato and olives. Let it cool to room temperature, and top with tuna and the boiled egg.
