Classic Nicoise Salad

By Catherine Newman

Makes: 1 serving

Total carbohydrates: 12 grams per serving

Hands-on time: 15 minutes

Total time: 15 minutes

This sounds very fancy and French, but it is really just a green salad with extra yummy protein components and vegetables. Thanks to the cool layering trick, the dressing hangs out on the bottom where it won’t make the lettuce wilty—but then, when you dump it out, it’s all perfect. (You could, of course, pack the salad and dressing separately. That works too.) A couple things: 1) If a whole can of tuna is more than you want to eat, then assemble two jars at a time. 2) If you cook enough green beans and make enough dressing for multiple salads, then the assembly of each jar will only takes about 5 minutes in the morning. My daughter Birdy is a vegetarian, but she loves this salad with the egg and without the tuna.

Ingredients

1 (5-ounce) can tuna, drained (I like the oil-packed kind, but use your favorite)

Perfect Vinaigrette (2-3 tablespoons)

2 tablespoons sliced pitted olives (whatever kind you like)

½ cup cooked green beans, cut in 1-inch pieces

½ cup diced red pepper

1 cup slivered romaine lettuce (or another salad green of your choosing)

1 boiled egg, quartered (optional)

Instructions

1. Put the tuna in the bottom of a (1-quart) mason jar, then add the dressing.

2. Layer in the rest of the ingredients in the order listed.

3. Dump the salad into a bowl before eating; the vinaigrette-y tuna will work to dress the rest of the ingredients.

To cook the green beans: Snap off the stem ends, then drop them in a large pot of boiling water (or steam them if you prefer), scoop them out after a few minutes, when they’re tender and bright green, and rinse them well in cold water before wrapping them up in a dishtowel to dry.​

About Catherine

Catherine loves to write about food and feeding people. In addition to her recipe and parenting blog Ben & Birdy (which has about 15,000 weekly readers), she edits the ChopChop series of mission-driven cooking magazines. This kids’ cooking magazine won the James Beard Publication of the Year award in 2013 – the first non-profit ever to win it – and a Parents’ Choice Gold Award. Last year they started the WIC version of the magazine for families enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and are currently developing Seasoned, their senior version, commissioned by the AARP. They distribute over a million magazines annually, through paid subscriptions, doctor’s offices, schools, and hospitals. Their mission started with obesity as its explicit focus – and has shifted, over the years, to a more holistic one, with health and happiness at its core. That’s the same vibe Catherine brings to the diaTribe column.

[Photo Credit: Catherine Newman]