Fall has finally hit NYC and during my adventures wandering around Williamsburg I ventured to the McCarren Park Greenmarket which is a farmers market with local vendors, primarily in the tri-state area. I love myself some good produce so I decided to check it out and it was full of great seasonal fruit and veggies. My hunger was talking at this point so as any “smart” person would do and googled a simple salad recipe and came across Modern Proper’s Nicoise Salad. It looked fresh, simple and hearty so decided to try it out.

I say this is a Nicoise-inspired salad as I took many liberties in changing it for either what I had available or my dietary choices (i.e tuna is a main ingredient and I don’t eat seafood). I also already had green olives and sugar snap peas in my fridge so I decided to take some creative liberties in swapping those out. I’m sure it would have tasted fantastic with green beans but I’m really trying to be better at using what I have and I challenge anyone to do the same. For that reason, I also decided to add in a spoonful of Trader Joe’s Cuban Style Black beans I had precooked in my fridge that need to be used, onions, half an avocado and jalapeño.

The recipe called for a light sweet lemon vinaigrette but I decided to change that up for a lemon tahini dressing as I have a jar of tahini I’m trying to use up (again trying to not waste).

I also mainly just cook for myself so this was intended to be a single serving. It was DEFINITELY large enough for two servings, especially if you aren’t too hungry but I was able to finish the entire thing myself.

Use this recipe as inspiration and make it your own!

Servings: 1-2

Calories: 546 if having as one serving

Ingredients:

• 4 leaves of romaine lettuce
• 3 mini potatoes
• 1 medium egg
• 1/2 avocado
• 1/6 of a pepper
• 1/3 of cucumber
• 1/6 red onion
• 1 tbsp of black beans (optional)
• handful of green olives
• handful of sugar snap peas
• Seasoning (to taste)
  • 2 tsp of olive oil
  • Parsley
  • Salt
  • Pepper
• Dressing
  • 2tsp olive oil
  • 2tsp tahini
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 1/2 juiced lemon
  • 1/2 juiced Lime
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Time to Create

There is legitametely no recipe to creating to this salad so here are some helpful hints on preperation to make it as fast and efficient as possible!

• Bring a small pot of water to a rapid boil
• I made my potatoes in my air fryer since they take about 10 minutes to make. While the pot is boiling, prep and start your potatoes. Wash, cut and season with the olive oil, parsley, salt and pepper. Throw the potatoes into the air fryer for 10 minutes at 375 – 400 degrees.
• Once you are done prepping the potatoes, the water should be boiled so I put my egg in and left it there until I was done making everything else. I like my hard boiled eggs HARD BOILED so I leave it for 12-15 minutes. Alot of my veggies had already been pre-chopped into slices as I prep them for the week so the time it took me to prep everything else was just the right amount of time (I’m all about efficiency)
• While your potatoes are air frying and egg is boiling, start washing and prepping your veggies. I choose to wash my veggies with a home made produce wash and diced everything into small pieces.
• Create your dressing: combine dressing ingredients into a small bowl. Season to taste
• Remove and prep your hard boiled egg (I cut it up into small pieces to top the salad with.
• In a large bowl arrange mixed veggies and with the potatoes and egg. Drizzle with your dressing and voila!